The National Agricultural Seed Council is set to digitise its activities in 2021 to enhance the performance of the council and prompt response to the need of farmers and seed industries in Nigeria.
The Director General of the Council Dr. Philip Ojo made the disclosure in Abuja, at a media briefing organised by the council to reel out the seed strategy for 2021 .
Dr. Ojo said the council would be working to boost seed production by further enhancing its capacity in 2021.
He said; ”part of the things the council would be working to achieve in 2021 is the passage of the Plant Variety Protection Bill (PVP) which is currently at the National Assembly and the council would collaborate with the Ministry of Agriculture and other relevant stakeholders to achieve this.”
According to the Director General, the council would be adopting new technology to institutionalize monitoring of varietal adoption in the country.
“This year, we are coming with a new innovation to track adoption of varieties in the country. With the support of BMGF we will join Ethiopia and Tanzania to make effort towards institutionalising the monitoring of varietal adoption, turnover and performance using genotyping (DNA Finger-Printing) to trace effectiveness of varieties released and adopted by farmers,” Dr Ojo stated.
Crop descriptors
He said that ”the council would continue to develop crop descriptors to support the council’s field staff and other stakeholders in the identification of the Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability traits of both released varieties and other varieties of common knowledge which will further help our seed sector development.”
Dr. Ojo further sent out a warning to unscrupulous seed merchants in the country to desist from any act that affects seed production negatively.
He added that the council is stepping its monitoring and surveillance of seed activities in 2021, to ensure farmers get access to only quality certified seeds in the country.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
