IITA Kano
IITA/Kano
Sabo Bakin Zuwo Road
PMB 3112, Kano
Tel: (+234) (0)8060522204
E-mail: IITA-Kano@cgiar.org
Nigeria
Population, total (millions) 131.5
Population growth (annual %) 2.2
Surface area (sq. km) (thousands) 923.8
Source: The World Bank
Interesting Places
Interesting places in Nigeria
The IITA Kano station was officially established on 26 February 1989 through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between IITA and the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR), Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Through the MoU, IAR provided 40 hectares of land to IITA at its farm in Minjibir, located 45 km north of Kano, for field research, and sufficient land in its Kano premises for offices, laboratories, and screenhouses. The station was formally commissioned on 4 September 1990 by Vice Admiral Augustus Aikhomu (rtd), then the Vice- President of Nigeria.
The station serves to promote the Institute’s R4D mandate in northern Nigeria and to advance agricultural development in the savanna region of Africa. It is one of the five IITA research stations in Nigeria, the others being in Ibadan, Abuja, Maiduguri, and Onne.
R4D activities
Cowpea breeding
The Cowpea Breeding Unit develops and distributes a range of improved breeding lines, combining multiple disease and insect resistance, parasitic weed resistance, drought tolerance, and appropriate adaptation to diverse agroecologies. The variety requirements for cowpea in terms of plant type, seed type and color, maturity and use pattern are taken into consideration in the development of these lines.
- Mini core collection trial with 333 germplasm accessions plus about 50 wild cowpea
- Initial Evaluation Trial which tests about 165 lines
- Preliminary Evaluation Trials and advance breeding trials
- All Nigeria short and medium duration trials with a total 30 entries
- Cowpea International Trials
- Seed regeneration with about 333 lines
- Bambara groundnut trial with 94 entries
Soybean breeding
The Soybean Breeding Unit develops and tests improved varieties with high and stable grain yield. Other characteristics of importance include maturity (earliness), self-nodulation (promiscuity), rust resistance, lodging resistance, and shattering resistance.
- Preliminary Trial: Early maturity with 56 entries and Medium maturity 26 entries
- Advance breeding trial Early maturing with 22 entries.
- Advance breeding trial Medium maturing with 23 entries.
Economics
The IITA-Kano economics unit is carrying out activities that include economic evaluation of drought-tolerant maize varieties in Kano (Rano, LGA) and Katsina (Malumfashi, LGA), Dissemination and evaluation (in collaboration with ADPs and LGA) of PICS technology (Non-chemical cowpea storage) in 10,000 villages in 20 states of northern Nigeria, providing support to all other units in the area of economics (KKM/SS, PROSAB, Seed systems). In addition the unit is supervising students from BUK, ATBU, and OAU, Ife.
Producing high quality seed
Many farmers in Northern Nigeria lack access to high quality seeds of well-adapted varieties. PROSAB stimulates and supports farmers’ seed production in an attempt to solve this problem. This experiment evaluates whether farmers are able to produce high quality seeds with four years of professional support. Cowpea and maze seed samples were collected from farmers who received IITA foundation seed between 2001 and 2008. The results should (1) indicate if farmers can produce high quality seed and (2) determine the optimal seed renewal conditions.
Tackling constraints in cowpea production: Striga and drought
Drought at the early and late growing stages and Striga are two major constraints of small-scale farmers growing cowpea. The cowpea physiology unit is tackling these problems for efficient breeding of improved varieties that carry both drought and Striga resistance. Large-scale drought resistance screening and detailed physiological studies are conducted to find out key mechanisms of drought resistance in cowpea. At several locations in Nigeria and Niger, the demonstration trials with the participation of farmers have been conducted to identify Striga resistant cowpea varieties with preferable agronomic traits for farmers.
