The research team, including UN officials, was led by Mary Mokowenya, to conduct a field visit to Manchok, a city in the south of Kaduna.

Mokowenya, who is also the executive director of the Rubber Research Institute in Benin, said the arrangement was directed toward widening the scope of the country's exports to reduce overdependency on oil.

The delegation included Malaysian rubber experts who were in Nigeria on their first field visit, she added.

The southern Kaduna State was chosen for the project because the weather in the area had been found to be suitable for crop varieties and the research result acquired by earlier commissioned study of the area was encouraging, according to the director.

Local chief thanked the delegation for the visit and for choosing southern Kaduna for the project and assured that farmers in the area would give the team necessary support, cooperation and encouragement to turn the area into a rubber producing zone.