The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) has said about 8 million farmers and their families will benefit directly from cultivating the newly launched pod borer resistant cowpea variety (beans) called SAMPEA 20-T.
AFAN president, Arc. Kabiru Ibrahim, said at the launch/unveiling of SAMPEA 20-T in Kano that over 12.5 million hectares of land would be dedicated to the production of the new variety across Africa where many millions consume cowpea on daily basis.
“I understand that Nigeria is the first country in the whole wide world to commercialize this variety of cowpea and hitherto, yield losses of 70-80 per cent are commonplace due to pod-borer infestation on cowpea but the development and release of SAMPEA 20-T completely mitigates this phenomenon,” the president told the audience at the launch.
He urged farmers to embrace the variety and vigorously cultivate it to become prosperous as well as make Nigeria food sufficient, adding “I have personally tried the variety on a small portion of my farm and can therefore attest to its potential to take the Nigerian farmer out of poverty as well as contribute immensely to the quest for food security in Nigeria.”
