ABUJA – National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) says it will organise a capacity training on quality assurance for stakeholders in the six geopolitical zones.
Mr Olusegun Ojo, the Director-General of the council made this known on Wednesday in Abuja during a stakeholders meeting in preparation for the forthcoming 2014/2015 dry season farming.
The meeting, organised by NASC in collaboration with Seed Entrepreneurs’ Association of Nigeria (SEEDAN), attracted stakeholders in the seed sub-sector from across the country.
He said the seed sector must be fully supported to develop capacity and gain experience on the entire complex component required for an effective industry.
“Effort must be made to identify relevant issues and bottlenecks related to the smooth growth of the sector and to determine the type of intervention needed to make quality seeds available to farmers.
“This can be achieved through sustainable systems and constructive roadmap with specific recommendation to guide a sound dissemination for improved crops to poor farmers across the country.’’
Ojo said that the council had started making preparation towards the forthcoming dry season farming, to boost productivity in the seed sector and ushering of quality seeds to farmers early.
“This meeting was also convened to assess the level of preparedness of seed companies for the next dry season farming and to address some challenges experienced during the 2014 wet season.
“You can recall that for last year’s dry season, a total of 25 companies participated with a total delivery of about 18,288,020 tonnes for both maize and rice from a total target of 18, 818.32 tonnes.
“Our target for 2014/2015 dry season is put at 589, 608 hectares for maize, wheat and groundnut and this implied that certified seeds are needed to service the programme.‘’
The director-general commended the seed companies for their contributions to the success recorded during the 2014 wet season and expressed the hope that such gesture would extend to the next coming dry season farming.
The president of SEEDAN, Mr Richard Olufare, urged the seed companies to make seeds available to farmers in the rural areas in good time, so as to increase productivity.
He said that the joy of the seed companies was to see that they produced and delivered seeds at the appropriate time, to avoid the issue of damage.
Olufare urged the council to recommend some seed companies to banks to enable them to access agriculture loan. (NAN)
