Stakeholders develop, adopt rapid seeds production plan


 Stakeholders in the nation's seeds industry have developed and adopted a seed roadmap aimed at increasing local production, distribution and utilisation of high quality seeds in the country.
A top official of the National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC), who spoke on condition of anonymity, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday.
He explained that the roadmap was in support of the current administration`s agenda on self-sufficiency in food production, economic diversification and job creation through agriculture.
The official said that the four-year plan, tagged 'Rapid Action Plan for Quality Seeds Production in Nigeria', was the outcome of a two-day workshop hosted by NASC in Abuja recently.
According to the source, the initiative is targeting the production, distribution and marketing of 200,000 metric tonnes (MT) of improved seeds to farmers by 2020.
He said that expected seed tonnage would cover some major crops such as maize, rice, sorghum, millet, soybeans and groundnuts, among others.
Recently, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, decried the huge gap in the supply and demand for high quality seeds in the country.
Ogbeh had said that the national demand for improved seeds currently stood at over 350,000 MT in 2016 as against a local output of 123,000 MT produced 2015, leaving a deficit of 231,000 MT.
The gap, according to him, is being filled through massive use of low quality seeds, which originate from local farmers and unverified seeds merchants.
The minister decried the resultant low yields of seed varieties in Nigeria compared with what obtains in other countries, and urged NASC to come up with strategies to address the challenges.

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