Bayer Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of Bayer AG, Germany has announced its plan to hold the 3rd edition of its annual Nigeria Maize conference. This year’s conference which will be virtual is tagged “Much More Maize” and is scheduled for the 22nd of April 2021.
Speaking ahead of the conference, the Country Sales Manager, Bayer Nigeria Ltd, Mr. Temitope Banjo said that the Nigeria Maize Conference is an initiative to bring together stakeholders in the Maize agricultural value chain, to deliver innovative solutions that would help Nigerian farmers maximize their farm yields and secure their harvests from devastating disease and pests.
According to Banjo, “Nigeria is yet to reach its full potentials in terms of maize productivity, for example where a hectare of farmland in Egypt can yield up to 7 metric tonnes per hectare, a farm of the same size in Nigeria only produces around 1.8 metric tonnes per hectare which is one of the lowest among the top 10 maize producers in Africa.” He went on to say that even though Nigeria is presently the largest producer of Maize in Africa, the country is still not able to meet up with its domestic and industrial needs for the crop.
He stated that the challenges with maize production in Nigeria are mainly due to poor agronomic factors and the use of bad seeds during planting and cultivation, and there is a need to educate our farmers on how they can increase the productivity and profitability of their farms, hence the theme for this year’s conference.
Commenting on how Bayer intended to address the maize production challenges in Nigeria, the Managing Director of Bayer Nigeria Ltd., Mr. Sefihait Kone explained that Bayer has a suite of products which is called the Bayer “Much More Maize” toolkit, specially put together to help farmers protect their crops and boost productivity of their farms from the planting phase through the harvesting stage.
“We will show how these products, if used properly have the potential to increase the profitability of their farms which translates to higher revenue for them. We hope that once all farmers imbibe these proper procedures, it will have a ripple effect on the economy and increase the food sufficiency of the country,” Kone stated.
Some of the guests and keynote speakers expected at the virtual conference include Alhaji Abubakar Bello who is the President of the Maize Association of Nigeria (MAAN), Dr. Olusegun Ojo, the Director of the National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) as well as experts from Bayer in person of Dr. David Wangila and Dr. Joseph Kibaki.
Visit https://nigerianmaizeconference.com/#register to register for the event.
Bayer is an innovation company with a more than 150-year history. Its scientific successes are intended to help improve people’s lives. It’s a global enterprise with core competencies in the Life Science fields of health care and agriculture.