Business
Group Lists Path To Food Security
The National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) has
identified seed security as a precursor to food security in the West African
sub-region.
The Executive Director of the council, Mr Anthony Olatokun,
said this recently in Abuja at the training programme on Software and Variety
Release Management system for desk officers.
The training is in line with the Seed Policy Enhancement in
African Region (SPEAR) project.
According to him, it is the responsibility of West African
countries to forge a way forward to ensure that farmers in the region have
adequate access to good quality seed.
He called on stakeholders to work together to proffer
solution to the problems associated with the availability and use of improved
seeds.
He explained that the training was aimed at securing
stakeholders’ ownership of the variety release management system, to facilitate
its smooth implementation.
“The expectations of this training, therefore, is for all
stakeholders to fully understand the concept of the programme and improve the
programme design with relevant inputs.”
Olatokun maintained that input from stakeholders would
facilitate the implementation and enhancement of the ownership of the programme
by all stakeholders.
He said that the training had provided an opportunity to
discuss issues of mutual interest with participants from the National
Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) and Variety Release Committee (VRC).
Earlier the Registrar, National Centre for Genetic Resources
and Biotechnology (NACGRAB), Mr Wasiu Odofin, said that the agency was aware of
the scientific efforts being made to develop improved and new seed varieties.
He urged participants to produce a comprehensive list of all
the crop varieties currently or retro-actively released in the country.
Odofin said that this would serve as reference guide for
plant breeders, research institutions and other interested organised private
sector.
A lecturer at the Iowa State University, U.S. and guest
speaker at the training, Prof. Yuh-Yuan
Shyy, explained that the exercise was Information Technology (IT) based.
He said that the desk officers would access the new variety
release through software that would be uploaded on the computers.
‘’The desk officers can then go on to train the crop breeder
through the software.’’
About 20 participants attended the two-day training
programme.