The National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) has commenced training Licensed Seed Inspectors (LSI) on the enforcement of quality cassava seeds to enhance food security in Nigeria.
The Director-General of NASC, Dr Ishiak Khalid, stated this in Ibadan on Thursday, at the opening of a two-day training session organized by the council in collaboration with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the workshop had as its theme “Building an Economically Sustainable Integrated Cassava Seed (BASICS-ll) for Cassava Licensed Seed Inspectors.”
Khalid, represented by the South-West Regional Coordinator of NASC, Dr Adekunle Adeseko, said the council had set the pace in cassava seed certification in West Africa.
He stated that it had been improving its efficiency by adopting seed trackers in digital certification, especially in cassava.
Khalid, however, assigned the LSIs the task of ensuring seed quality compliance, noting that the council had been informed about the activities of informal seed entrepreneurs.
Khalid decried about the challenges confronting cassava certification in the southwest zone, the way forward, and the low patronage of seed trackers for new seed entrepreneurs.
“We know that in the South, NASC is in the process of integrating the newly licensed cassava growers and processors, as they are yet to fully grasp the need to register their cassava seed fields on the seed tracker for quality assurance.
“Another challenge is the sourcing of cassava seeds from the informal seed sector,” he said.
He noted that awareness creation was a way out of the challenges.
According to him, the council has a paucity of funds to raise awareness about the need to propagate cassava using seeds instead of stems from old plants meant for root production.
Khalid commended the collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which, he said, had been supporting the realisation of the council’s objectives.
The Desk Officer Basics-ll, NASC, Dr Bankole Osho-Lagunju, identified decentralisation of seed quality assurance as a new paradigm that NASC was considering due to a shortage of manpower among the country’s seed producers.
“Having trained personnel like this will complement the NASC officers, bring quality assurance closer to the people, make it more responsive, and create income for those engaged,” he said.
In his goodwill message, Dr Shuaeeb Oyewole, Zonal Coordinator, Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI), Ibadan zonal office, stressed the need for planting high-yield seeds that would enhance optimal harvests.
