DG RMRDC INAUGURATES COMMITTEE ON ADAPTATION OF HYBRID SESAME SEED IN NIGERIA

-                  Chuks Ngaha

As part of efforts aimed at boosting the production of sesame seed for industrial utilization in Nigeria, the Director General of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), Engr. (Prof.) Peter Onwualu, has inaugurated a technical committee headed by Dr. Raymond Ihenacho, Director Research Coordination Department, RMRDC, to oversee the Council’s current initiative on multi-locational evaluation and cross-hybridization of premium variety sesame seeds imported recently from Sudan

The nine-man Committee with members from several sister research institutes, like the Nigeria Cereals Research Institute (NCRI), and the Nigerian Seed Society (NSS), will, among other things, look at the adaptation characteristics of the imported variety under different climatic conditions in Nigeria, carryout comprehensive monitoring of the on-going seed production programme of the imported variety in Jigawa state, conduct studies of production output under Nigerian conditions, and develop other prolific varieties through hybrid crossing, with other known local varieties which are grown in the country.

Prof Onwualu said the current exercise signaled a new approach adopted by the Council to provide technical support for boosting the local production of industrial crops in Nigeria. He noted that sesame seed ranked second to cocoa as a non-oil export commodity, and that attention was being given to it as a strategic raw material for the stimulation of industrialization, wealth creation, employment generation and poverty eradication. 

Prof. Onwualu also added that Nigeria currently produced predominantly black seeded varieties of sesame seed which was required only for its oil, and that the imported variety, of a higher value and demand, contained less oil and was more resistant to disease attack. 

 While encouraging the members of the Committee on the need for dedication and patriotism in the discharge of the task ahead, Prof Onwualu informed them that Mr. President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, was also interested in the boosting of Soyabean export to China and Acha to Japan, and that another committee would soon be inaugurated in the Council to accommodate the promotion of the development and utilization of crops in Nigeria.