DUPONT (USA) OPTS FOR RMRDC PARTNERSHIP ON CROP
DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA
America’s leading new products
and materials Research and Development Center, E. I. du pont de
Nemours, has indicated its desire to partner with the Raw Materials
Research and Development Council (RMRDC) to reinvigorate the nations
ailing Agro sector. Mr. Nurber Leisser, Manager (Crop Protection),
Sub-Saharan Africa, who led a team of Officials from the American
firm on a courtesy call to the Director General of the Council, Engr.
(Prof.) Peter A. Onwualu, in Abuja recently, said the move would see
Dupont partnering with RMRDC towards the adoption of new
technologies and new products including the promotion of new seed
with high yielding traits that would help farmers in Nigeria produce
more.
Mr. Leisser said that Dupont had
improved crop yields and farmer income in over 40 countries
worldwide and was ready to replicate the same feat in Nigeria with
the support of the Nigerian government.
He was however to add that the
American outfit’s initial research into the Nigerian agricultural
sector had yielded some encouraging results which Dupont would be
capitalizing on. He said a fact finding mission involving 17
high-level officials from the company was already scheduled to visit
Abuja on 30th October, 2006, to conduct more studies
which would create a better understanding of the agro sector. Of
particular interest to the group would be the production of
sugarcane, cotton, maize, rice and vegetables.
The Dupont representative also
expressed satisfaction with the social, economic and political
progress which the country had recorded under the able and dynamic
leadership of President Olusegun Obasanjo, He observed that the
right note had been struck for meaningful progress in the quest to
develop Nigeria’s agricultural and industrial sector, even as he
expressed support for the Council’s programme on boosting the supply
of agricultural raw materials which he noted would be useful in the
proposed partnership between the two organizations. This he viewed
from the platform of Dupont’s focus on using nature’s process to
build sustainable products and technologies derived from renewable
resources.
M. Leisser, giving recent
breakthroughs by Dupont in this direction such as the “sorona”, made
from corn for use in materials from car parts and carpets, announced
a partnership with a major oil company to produce fuels from corn
and sugarcane.
Responding the DG(RMRDC) gave a
background of the Council’s activities in the boosting of
agricultural produce and resources which he stated was based on the
effort of Mr. President to refocus on developing the non-oil export
sector considering the premium position which some of the
commodities occupied in the Nigerian export trade.
Prof. Onwualu said the Council
was presently providing an important intervention support to
increase the volume of export in some of these such as sesame seed,
cassava, kolanut species, etc, by its crop boosting programme which
aims at improving primary production, provision of technology for
value-added manufacturing and creating market linkages. He said the
Council was also concerned with the issue of quality and output of
production which he noted were essential indices to be considered in
the exportation of these commodities.
Towards this, the DG informed the
visitors that the Council had recently imported a ton of premium
quality sesame seed, as foundation seeds, which it gave to farmers
in Jigawa state in response to international standard requirements.
The sesame seed multiplication programme of the Council incorporates
a buy-back process which would enable the output from the seeds to
be bought back from farmers and re-distributed to more farmers in
other sesame growing states of the federation.
The DG while welcoming the
planned partnership also invited proposals on other crop promoting
projects, stating that the Council was projecting to embark on a
vigorous sensitization campaign for the establishment of downstream
processing industries for several strategic agricultural commodities
nationwide, in line with the expectations of Mr. President. This
projects when completed, he noted, would create more jobs, create
wealth, as well as opportunity for the ownership of these factories
by Nigerians
Chucks Ngaha
