The Acting Director, FCT Agricultural Development Project (ADP), Mr. Jeofery Ukwuoke, has dismissed the propaganda that the hybrid Tela maize is harmful and not good for consumption.
Ukwuoke said this during the ADP Green Field Day on Tela maize, organised by the Crop and Seed component of Technical Services Sub-programme on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, in Gwagwalada, FCT Abuja.
He said that speculations by some Nigerians on the effectiveness of Tela maize prompted ADP to embark on farm demonstration research to ascertain the truth about the maize.
“What prompted this farm demonstration is for farmers to see for themselves.
“What we do in demonstration is to impact knowledge, and with what they have seen today, they will be able to compare the yield from this farm and other maize farms.
“We have done it on our own farm and next year we will replant the same seed we got from this farm to know if it will germinate against the speculation that the seed cannot be replanted.
“If by next planting season we replant and it germinates, we will know we have completed our research and we will go ahead to tell farmers to get the seed from us,” he said.
The Deputy Head, Crop and Seed, FCT ADP, Mr. Bulus Garba, said that the Institute of Agricultural Research, Zaria, collaborated with the Tela project and came up with this research and named it Tela maize.
Garba said that its original name was Sammaz, which are in four varieties that includes Sammaz 72T, 73T, 74T and 75T.
He said that what ADP planted was Sammaz 75T.
“It is our experienced researchers that carefully crossbreed the parent line and came out with this Tela maize. What they did was to introduce some traits resistance to insects into the Tela maize.
“These traits have made the Tela maize drought-tolerant and insects-resistant. We have problem of pest such as fall armyworms and stem borers in maize but with these traits in Tela maize, it will not affect it.
“The fear is when you use terminator two technology, but the researchers did not use terminator technology in their research.
“The maize seed is viable, it can be replanted, it is eatable and safe to consume,” he said.
He said that with the Tela maize, farmers were sure of more yield, adding that insects reduces yield by about 50 per cent.
Garba said that the Tela maize, under good management, could yield five to six metric tons per hectare, which automatically increases the farmer’s yield.
On his part, the Head of Technical Service, FCT ADP, Mr. Sunday Idowu, said that the Tela maize with its three in one benefit to farmers was more efficient and always results to higher yield.
Idowu said that ADP planted its Tela maize on July 15 and 80 days after planting, they had a field day with massive yield.
He called on farmers to embrace the idea, saying that there was nothing killing or harmful about the seed.
He advised farmers to always use the correct spacing method, especially when embarking on monocropping such as maize for greater yield.
“Our farmers do not understand correct spacing, I know some of them practice mix cropping, the spacing we used on this project was practically for monocropping.
“Because they do not do monocropping, they will not be able to do standard spacing that is required.
“The standard spacing for maize is 75cm between row, and either 25cm when you are planting one seed or 50cm when you are planting two seeds within row.
“This will give you maximum yield per hectare,” Idowu said.
He called on Nigerians to embrace the effort that the government was making to ensure that they overcome the problem of hunger in the country.
Mr. David Ninyio, a farmer, said that he was happy to see that the Tela maize was good, against the negative stories making the rounds about the seed.
According to Ninyio, by God’s grace, next farming season I plant the Tela maize.
He advised farmers to do same in order to help fight food scarcity in the country.
By Uche Bibilari
