The National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) has delisted and withdrawn the operational license of 103 seed entrepreneurs out of 314 seed enterprises in Nigeria.
The Director General, Dr. Philip Olusegun Ojo, addressing journalists, Friday in Abuja, said the Council has the responsibility to recertify the seed companies and that companies are registered does not mean that they should go to sleep.
According to him, the action was necessary to further strengthen the seed industry and ensure that only serious minded entrepreneurs with genuine seed industry vision and farmers interest have the mandate of the NASC and therefore eligible to participate in seed related activities of government, projects, donors, aid related programme.
“A company that refuse to produce seeds for two years, and did not renew its licence; these are the companies that can no longer be tolerated in the industry because they are not doing the needful in the business of seed production.”
He explained that there was high expectation for the passage of the Plant Variety Protection Bill currently before the National Assembly. This we are doing in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the National Assembly and other relevant stakeholders.
“We will enhance our Seed Surveillance and compliance activities to ensure only improved certify seeds are sold to farmers.
“This we have already started as our team just this week returned from Osun state. Our message here to all fake seed operators is that we are just around the corner to stop their nefarious act.
“This year we are coming with a new innovation to track adoption of varieties in the country. With the support of BMGF we will join Ethiopia and Tanzania to make effort towards institutionalizing the monitoring of varietal adoption, turnover and performance using genotyping (DNA Finger-Printing) to trace effectiveness of varieties released and adopted by farmers.”
