NASC constitute steering committee for seeds monitoring, adoption

The National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) has constituted Institutionalising Monitoring Crop Variety Adoption using Genotyping programme (IMAGE) executive steering committee.

The committee is expected to pioneers the genotyping of five crops in Nigeria to ensure accurate reporting of crop variety identity and produce reliable, repeatable, credible adoption estimates.

IMAGE which is a five year programme, will be led by country teams with the aim of establishing, institutionalising, and scaling routine monitoring of improved variety adoption and turnover using genotyping.

Launching the project and constituting the committee, the Director General, National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) Dr. Philip Olusegun Ojo, said misidentification of seed varieties or type could have several implications for both adoption of improved technology, for planting, for Policy formulation for food security and also for regulatory activities.

He said the efforts will provide useful insights and path towards accurately understanding the adoption pattern and use of the various seeds of improved variety.

Adding that it will help in no small measure towards accurate and targeted policy formulation regarding the utilization of seeds in Nigeria.

“Today equally marks the beginning of a new era in adoption of improved variety monitoring and reporting, the beginning of the process that will drive us through the much-needed shift from our traditional and largely inaccurate methodology for measuring farmer adoption of improved variety and how varieties turnover through time.

“Over time, studies of improved seed adoption in Nigeria are almost based on household surveys and are premised on the assumption that a farmer can accurately self-report their use of improved seed varieties. However, many studies have shown that farmers report of seed varieties planted, or whether the seed is improved or local are sometimes inconsistent with the DNA fingerprinting results of these varieties.

“As an organ of government charged with the responsibility of regulating the Nigerian Seed space, we pledge to support this process as much as possible. I also wish to call on everyone in this room, as you have been carefully selected to participate in this process to support this drive to develop a system to effectively and accurately track farmers’ adoption of improved varieties and how varieties turn over through time using DNA finger printing.

“We expect that the IMAGE project will provide insights and evidence for seed sector actors to enhance government agency capacity, improve stakeholders’ coordination, and lead to better investment and resource allocation decisions for varietal development and commercialization in Nigeria,” he said.

He said the focus crops for the project, here in Nigeria we are looking at four crops, maize, rice, cassava and cowpea. Just like we earlier said, the program is being implemented simultaneously in two other countries; Ethiopia and Tanzania. For Ethiopia, maize, wheat, cowpea and teff. For Tanzania we have maize, cassava, cowpea and rice.

Also the project team lead, Mr Onwuka Charles jnr. explaining the vision behind the project, said misleading data can lead to incorrect conclusion about determinants of adoption which in turn can lead to intervention and support decision that do not generate expected impact.

Charles pointed out that IMAGE will assess the varieties that farmers are growing of four staple crops within the three targeted countries and marking the rate of improved variety Adoption through recurring survey and comparative analysis.

AGRA country representative, Dr. Kayode Makinde, said the project is critical and would help deliver on the needs of farmers.

“We would work together with other partners to ensure that the objective of the project is achieved,” he promised.

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