Council, Research institute working on improved seeds

Council, Research institute working on improved seeds

… Calls for review of seed policy in the country

By Jimoh Babatunde
The Director-General, National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) , Dr Philip Olusegun Ojo, has disclosed that the council and the Lake Chad Research Institute (LCRI) were working to ensure that improved seeds were made available to farmers.
Speaking during a road show on the effect of fake seeds in Ibadan, Oyo State recently, he said the council is making efforts to improve local cultivation of wheat by making seeds available to farmers.
Ojo said LCRI had produced wheat varieties that could garner more yields per hectare, adding that in line with the plan that a national data base on seed production has been created to support the wheat action plan in order to enhance research and improve productivity.
He said the target states are Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Borno, Zamfara, Kebbi, Plateau, Sokoto, Gombe, Yobe, Adamawa and Katsina.
So far, he said the council had registered 156 seed companies. In addition, he said the council would ensure seed testing, quality control, and certification processes for classes of seeds.
To this end, he said NASC was supporting research partnerships to develop new varieties of wheat, and other staples required to feed the nation.
In line with the seed sector development policy designed to handle seed needs across the country, Ojo said research institutions and the universities had mobilised to take responsibilities for crop breeding.
According to him, there is effort to achieve food self-sufficiency and security with the production of adequate quality and quantity of improved certified seeds.
On fake seeds, he said firms that are caught selling illegal seed will be sanctioned.
A major seeds distributor at the Dugbe market, Ibadan, Mr. Adenitan Solomon said seed dealers are supporting the NASC on the war to curtail the problem of seed adulteration.
Farmers, Solomon said, are encouraged to look out for seeds with the tag of NASC as every seed bag must have a tag from the Council.
The President, Southwest Agro Inputs Dealers Association, Alhaji Akinmade Olayinka, attributed the use of poor quality seed by farmers to lack of awareness on availability of better performing crop varieties that are high yielding, disease and drought tolerant.

Stakeholders say the steps taken so far by the government is capable of improving local production of the commodity this year, local farmers are capable of producing two million tonnes of wheat annually, amounting to about $2 billion. 

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