Five hybrid maize varieties released

The Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) based at Nyankpala in the Northern Region has released five new hybrid maize varieties for use by farmers in the northern regions.

The yellow and white hybrid maize varieties that are high yielding, drought and striga tolerant are aimed at increasing productivity and food security and enhancing the incomes of stakeholders, including farmers in the maize value chain.

Varieties

The new maize varieties are Kunjor-Wari, Zaayura, Warikamana, Kpari-faako and Aburo-sika.

 The yellow and the white maize varieties take between 90 and 115 days to mature and have a per hectare yield of 5.7 tonnes and 6.7 tonnes, respectively.

The new varieties are a collaboration between SARI, the Crops Research Institute (CRI), WIENCO/Masara-N’ Arziki and the Drought Tolerant Maize of Africa Project after approval from the National Variety Release and Technical Committee (NVRTC).

Mandate

The Director of SARI, Dr Stephen K. Nutsugah, who announced this in Tamale over the weekend, said SARI was mandated to provide farmers in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions with appropriate technologies to increase food and fibre crop production based on a sustainable production system which maintained and increased soil fertility.

He explained that based on its core functions, the institute had, in the last five years, been working to come out with new hybrid maize varieties which were better yielding than the open-pollinated ones which were currently being planted by farmers in the area.

According to Dr Nutsugah, the new hybrid maize varieties were developed to respond to drought and striga infestation.

They also gave superior yields with shorter maturity periods, compared with the open-pollinated types, he said.