By Agnes Afolabi
The National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) has commenced training of Licensed Seed Inspectors (LSI) to enforce the use of quality cassava seed towards food security in Nigeria.
A Director in NASC, Dr Ishiak Khalid, disclosed this in Ibadan on Thursday at the opening of a two-day training by the council in collaboration with International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, (IITA).
The workshop was tagged: Building an Economically Sustainable Integrated Cassava Seed (BASICS-ll) for Cassava Licensed Seed Inspectors.
Khalid, who was represented by the South West Regional, NASC, Dr Adekunle Adeseko, said the council has set the pace in cassava seed certification in West Africa.
He stated that it has been improving its efficiency through the adoption of Seed Tracker in digital certification, especially in Cassava.
Khalid, however, charged the LSIs to be up and doing in ensuring compliance to seed quality, noting that the council has been abreast of the activities of informal seed entrepreneurs.
While speaking on challenges in Cassava Certification in South West and the way forward, Khalid decried low patronage on Seed Tracker by new Seed Entrepreneurs.
“We know that in the South, NASC is in the process of integrating the newly licensed cassava growers and processors as they are yet to fully grasp the need to register their cassava seed field on the Seed Tracker for quality assurance.
“Another challenge is the sourcing of Cassava Seed from Informal Seed Sector.
“Cassava propagating materials move from one place to another either as farmers exchange or unchecked due to weak seed law enforcement compounded by logistics at the community and without recourse to its health status,” he said.
He noted that awareness creation was a way out of the challenges.
According to him, the council has paucity of funds to upscale the level of awareness on the need to propagate cassava using seeds instead of stem from old plants meant for root production.
Khalid commended collaborations with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which have been supporting the realisation of the objectives of the council.
The Desk Officer Basics-ll, NASC, Dr Bankole Osho-Lagunju, identified decentralising seed quality assurance as a new paradigm that NASC was looking at due to shortage of manpower for the number of seed producers in the nation.
“Having trained personnel like this will complement the NASC officers, bring quality assurance closer to the people and make it more responsive as well as creating income for those engaged,”he said.
Dr Shuaeeb Oyewole, Zonal Coordinator, Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI) Ibadan Zonal Office, in his goodwill message, said it was important to plant high yielding seeds that would give optimal harvest.
