Thursday, October 20, 2016
THE National Agricultural Seeds Council, NASC, has
disclosed plan to establish first Centre of Excellence for Seed Industry,
CoESI, to boost research and production of various seeds for farmers in the
country.
This was stated by the Director General, NASC, Dr.
Philip Ojo, in his welcome address during the visit of two senior officers from
the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, IITA, Dr. Lavar Kumar and
Dr. Hemant Nitturkar, at NASC technical headquarters, Sheda, Abuja.
The two representatives from IITA were at the NASC's
headquarters to make presentations on how the proposed CoESI, would boost
cassava production and value with modern technology that will generate huge
revenues for farmers, processors, and boost food security.
According to Ojo the centre will be of immense
benefit to the seed industry and grow the agricultural sector, if it kicks off.
He also disclosed that the project will cost about
N400 million, which will be in two phases, and already Council has started
canvassing for funds from development partners.
He said: "We propose the establishment of
NASC-CoESI – Nigeria, a strategic centre for seed industry development and seed
business incubation, to enable both public and private individuals and
smallholder seed companies to bootstrap themselves to help solve food
insecurity.
"We have resolved to build a strong centre
which will be the hub of seed regulation in West Africa because there is no
CoESI in the sub-region, and this is going to be number one and first of its
kind. We are resilient and focused to put in place a world standard centre,
which will readily make available seeds to farmers.
"In doing so, they will acquire the financial
means to educate their children, have access to quality healthcare, and
purchase technology to enter the global digital society."
According to him the centre will add value and more
knowledge for people who want to embark on career development in the seed
industry.
"The Centre of Excellence will enhance our
current industry manpower gap and conduct diploma and certificate programs in
Seed Science and Technology. NASC-CoESI will offer short courses for public and
private sector experts in seed certification, seed testing, seed quality
control, seed storage and handling, seed business management and provide
practical field hands on training on seed field establishment and management
plus demonstrations' and promotional activities", he said.
Meanwhile, the NASC's boss also unveiled the Cassava
Seed Tracker System, CSTS, which according to him will help check the spread of
fake cassava seeds, and could be used to guard the cassava value chain.
"The cassava tracker is very important
instrument for us to be able to seed cassava and trace it from the beginning to
the end. It will look at the whole value chain.
"Particularly, I can sit down in my office and
see what is happening in the value chain, the number of hectares inspected, and
that is also very important aspects of the cassava tracker. We want to even go
beyond cassava, and that will be for every crop, which we are talking about
e-certification of all crops", he stated.
On the CSTS, Dr. Lava Kumar said the new system will
enable NASC develop high cassava seeds for farmers.
"The development of technology in cassava seed
monitoring, cassava seed tracker are being tailored in monitoring quality seed
production and improve the quality of the seed" Kumar added.
In his explanation about the CSTS, Dr. Hemant
Nitturkar said, the innovation will bridge the yield gap causing huge losses of
millions of dollars and give farmers value for money.
SOURCE: VANGUARD