The National Agricultural Seed Council of Nigeria (NASC) on Wednesday in Kano presented certificates to 125 community-based producers in North-Western region of Nigeria.
Presenting the certificates to the groups, the North-West regional manager of the NASC, Mr. Hudu Ubandoma, said that the effort was an approach to empower farmers to produce high yield seeds locally.
He said that the producers were trained and monitored for five years before they were given certificates by the only body approved by the government for certification of seed producers in the country.
According to him, Community-Based Seed Production (CBSP) who are mostly groundnut farmers can now produce locally-preferred improved quality groundnut seeds.
Ubandoma added that NASC will open new windows for local producers to bridge the gap.
The regional director further explained that the seed companies in the country cannot meet the demands of farmers in Nigeria.
He said that another batch of producers would be given certificates in Gombe state, north East Nigeria.
Earlier, the country director of Sasakawa Global 2000, Prof Sani Miko, said that the seed companies in Nigeria could not produce quality and quantity of seeds needed, that is why the government is reaching out to local producers to boost food production.
He advised the producers to take advantage of the certification and produce quality, affordable and accessible seeds to farmers.
“You must be conscious of your responsibility and make sure you earn through quality seeds, don’t cheat,” he advised.
A local producer from Jigawa state, Sani Bello, commended NASC for the gesture and promised to share the knowledge with others and produce quality seeds also.
Another beneficiary from Kebbi state, Muhammad Sani, appealed to the government to provide foundation seeds to enable them produce the quality of seed needed.
Another producer from Katsina, Mairo Idi, also corroborated Sani’s appeal by calling on the government to give them foundation seeds to enable them produce quality seeds.
