Minister calls for implementation of PVP Act 2021

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Muhammad Nanono, has called on stakeholders in the seed industry to ensure effective implementation of the Plant Variety Protection (PVP) Act 2021.

Nanono made the call on Thursday in Abuja at the unveiling of the PVP Act for the Northern region.

The PVP Act 2021 is a legal framework designed to protect plant breeders.

It is also an intellectual property protection law that helps encourage plant breeders and other stakeholders in the agriculture industry by granting them intellectual property right over their material.

The minister who noted that effective implementation of the Act was needed to develop superior plant varieties with high yield potential, said this was critical to ensuring food security in the country.

Nanano commended the National Assembly and President Muhammadu Buhari for signing the PVP bill into law.

He also urged the National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) and players in the food and agriculture seeds ecosystem to ensure that critical aspects of the bill were implemented.

“We are always good in making laws but when it comes to implementation that is where the problem lies.

“And on regular basis, we should engage all the stakeholders in this business to discuss and to review what has happened in the past and strategize on what is going to happen in the future”, he said.

Challenges of low yield
The Minister noted that agriculture occupies a strategic position in diversifying the economy and stressed the need to address the challenges of low yield.

“Whatever we are going to do, we must address the issue of low yield; it is not only the issue of quality seed or availability of seed, we have to modernise, we have to mechanise our farming system,” Nanono said.

The sponsor of the bill, Rep. Munir Danagudi (Kano) said that the importance of plant variety could not be overemphasised as Nigeria was still threatened by poor yields, soil degradation, emerging and traditional pest diseases.

The lawmaker who is also the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture Colleges and Institutions, described the unveiling of the PVP Act as a milestone.

Danagudi urged breeders to make crosses and use advanced technology to develop varieties in efforts to begin aggressive development of home-grown varieties suitable for Nigerian ecology.

Agriculture transformation
In his remarks, the Director-General of NASC, Dr Phillip Ojo said Nigeria’s agriculture sector transformation was a significant reason for the country to pay attention to the PVP Act.

According to him, the Act will incentivise national and multinational agribusiness investments in the country.

“We will begin to see on our farmers’ fields, superior yielding, stress tolerant, disease resistant, climate-smart and input efficient varieties which will be introduced by innovative breeders both from public and the private sector in few years to come.

“Nigeria will begin to witness efficient land use and reduced food cost as a result of the increased productivity from cultivated hectares across the country”, Ojo said.

He also said that the NASC had commenced action to set up a functional PVP office to receive and process applications for the granting of Plant Variety Protection rights in Nigeria from anywhere in the world.

“We are also working to develop supporting regulations that will help implement the Act,” he added.

Seed regulations
The Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Economic Summit Group, Mr Laoye Jaiyeola represented by Ms Gloria Ekpo, empahsised the need for resilient seeds regulations.

“We must act with a sense of urgency to strengthen partnerships for resilient seeds regulations through catalytic investments in the seeds sector.

“Also, we must tackle high level insecurity for sustainable and inclusive seeds systems and agricultural transformation in Nigeria,” Jaiyeola said.

NAN/Nneka Ukachukwu