As the 2023 farming season draws near, the Business Incubation Platform (BIP) of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has assured the farming and agribusiness community of reliable access to improved agricultural technologies, products and services.
Speaking recently, the Head of Administration and Corporate Governance for IITA – BIP, Mr Wole Oladokun, said that the products and services BIP had lined up would enhance the productivity of all categories of farmers and protect the natural environment.
His words: “These products and services will be offered by the various organizations and units operating under BIP. Farmers can be sure of satisfactory services in quality and improved seed varieties; legume inoculants; soil suitability tests & mapping services; agribusiness and mechanization services; food processing services and training”.
He added that also available at IITA BIP are end-to-end technical farm management services; soil, water and fertilizer laboratory testing; financial agribusiness modeling; tissue culture services and sales of farm & food processing equipment.
He noted that BIP should be the first point of call for anyone willing to make the best agribusiness investment decisions because, Agriserve, one of the BIP’s subsidiaries, provides technical expertise to support investment decisions, business development and management, technical backstopping of farming operations and agricultural mechanization services.
According to him, IITA BIP runs joint ventures with Crop Nutrition Laboratory Services Ltd (Cropnuts), Agri Frontier Ltd and Contec Global Agro Limited, international firms that provide soil testing and crop advisory; financial modeling services and organic farming technologies respectively
“With Cropnuts, clients will get quality and reliable soil, water and fertilizer analysis and recommendation reports,” he said. “Agri Frontier Ltd is on ground to help develop financial strategy, business plans and feasibility studies for agribusinesses, while Contec Global runs tissue culture laboratories and bio-organic fertilizer plants.”
Oladokun, however, maintained that sound agribusiness decision and agronomic practices must be backed up by the use of quality seeds. “IITA GoSeed, the early generation seed company operating through the IITA BIP, will provide quality seeds of improved varieties.
According to Dr Mercy Diebiru-Ojo, the Vegetative Seed Specialist of IITA GoSeed, the firm was set up to produce and commercialize improved varieties developed by IITA and other CGIAR centres. “We produce high-quality early-generation breeder and foundation seeds and link farmers to certified seed producers across the country,” she said. IITA GoSeed focuses on improved cassava, yam, maize, cowpea, plantain, rice, and soybean varieties.
A further assessment of what IITA BIP has in store revealed that soybean farmers hoping to boost their yields by 30 to 40 per cent this year, have Nodumax as the perfect legume inoculant. Nodumax is a bio-fertilizer and legume inoculant designed to promote biological nitrogen fixation for soybean seeds.
Aflasafe is another biocontrol product being promoted by BIP, according to Oladokun. “It is a safe, natural solution to the problem of aflatoxins,” he said.
Aflatoxins are natural chemicals produced in foods contaminated by some species belonging to Aspergillus. Doctors have linked exposure to aflatoxins to multiple health conditions, including morbidity and immunosuppression, stunting in children, liver cancer and death on some occasions. Aflasafe, developed by BIP but currently marketed and distributed by Harvestfield Industries Limited, is the perfect biocontrol for aflatoxin.