The Emir of Wase in Wase Local Government of Plateau State, Alhaji Muhammed Haruna Sambo Emir donated 20,000 hectares to cotton farmers in Nigeria to plant Bt. Cotton. This was revealed during the flag off of Biotech Cotton Wet Season harvest on 6,000 hectares flagship farm site, in Langtang Community, Wase Local Government, Plateau State of Nigeria on 7th December 2021. While thanking the Emir for the gift, the President of National Cotton Association of Nigeria (NACOTAN) Mr. Achimugu Hassan said the donation will afford the opportunity to have the single largest biotech farm as they were only able to farm on 6,000 hectares in the last year season.
NACOTAN organized the flag off in collaboration with Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company (Mahyco) Private Limited and OFAB Nigeria.
Equally, the NACOTAN boss lauded OFAB Nigeria for the introduction of Bt Cotton in Nigeria saying that farmers wouldn’t have had access to the high yielding biotech cotton which they are farming now, if not for the untiring efforts of OFAB Nigeria in facilitating the commercialization of Bt Cotton. The transgenic cotton has brought a lot of fortune to the local Nigerian farmers. He added that cotton farming has been revived through the introduction of the high yielding and insect resistant cotton. “To sustain these achievements and increase the quantity and quality of cotton, the association has adopted contiguous farming method – a large scale farming system of thousands of hectares in Plateau as well as in Kano, Jigawa, Zamfara, Taraba and Adamawa States among others. The flag-off of the NACOTAN’s harvest on the single largest Bt cotton farm in Nigeria and arguably in West Africa, signals a new dawn and stressed that the proceeds would be used for payment of loans given to their farmers through the CBN’s Anchor Borrower Programme and as well to provide cotton for textiles and garment sector as its bedrock raw materials”, he reiterated. Mr. Achimugu projected that the future of cotton farming and its value chain in Nigeria is bright.
In the same vein, the Country Coordinator, OFAB Nigeria, Dr. Rose Maxwell Gidado described the event as the first biggest outing of its kind and congratulated NACOTAN President and his Members for the giant stride that they have made so far by taking the right step to revamping the textile industry. OFAB Nigeria Chapter, she said, supports and identifies with such an important event and appealed to farmers and commodity associations to work hard in ensuring that cotton farmers and those interested in it have access to the improved cotton variety otherwise known as Bollgard 2 cotton hybrid seeds, while taking advantage of CBN’s windows to reinvigorate and revamp the cotton production.
On his part, the Executive Governor of Plateau State, His Excellency, Chief Simon Bako Lalong who was represented by the Managing Director (MD) PIPC, Mr. Chris Yilzak, appreciated NACOTAN for choosing Plateau as one of the States to cultivate the biotech cotton and assured them of the State government’s continued support to boost the cotton farming in the State.
The Emir of Wase, Alhaji Muhammed Haruna Sambo thanked NACOTAN for finding Wase worthy of the pilot-project and promised to give up to 80,000 hectares of land to farm Bt. cotton since the gesture was aimed at improving nation’s economy and general well-being of Nigerians.
