The plan to mitigate shortage of maize supply in Nigeria is underway as the Institute for Agricultural Research, IAR, says it will soon release a genetically modified pest resistant maize with high yield potential for commercialisation.
IAR Executive Director, Professor Mohammed Ishiaku, who made this known said farmers would be more economically competitive in the production of this maize variety.
The genetically modified pest resistant maize has high drought and insect resistant potentials that can withstand stem borer and fall army worm diseases which had in the past wiped out many farms thereby making farmers to incur great losses.
Isiaku said farmers will now begin to gain every kobo spent in farming process.
He assured Nigerians that the new genetically modified maize would not take longer time like the cowpea because it evaluation process will not involve many breeding processes.
The new maize variety when released for commercialisation will be cheap enough to compete economically, making environment more healthier, reduce the use of herbicide, and insecticide by farmers.