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Olam Agric Records Significant Milestone in Wheat Variety

Heat-tolerant super-early wheat variety developed specifically  to support Nigerian farm.

Olam Agri has further underlined its commitment to helping Nigeria towards greater wheat production self-sufficiency and food security with the release of a novel heat-tolerant and super-early durum wheat variety suitable for local cultivation during the harmattan season. 

This release of this wheat variety signals another milestone achievement for Olam Agri’s Seed for the Future wheat seed trial and multiplication effort, which was unveiled in 2021.  The initiative is focused on removing hurdles to wheat production self-sufficiency in the country. It prioritises developing and cultivating seed varieties that suit the country’s unique topographic and climatic conditions and training a wide range of smallholder farmers on modern agronomic practices. 
 

In partnership with the Lake Chad Research Institute (LCRI) and Dr Filippo Bassi, a specialist wheat breeder at the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), the initiative achieved its first-year milestone of producing 10 kg of pre-multiplication wheat seed varieties in September 2022 and this season, ten women-owned farms will plant the seed variety in December, with hundreds of farms set to benefit in 2025 and thousands more in 2026.

ICARDA developed the Crown novel heat-tolerant and super-early durum wheat variety as part of the Olam Prize for Innovation. 

 Availability and accessibility of quality seed varieties are important to farmers and we are excited to release the Crown heat-tolerant, high-yielding wheat seed variety. In collaboration with Olam Agri and ICARDA, this is the first step in a chain of actions to work with women’s cooperative unions and local farmers to multiply and commercialise the seed.

Dr Kachalla Mala,

LCRI breeder and critical partner in the project

Each female farmer will receive one quintal of the Crown seed variety and in addition to the agronomic training the women receive, financing will enable them to cultivate and multiply the initial seed into three tons of certified seeds. They will then engage communities to further multiply to 30 tons of seeds and commercialise it for neighbouring communities.
 

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