Business
FAO Wants Planting Materials For Farmers
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Nigeria has urged the Ibadan-based National Institute for Horticulture (NIHORT) to continue to provide clean planting materials for farmers engaged in horticultural activities.
The FAO country Representative in Nigeria, Dr. Louise Setshwaolo made this known when she visited NIHORT Wednesday, to see the facilities in the FAO-funded tissue culture laboratory set up in the Institute.
The visit to the Institute was aimed at assessing the implementation was aimed at assessing the implementation of FAO’s plantain and Banana Project ongoing in the four states of Abia, Cross River, Delta and Oyo.
NIHORT had produced 26,000 plantain and Banana suckers distributed to farmers in participating states.
The FAO representative thanked the management of NIHORT for their collaboration on the project, saying that without their support, the project wouldn’t have achieved much.
“By this, we have laid the foundation for further collaboration. We believe NIHORT will continue to support states on the planting materials. In any area where you need FAO to cooperate with you, let us know,” she said.
Earlier, Dr. Babasola Adelaja, the Director of fruits and spices, who represented the Institute was playing a key role in the implementation of FAO’s plantain and Banana project.
While noting that some of the facilities for producing the suckers were domiciled in the Institute, Adelaja called for more areas of collaboration between the FAO and NIHORT.
For the FAO-funded labouratory, he said that the equipment the UN agency provided had helped to increase efficiency in the production of tissue culture for use by farmers.