National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to train thousands of community based seed entrepreneurs as part of efforts to improve seed production and marketing in four north east states of Adamawa, Borno, Gombe and Yobe.
The project to be funded by USAID will involve training and supporting 2250 seed producers to become Community Based Seed Entrepreneurs (CBSE) in the four intervention states and facilitate the formation of these CBSE’s into 150 community based Seed enterprises cooperatives.
Speaking during the signing ceremony at the NASC headquarters in Abuja, Director General, Dr. Olusegun Philip Ojo, said the Council is responsible for ensuring that the farmers get good quality seeds.
“And most of the innovations and technology introduced in the seed industry were done in collaboration with organisations like yours. So when the idea of partnering with IITA came, we were happy to embrace it. We want to continue to expand our collaborators and partners because we are positioning the Council as the centre of excellence for the seed industry in West Africa.
“For your information, Nigeria produces over 50% of good quality seeds in West Africa and we have become a force of a sort when it comes to seed production. So now we get several references from organisations to come to us for the seed they need.
“IITA has been a good partner as we have been able to partner on several projects such as seed codex among others. And the community seed project is very dear to our hearts because the seed companies alone cannot take care of all the seed needs of farmers and the need to ensure that farmers at the downstream and local level have access to the best genetics. And that is what the programme is addressing, especially in the north and seed is a game changer in agriculture and it would be good if the project can be replicated across the country to make seed available for the farmers at the grassroots,” he said.
Also speaking, IITA Chief of Party, Prakash Kant Silwal, said through its Northeast Regional Office, it trained 1,937 Community Based Seed Producers on improved seed production and marketing techniques in Adamawa and Borno States between 2020 and 2022.
He said the organisation also monitored the seed fields of the CBSPs and provided the needed support and guidance, tested the samples of the seeds produced at its Seed laboratory in Gombe.
“Attended the annual Agricultural inputs Fair organized by the Activity to create necessary awareness for the smallholder farmers on the need to plant certified seeds instead of grains.
“All the above have significantly increased the use of certified seeds by smallholder farmers in intervention communities and resulted in an increase in yield and income.
“Scaling up of interventions in seed system development: Recently, our donor (USAID) expanded the scope of the Activity to scale-up interventions in seed system development in the existing states (Borno and Adamawa and expand into Gombe and Yobe states). This will involve supporting 2,250 seed producers to become Community Based Seed Entrepreneurs (CBSE) in the four intervention states and facilitating the formation of these CBSEs into 150 community-based seed enterprises cooperatives.
“In achieving this, the Activity still needs the continuous support of NASC as contained in the MOU that we are signing today.
“I am happy to announce that this is already happening as the Activity and NASC Officials are currently organizing training for the selected 2,250 CBSP in improved seed production and marketing techniques across the four intervention states of Adamawa, Borno, Gombe and Yobe. Other activities will follow suit,” he explains.
