The Excellence in Agronomy SAA-Use case Nigeria project held a workshop between 24 and 26 October at IITA Kano Station. The theme was the “SAA-Use Case Mid-season workshop and field day”.
The workshop started with a field day, and participants gave feedback from the field on the second day. Attendees were from IITA–CGIAR and partner organizations: Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA), AfricaRice, and the Centre for Dryland Agriculture (CDA-BUK). Other national collaborating participants were the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), the National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS), the Kaduna State Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (KNARDA), the Kaduna State Agricultural Development Agency (KADA), and Benue Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (BNARDA). Participants from fertilizer companies—OCP, Indorama, and Notore—also attended.
Project Lead Christine Kreye said the EiA project aims to modernize agronomy and deliver good agronomic practices (GAP) to benefit farmers. She also mentioned that partners’ demands drive the agenda for the EiA Research for Development (R4D). According to her, the SAA-Use Case was developed based on specific demand by Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) for improved fertilizer and seed agronomy extension services for maize, rice, and cassava crops. As Use-Case implementing partners, AfricaRice, CDA-BUK, and IITA provide technical support for the project. The project seeks to combine three existing fertilizer recommendation tools (AKILIMO, Nutrients Expert, and RiceAdvice) into one platform, with additional features of advice on safe planting windows and a choice of variety.
Dr Ali Ibrahim, a Systems Agronomist who supports the rice advisory technical component of the project, highlighted that the workshop’s objective was to get feedback from the various stakeholders in the Use-case. He added that when the three nutrient management tools are fully developed and validated, yields of the three focal crops, rice, maize, and cassava, should be enhanced.
The field day session at Kura LGA was witnessed by the Chief Imam, the ward Head, and representatives of farmers’ cooperatives. Alhaji Idris Garko from SAA delivered the welcome address, where he stressed the purpose of the field day. The field day demonstrated two fertilizer management technologies: the regional or blanket recommendation and the site-specific recommendation on rice. He also appreciated the extension agents and the host farmer, Aliyu Rabi’u, for their maximum cooperation in making the calibration trial successful.
Rabi’u thanked the stakeholders for selecting him to host the field day. He then summarized his experiences and learnings from the two fertilizer plots installed on his farm. Rabi’u particularly commended the extension agent of Kura, who enrolled him in the project, for his diligence in duty and politeness, which attracted him to accept the experiment on his farm. Finally, the farmer showed his readiness to adopt and extend the technology to his peers in the community.
Dr Ibrahim further mentioned that there are no significant constraints and all the participants were happy about the activities being conducted. They considered the workshop outcome positive as they achieved its objectives.
IITA-Kano Station Head Alpha Kamara spoke about the important technologies and interventions developed through IITA’s research, including disease and pest management technologies and their dissemination alongside GAPs. He added that the bottom line is getting those technologies to the farmers as quickly as possible, using the traditional extension services, which have become expensive over the years. He concluded that, with the advent of digital agriculture, “we want to go further by using digital tools to disseminate these technologies.”
The EiA project is one of the One CGIAR projects, and IITA plays a leading role with other CG centers. EiA is considering how agronomy can scale with various components involved, thereby developing some agronomic products that farmers can take up for use in different countries and regions, including Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Latin America, and other Use-Cases involved.
Contributed by Sarah Sallau
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