Western and Central Africa
Harvesting Naira From Millet
Yusuf Ali, a farmer from the Borno State of Nigeria, couldn’t
believe his eyes when for the first time in his life, he held 50 000 Naira (US$ 500) in
his hands – money he had received from selling seed of SOSAT-C 88, a pearl millet
variety that he had grown on just half a hectare. But even more remarkable was the fact
that it had taken him 
only 1 year to achieve this. With the money from that sale, Yusuf
could fulfill his long-cherished dream of buying a plot in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno
State, in the parched northeastern corner of the country.
In January 2000, SOSAT-C 88 was released by the
Nigerian National Variety Release Committee for cultivation throughout the country under
the varietal name LCIC-MV1 (Lake Chad Research Institute/ICRISAT Millet Variety 1). The
release of a new variety creates opportunity not only for farmers to increase the yields
and stability of their staple food crops – but also for village enterpreneurs to reap
rewards by multiplying and spreading the seeds far and wide.
Yusuf had come to know of SOSAT-C 88 from the on-farm trials on improved varieties conducted jointly by ICRISAT and the Lake Chad Research Institute. As part of these trials, he had also been trained in seed production technology. Following the training, he decided to produce and sell the seed of SOSAT-C 88. It was a decision that changed his fate.
In 1998, Yusuf produced 1.3 t of good quality
seed from the small amount of breeder seed he had received from ICRISAT. While multiplying
the seed, he organized several open-house field days with the astuteness of an expert 
salesman,
inviting farmers and NGOs to see his SOSAT-C 88 field for themselves. He also wrote about
it to several agriculture-related organizations in his area. “All those who visited
my field were very impressed. When it was time to source for seed for the 1999 cropping
season, buyers from far and near kept trooping to my house to buy the seed,” Yusuf
said, describing how he managed to sell the seed at six times the price of millet grains. 
“This year, SOSAT-C 88 seed is available to sow in several thousand hectares in Nigeria as it was produced by many seed growers, such as Yusuf,” said ICRISAT scientist S C Gupta, who coordinates the on-farm trials. By providing an opportunity for hard-working entrepreneurs like Yusuf, new crop varieties contribute to the establishment of grass-roots rural agroindustry – triggering a virtuous circle of investment in new technology that can help transform rural poverty into prosperity.
