Council to generate improved seeds to boost food production



The National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) is to generate more improved “Early Generation Seeds’’ to boost food production in the country.
The Director-General of NASC, Dr Philip Ojo, made this known on Monday in Abuja at the stakeholders’ workshop on “Addressing Challenges of Early Generation Seeds in the National Seed System of Nigeria’’.
He said that the essence of the workshop was to ensure that Nigeria produced enough “early generation seeds’’ for multiplication and use in the country.
“By `early generation seeds’, I mean breeder and foundation seeds, so that farmers could have access to good quality seeds to boost food production in the country.
“We want to look at the capacity of seed breeding institutions; we want to see what they are doing, their challenges and ways forward, so as to provide solutions to those challenges,’’ he said.
Ojo said that NASC, in line with its mandate of regulating the seed industries, was eager to transform the country’s seed system into a leading seed industry in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“This will generate foreign exchange, connect employers to labour and contribute positively to the country’s economy.
“It may interest you to know that about 70 per cent of seeds used in Africa are from Nigeria,’’ he said.
The director-general, however, identified lack of incentives for seed breeders, inadequate funding of research institutions and lack of enforcement of intellectual property rights for researchers as some of the major challenges facing the industry.
In his keynote address, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, urged stakeholders in the seeds industry to use the forum to tackle the challenges facing the research institutions in the country.
The minister said that the importance of seeds as a major catalyst for the rapid development and transformation of agriculture in any country could never be over-emphasised.
“The development and adoption of improved seeds are responsible for the achievements of Asian countries in green revolution.
“Improved seed as a key input, enhances agricultural productivity and ensures food security, as it is the carrier of the genetic potential of the crop plant that determines the limit of productivity, “ he said.
Ogbeh stressed that “early generation seeds’’ were required for successful multiplication into commercial seeds for use by famers to produce grains.
In his remark, Prof. Candidus Echekwu, Leader, Legumes and Oilseeds Research Programme, said that the workshop would enable experts to brainstorm on solutions to the challenges facing the production and development of quality seeds in Nigeria.

“The objectives of the workshop are for us to identify the bottlenecks and put our heads together to find solutions to the hindrances facing quality seeds development, in our efforts to boost food productivity in Nigeria,’’ he added. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tomato disease outbreak: Institute appeals for research funding

The National Horticultural Research Institute, Ibadan, has appealed for funding to carry out research and create awareness on the tuta absoluta pest on tomatoes. The Institute’s Head of Vegetable Programme, Dr Olagorite Adetula, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan on Friday that there was an urgent need to tackle the problem to save the economy. Adetula said the institute needed money to do surveillance survey of the pest/damage, ascertain the impact of the damage and proffer solution for eradicating the pest. She appealed to the Federal Government to help the institute get pheromones to lure and trap the pests and distribute to farmers. ``Spraying insecticides is not the best, the pest has high production rate, some of them can escape while spraying it and they will be resistant to the insecticide thereby causing us more cost. ``The pheromones can be used for six to eight weeks before changing it, it is very effective, the pest has short life cycle, wit...
Read more

10,000 women farmers to be engaged in ECOWAS rice project – official

Image
 Mr Richard Olafare, the President, Seed Entrepreneurs Association of Nigeria (SEEDAN) says 10,000 women will be engaged in the recently inaugurated Rice Seed Up-Scaling Project. This is contained in a presentation on the project made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday. Olafare said 8,000 youths would also be engaged in the scaling project. According to him, the number of women and youths represented 50 per cent and 40 per cent respectively of the 20,000 farmers that will participate in the project. NAN reports that the project is an initiative of the West Africa Seed Programme (WASP) in support of the ECOWAS Rice Offensive Programme that was inaugurated in 2014. Among other objectives, it is targeting the production of 60,000 metric tonnes of paddy rice for Nigeria by December 2017, using 1,200 certified seeds. The project is being implemented by SEEDAN in collaboration with the West and Central Africa Council for Agricultura...
Read more

Monsanto Nigeria Launches 3 Conventional Maize Hybrids

Maize farmers across Nigeria now have 3 high yielding conventional maize hybrids to choose from the DEKALB ® brand as Monsanto Agriculture Nigeria Limited launches 3 conventional maize hybrids. The launch held in Abuja on Tuesday May 17 2016 had in attendance farmers, development partners, government regulatory bodies and other stakeholders from both the private and public sectors of the economy. The launch of these hybrid seeds follows their registration by the National Committee on Naming, Registration and Release of Crop Varieties, Livestock Breeds and Fisheries in February 2016. The white maize hybrid, DK234 alongside the 2 yellow maize hybrids, DK920 and DK818 obtained registration approval for use in Nigeria after testing across various agro ecological zones on multi-location farms. The white maize hybrid DK234 with yield potential of 13 tonnes per hectare is well adapted for the Southern and Northern Guinea Savanna ecologies and shows tolerance to Maize Streak Virus, ...
Read more