By Oluyinka Fadare/Mercy Omoike
Lagos – The National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) has warned that one year imprisonment or one million naira fine awaited anyone who sold adulterated seeds to farmers in the country.
Dr Olusegun Ojo, NASC Director-General, gave the warning at the 2018 AgraInnovate Conference and Exhibition on Tuesday in Lagos.
He said that NASC was the governmental agency responsible for coordinating and regulating the seed industry in the country.
“It is against the law for anybody to produce, market or sell seeds without proper accreditation from the council.
“There are a number of people who are out to adulterate seeds and the council is out to ensure that this does not happen.
“People who have done it in the past have been penalized; in fact three seed companies have been de-listed for supplying bad quality seeds to farmers,” Ojo said.
According to him, seeds are the most important element and cornerstone of agriculture, adding that it is the building block of the sector.
The director general said that seeds were so fundamental to agriculture and should not be trifled with.
He explained that before food security could be discussed, seed security must first of all be settled.
He urged seed buyers to look out for the certification tags and producer labels on the package before buying.
“Anybody who wants to plant seed must ensure they go and purchase good quality seeds; they must take note of these items so that in time they can identify suppliers of good and bad seeds.
“They should report suppliers of bad seeds to the council and keep patronising suppliers of good seeds,” Ojo said.
The NASC boss said that presently there were 314 seed companies of different categories in the country.
Ojo said that a large number of people were also employed by the seed industry either in transportation, production and marketing, among others.
He explained that apart from the sales of adulterated seeds, another challenge facing the industry was lack of appropriate research and development.
The NASC boss urged producers to continue to improve upon the quality and variety of seeds in circulation because it impacted on crop yields.
Also speaking, Prof. Johnson Onyibe, an agriculture expert, said that low uptake of seeds, recycling of seeds, low and unstable prices of output were among factors negatively impacting the sector.
Onyibe, a researcher with National Agriculture Extension Research and Liaison Service (NEARLS), said that availability of ready market, extension services, infrastructure and policies were among factors determining the growth of the seed industry.
“We have a very huge informal seed exchange within the country that we cannot account for and this poses a challenge in accessing our seed sector productivity,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that AgraInnovate West Africa is a regional agriculture production, processing and manufacturing trade show with over 50 exhibitors.
Organised by an agro consultant, Folushi Olaniyan in collaboration with KNECT365, the two-day annual expo in its fifth year featured over 30 agribusiness seminars. (NAN)