Biofortified Millet Variety Unveiled To Mitigate Hunger

The Country Director, Harvestplus Nigeria, Dr Yusuf Dollar, has said that his organisation has released an iron enriched biofortified pearl Millet for the Nigerian farmers to plant for greater yield.

He said the newly introduced variety was to promote the adoption and scaling of the new nutritious crop to help bring rapid agricultural growth in the country as well as minimise poverty, hunger and squalor among Nigerians.

Making the disclosure during a press briefing at the ICRISAT headquarters in Kano on Thursday, Dr Dollar said: “We are here today to inform the world of yet another milestone in ensuring Nigerians have access to this nutritious food through collaborative effort between Harvestplus, International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and Lake Chad Reseach Institute (LCRI) and produced two iron-rich varieties popularly known as Jirani, Chakti.

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“This is the first biofortified variety of pearl Millets to be released in Africa.”

The Country Director further hilighted that with the release of the varieties, Nigeria was well placed to contribute its qouta in line with the UN declaration of 2023 as the international year of the Millets.

Dr Dollar implored smallholder farmers to take advantage and have the naturally nutritious and climate smart varieties of iron pearl millet to help address their need to improve productivity.

Also speaking at the occasion, the Country Director of Lake Chad Research Institute, Professor Babagana Kabir Jugudum, said the use of biofortified pearl Millet varieties have had positive effect on children in Africa.

He added that studies conducted revealed that the quantities of both iron and zinc were absorbed when iron and zinc biofortified pearl millet was fed to children aged two years as major staple food.

In their testimonies on the yield of the newly introduced pearl millet variety, two farmers – Malam Yau Isah Minjibir and Malam Ya’u Sani – said they planted the pearl Millets last year and harvested within the stipulated 74-day period.

“We are indeed grateful to Harvestplus and we will continue to do our best to share the seedlings with our neighbours to make it spread widely in the country.