Agriculture with Jimoh

The National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) says Nigeria exports over 70 per cent of its improved seeds to other West African countries. Mr Mmoeyak Usua, the Council’s South-South Regional Head, said this while speaking with journalists in Yenagoa on Monday. Usua, who harped on the use of improved and certified seeds, said that increased usage of the seeds by the country’s farmers would facilitate plans to boost agricultural productivity and the farmers’ income. While commending the efforts of Nigerian farmers in agricultural production, the NASC official, nonetheless, stressed that the importance of improved seeds to agricultural productivity could never be over-emphasised. “Nigeria now exports improved seeds to other West African countries; over 70 per cent of the improved seeds, used by farmers in the sub-region, come from Nigeria,’’ he said. Usua pledged the commitment of NASC to building a market-driven seeds industry, so as to facilitate the production and dis...

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 ...