Hybrid cotton can revive economy, create 10m jobs

The National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) has said that the revival of hybrid cotton production can help resuscitate Nigeria’s textile industry and create at least 10 million jobs in the country.

Mr Idris Aliyu, the Director of Seed, Industry Development, Technical Support, and Commercial Services, NASC made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday.

NAN reports that the most damaging cotton pests are those that attack squares and bolls such as the cotton bollworm, tobacco budworm, pink bollworm, boll weevil, and lygus bugs.

Yield losses due to bollworm/budworm complex, the most devastating of all the above pests, are typically higher in the bloom stage.

According to Aliyu, the two newly approved and introduced genetically modified cotton varieties – BG2 – 571 and BG2 – 567 – by Mayhco Seed Company are hybrid, capable of enhancing cotton yield.

“Apart from that they are long stable cotton which means their fibre and macromere are the types used for high grade textiles.

“Resistance (to disease) has been built into these varieties and it is being built in such a way that it increases the ability of the cotton to resist very strongly, the bollworm/budworm complex, the pest which causes devastatging disease to the product,” he said.

Aliyu stated that the advantage of the resistance expresses itself in two forms, one of which is to increase cotton yield.

According to the director, the insect resistance built in the two varieties are capable of easing the hardship or high cost of cotton production in terms of the chemical spray, and the environmental impact.

“It is generally believed that chemicals in our eco-system are destructive and contribute to climate change.

“So this aspect has been taken care of since less chemical will be used in production of cotton this time.

“Another aspect of the hybrid technology is the advantage of yield per unit area.

“The yield of these two new varieties are superfluous,” he said.

Aliyu said that the normal varieties in use had an average of 600kg to 800kg per hectare but that today, the new BG2 – 567 could give up to 4.2 metric tons per hectare.

He said that the BG2 – 571 variety could deliver up to 3.7 metric tons per hectare according to the practical calculations obtained on demonstration plots of NASC.

He added that cotton could be conveniently grown in 24 states of the 36 states in the country, a thing that could positively influence the macroeconomy of the country and ensure its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

He said that the council was willing to give farmers the opportunity of make their choice on which cotton seed varieties they would prefer to use.

“We have more than seven varieties that have been developed by our scientists from the Institute of Agricultural Research of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

“We are going to give farmers choice and that is very important because free-market economy requires choice.

“The buyer has to be given a chance to choose what he wants.

“The textile industry from the instrumentality of cotton production alone, can guarantee jobs if factionalised – up to 10 million jobs to be very liberal – and that is for sure,” Aliyu said.