The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Sabo Nanono, has vowed to authorise research institutes producing foundation seeds to produce and distribute seeds under their own patent.
Nanono speaking during the 2019 Seed Fair and Farmers’ Field Day organised by the National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) in conjunction with Seed Entrepreneurs Association of Nigeria (SEEDAN) in Sheda, on Thursday in Abuja, said there would be intense competition in the seed production in the country.
“I will also allow some group of people to come into seed production in this country, apparently most of our research institutes are doing a good job and producing good foundation seeds but the seed multiplication companies are being adulterated and at the end of the day the the research is rendered useless when it gets to farmers.
“I commend NAERLS for establishing platform to contact farmers across the country within 24hrs, saying it would complement the extension service lacking in this country.
“Another challenge is getting good wheat seeds in the country, so as we stop importation of the wheat into the country,, also sorghum
“What is needed is the standardization of the seeds so as to be able to produce a uniform and good product that can be marketed abroad, and that is a serious issue that we must look into it closely,” he said.
He said with about 70million farmers in the country, agriculture hold key to the development of the country and that agriculture also hold key to the economic and political stability of the country and so whatever needs to be done to promote agriculture must be held in high esteem.
According to him, one of the fundamental problem facing the country’s agriculture is probably the hidden activities of research institutions and that most of the research institutes are under funded as they have big buildings but lack funds for research.
“Giving instance of a professor paid N500,000 monthly but is not given up to N200,000 for research yearly, and that is basically the truth. If we don’t move forward in that direction how do we progress. We as a government must examine what can be done.
“We must rationalize research institutes and make it more cost effective and more productive if we are going to achieve our goal.
Earlier, the Director General, NASC, Dr. Philip Olusegun Ojo, said slots of efforts have been made to deliver on improvement and adoption of improved seeds which are instrumental to the achievement of green revolution, making food available at profitable prices to producers and affordable for consumers leading to reduction in rural poverty.
