Niger State governor,farmer Mohammed Umaru Bago has reiterated his administration’s commitment to partner with the National Biosafety Management Agency in order to boost seed production that will enhance agriculture in the State.
The governor stated this when he visited the Director General, National Biosafety Management Agency, Bello Bawa Bwari at the Agency’s Office Headquarters in Jabi, Abuja.
Accorfing to a statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Niger State, Bologi Ibrahim, Governor Bago who acknowledged the State’s enormous potential in agriculture said, the State government’s partnership with the Biosafety Agency is in line with a pilot scheme designed to cultivate over 60,000 hectares of land for seed production, cotton and maize with an additional 40,000 hectares of land for rice and sugarcane.
He disclosed that the State has engaged in alot of investments in mechanisation and partnership with other international organizations aimed at boosting seed production .
The governor also reassured the Agency of continued collaboration as it seeks to work with the agency on extension and consultancy services.
The Director General of the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Barr. Bello Bawa Bwari, said the agency under his leadership has taken the lead to promote the national programme on accelerated food security, sovereignty, and sustainable production, which also aligns with the farmer governor’s agricultural revolution for the state.
He explained that part of what the agency is doing is to provide platforms for seed multiplication for GMO’s
The Director General revealed that Niger Foods and one of the GMO license holders will soon start seed multiplication for TELA maize and that cotton production will follow suit in no distant future.
Highlight of the event was the
presentation of an award of recognition as Nigeria’s biosafety ambassador on the farmer governor by the DG, National Biosafety Management Agency, Bello Bawa Bwari.
