The damage adulterated seeds causes to the Nigeria agricultural sector and the seeds industry cannot be quantified, however, with the introduction of the NASCODE smart seed labeling, verification and agrocertification system by National Agricultural Seed Council, the unpleasant experience of farmers will be a thing of the past, JOHN OBA writes.
Provision of good quality seeds of improved crop variety is critical to enhancing agricultural productivity and ensuring food security in any country. A threat to any nation’s seeds sector put the entire nation at risk. This explains why nations globally give serious attention to seed protection.
In line with this, the federal government through the National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) has for some times been fighting to rid the sector of any threat that may put it at risk.
In furtherance of this, the Council kicked off activities towards the development and introduction of a NASCODE smart seed labeling and verification system which will help to eliminate the menace of fake and adulterated seeds in the industry.
Letter of intent
Signing the letter of intent with Mpedigree the technology giant behind the success of this technology globally, NASC director general, Dr. Philip Olusegun Ojo, said in the next few months, the seed sector like the pharmaceutical industry introduce a turnkey electronic seed certification system with scratch card authentication and enhance security features that will make it impossible to fake any any seed certified by the NASC.
Explaining further the workings of the technology, Ojo said, “We will commence the implementation of a turnkey, electronic, agrocertification program for the Nigerian seed industry, based on Mpedigree’s globally proven and multi-award winning Goldkeys platform. The solution we are offering will make us respond faster and more efficiently to the needs of companies that require certification tags as we will now be able to provide millions of smart certification tags within a short period coupled with the roll out of an e-verification system.
Benefits
“The Goldkeys technology, will enable quality and genuineness verification by farmers and the public through SMS, smartphone apps (with GS1 barcoding support) and web. It is also equipped with its own integrated call center desk software. For sophisticated users, blockchain verification is also available to further strengthening the resistance against sabotage. We therefore at NASC will become the first federal agency to deploy a blockchain-powered application for mass usage in West Africa.
“Farmers and the public can use any of the aforementioned channels to confirm within a few seconds if a tag on any seed purchased by them was genuinely issued by NASC or not. Any attempt to evade the system is detected by the proprietary “early sensing” logic, which in over ten years have not recorded any successful evasion. All messaging and monitoring are fully customized and location-sensitive The technology will give NASC complete control over every certification tag and batch of seeds right from its production and movement throughout the entire seeds value chain.”
He congratulated the Nigerian farmers for their doggedness in coping with the negative actions of few unscrupulous seed merchants in the past and assured them that henceforth these few fake seed dealers will no longer have anywhere to hide.
He said the technology was first of its kind in West Africa, saying it was on the basis of this that the seed sector in South and East Africa are better advance than that of West and Central Africa.
“But today I am glad to tell you that Nigeria is moving at the same pace with these regions. Some three years ago, the electronic seed certification system was introduced in East Africa, Kenya in particular and just some few months back other countries like Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Malawi all in the COMESA region have initiated processes to introduce the system,” he said.
Speaking also, Mpedigree’s head of corporate affairs Mr Chukwudi Madu said his organisation is looking at improving and making better gain for the Nigeria agriculture
The Global Strategy Director, Mr Selorm Brawttie, commended the decision of the Council to monitor the sector technologically.
“For me, this is an auspicious occasion especially with the Seed Council’s decision to put their faith in us as a technology company which is also looking at the same objectives as they, in that no farmer I’m this country should be a victim of fake seeds, and this is the first time this is being deployed in the West African region, and with the experience we’ve gotten in East Africa region that will be used to ensure that Nigeria seeds industry is one of the most resilient sector in the world.
“The role that the Council played to ensure that when they are talk about sustainable agricultural productivity in this country, the fact that the role that the Council had in beginning the system from the foundation through the production of quality certified seeds will be the bedrock of the story of success for agriculture in the whole of Nigeria,” he said.
Monitoring
On monitoring, the NASC director general said the Council is not toying with the issues of monitoring in the sector. “We have a department of seeds inspectorate that has been monitoring and ensuring that it is certified seeds that are actually packaged, so monitoring will be a continuous process and we are going to upscale monitoring now to ensure that certified seeds are not replaced with fake seeds after certification,” the DG said.
He said the programme is about ensuring that farmers are no longer shortchanged by unscrupulous merchants that farmers are able to authenticate the genuineness of the seeds they are buying.
“This is a very simply thing with the use of scratch card, this will ensure that productivity is enhanced and this is going to assure seed security.”
Mr Madu, however said the Council is going to be more empowered to monitor, track and trace because everything that is done will have electronic footprint.
“On this case, when the code is clone, the system will automatically raise alarm, the system is alerted that the code is cloned,” he said.
Cost and economic implications
On cost, Mr Brawttie, said the Council will not be spending much money to build the system from the scratch as his company will be obliging NASC “our platform and it is going to involve technology and knowledge transfer to officials of the Council.”
He also said the cost of texting for verification will not be borne by the farmers. He said it is going to be like it is in the medical sector. “Every farmer can check their seed for free regardless of the network they are using with this platform; it wouldn’t cost the farmers an extra kobo.”
Madu said the economic value of the system cannot be overstated because “we can’t understate the importance of food security for a nation.”
Dr. Ojo also explained that the Council has a plan to warehouse and domesticate everything that is being done under the system saying “In the near future we will be producing the code and the tag.”
