The 27th Meeting of National Committee on Naming, Registration & Release of Crop Varieties, Livestock Breeds / Fisheries was held on the 22-23rd of August 2019 in Ibadan. Based on the documents submitted by the professors of the Institute of Agricultural Research two Hungarian hybrids maize varieties have been released. The experiments were carried out by IAR and the maize breeders of Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria and supervised by the Hungarian Agricultural Innovation Centre. After an intensive 2.5-year work the two maize varieties will be registered and released with the name ZUMA 450 and ZUMA 500 in the future. The main characteristics of the Hungarian maize breeds are the extra early maturity (70-75 days) which enables 2-3 cycles to be planted in a season and the high drought tolerance, which will allow the expansion of the frontier of maize cultivation farther North to the arid areas enhancing food security.
We express our profound gratitude and appreciation to all parties that were involved in the field trials!
