…resolve to bring improved seeds to farmers’ domain

By Gabriel Ewepu, Abuja

As population continues to rise in geometric progression and food production at arithmetic sequence, especially in Nigeria, the National Agricultural Seed Council, NASC,  West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development, CORAF,  Partnership for Agricultural Research, Education and Development, PAIRED, Monday, came together to boost capacity of agric extension officers, seed producers, researchers and farmers on best practices for seed production in order to upscale food production and sustainability.

The Director General, NASC, Dr Philip Ojo who was represented by his Senior Technical Adviser, Dr Folarin Okelola, in an opening remarks at the ‘Three-day Training on Quality Seed Production’ organised by CORAF, said participants at the training should ensure the knowledge they will receive is also cascaded down to those farmers and seed producers in the communties where  it is needed.

He said: “We look forward all the time to build capacity and that is why we are very happy in facilitating this training for CORAF, and we are happy with the relationship in CORAF, National Cereal Research Institute, NCRI, Institute of Agricultural Research, IAR, and we expect that there 

will be more of these trainings and this training will also be cascaded down to those people on your platforms, and we will continue to get feedbacks from you to support you in your endeavours to ensure that Nigerians have good quality seeds.

“We have the mandate we ensure we usher in best quality seeds to Nigerian farmers, and this today is a training on IP platform persons and individuals on quality seed production so it is of importance to us to train more people in the culture of quality seeds production. So we are very happy to be here and to impart knowledge on people that are closer to the farmers so that through this training they can train others and they can of course in turn produce quality seeds that will mean better yields better productivity for Nigerian agriculture.”

He also noted with concern that population of the world is fast growing and in few more years it may hit almost 10 billion.

“Over 5 billion from that population will come from Asia, and about 2.5 billion will come from Africa, and of the population in Africa, Nigeria will account for a larger percentage of that increase in population in Africa. 

“What does this mean? It means we need to produce more food for our people, not just for food security but also for nutrition security. 

“We know a lot of young ones that are malnourished, some people are obsessed, some people are underweight, and all these are because people don’t have the good quality food on the table and your roles, responsibilities and duty is very important in ensuring that these challenges are solved and mitigated. 

“So I enjoin you to take this training very serious and please ensure that you take the knowledge back to the people that need it in the grassroots.

“Let us join hands together to produce quality seeds”, he stated.

Meanwhile, Executive Director, CORAF, Dr AbdouTenkouano, represented by Senior Scaling Specialist, CORAF, Dr Caroline Makamto Sobgui, in a remark, said, “Training on quality seed production is very important in Nigeria and Africa. 

“We still realized that agriculture production by our farmers is very low. 

“One of the factors responsible for this is that farmers use low quality seeds or not improved crop seed variety.

“If you want to improve access of quality seeds to farmers is important to first of all make sure there is a large number of people who know how to produce quality seeds.

“And if this people are close to farmers it will be a good thing.

“Within the PAIRED project that is actually funding this training, we have adopted the option of train the trainers knowing that we cannot directly train the farmers, although we have lead farmers in this training but they will get back to train the other farmers who becomes a large number of people or group who will know how to produce quality seeds.”

He also added that the impact of the training will not be seen immediately in yields but after two or three cropping seasons the positive effects would be seen, and added that it is hoped that the participants at the training know that they are trained as trainers to pass on the knowledge to other farmers.

However, according to him, CORAF has provided over $100,000 as funding for four training programmes in Nigeria’s agricultural sector. 

Also in a remark, the Coordinator, PAIRED, Institute for Agricultural Research, IAR, Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, Zaria, Dr Nasiru Kura, explained that main target of the project is to educate farmers in modern techniques by giving them the modern way of crop practices, particularly in maize production, and that IAR has maize production as one of its mandate crops, particularly for the North West region of Nigeria.

He said, “We had a lot of trainings, capacity buildings of the farmers of the staff as well of the Institute and also we do hope that the variety that we have been using in these pet projects have gone far in the various IP locations. 

“And one of the things that is very important now is seed production. That was a question during the evaluation of the project by an independent body that what is the next expectation? 

“I always stress that the importance of community seed production because we realized that farmers have the urge to produce the crop but the problem is that they do not have even the knowledge of having quality seed. 

“The seed companies are a bit far away from the communities that we are doing and looking at the economic situation, maybe the prices of this seeds from the private company may a bit high or unaffordable by common farmers.

“So by empowering our IP farmers in community seed production will definitely enhance the circulation of improved and quality seed within the farmers IP so that at least the farmers will have the basic techniques to produce and even marketing of the seed.”

However, he pointed that before the programme started, most farmers, were used to bad agricultural practices as  they don’t plan on the right time for cultivation, use of quality seeds, how to apply the correct fertilizer, application of insecticide, the right time to do weed control management, and other vital techniques in cropping.

Meanwhile, in another remark, the Executive Director, Research Institute, NCRI, Dr Aliyu Umar, represented by PAIRED Project Coordinator, National Cereals Research Institute, NCRI, Audu Dogo, asserted that the participants were the best selected and can be relied on from the various IPs.

“If you look at our structure, targeted youth and gender because the agricultural productivity, if food security must be achieved we should go and tailor towards the youth. Not just engaging them is but part of reducing the unemployment that we are facing in this country, and when we can get them on board just like we are saying when we empower them it will create jobs for them”, Umar said.

One of the participants, an Agricultural Extension Agent, Plateau State Agricultural Development Programme, PADP,  Bampis Godfrey, said, “My expectation is as I  came for the training is to get knowledge on producing quality seeds for our farmers because that has been the problem over years; farmers buy from each farmers because that has been the problem over years, farmers buy from each other and the yield is not encouraging. 

“So we always advise our farmers to get good quality seeds because it would help them in the farming business because farming is a business now.”

However, she pointed some challenges faced on the field include farmers’ skeptical attitude to accept and adopt new seed varieties, and no proper sensitisation campaigns for far, inadequate good quality seeds from government, and others.