NASC Reiterate Commitment to provide Quality Seeds for farmers

The National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) in Nigeria has reiterated its commitment to providing quality seeds for Nigerian farmers through the electronic seed authentication and certification platform by training certification officers in the country.

The Director General of the council Mr, Phillip Olusegun Ojo gave the assurance during a capacity building training for Seed Certification officers on electronic Seed Authentication and certification held in conjunction with Emuddy global Nigeria limited, in Abuja Nigeria’s capital.

Dr. OJo said Seed electronic authentication has become the new high in product verification and tracking in the world, that is why it is necessary for the country to lunch the system in order to improve the standard of Agriculture in Nigeria

“Electronic authentication has become the new high in product verification and tracking in the world over. The NASC supported by partners like AGRA came up with the seedcodex as a management tool for authentication of seed genuineness by our end users in this case the farmers. To date over 600,000 codex tags has been collected by seed companies through some of you, this shows that the process has come to stay. The use of seed tracker will from 2021 become the sole tool for seed field inspection and certification”

He stressed that seed certification is very important to quality assurance while noting that the council would ensure that Nigeria farmers get quality seed for the betterment of the country’s Agriculture.

“Seed certification is very crucial to ensuring that quality assurance is maintained. The council is very particular about both the field standards and the lab standards and we are not resting on our oars till we ensure our dear farmers get value for their money by ensuring that high quality, disease free and biosecure seeds are available to the smallest farmer no matter the location in Nigeria”

While acknowledging the importance of training and retraining, Dr. Ojo said Capacity building is a major thrust of any organization that wants to be upward and mobile and the council is taking it serious.

“Today you are all gathered here to have your skills developed on the electronic authentication and certification process. This is because the management recognize the need for a robust and traceable seed information data and management as expected of our institution. Apart from making your schedule easier the electronic certification process will provide a reliable system with enhanced traceability and transparency”

The Director General while acknowledging that the council is working assiduously to make working environment conducive for certification officers, reminded them of the importance of asserting themselves on the job.

Participant were selected from the six geo- political zones of the country to ensure availability of Certification Officers in the regions and states.