Agric Council Warns Against Fake Seeds Importation

In line with its commit
ment to offer quality seeds to farmers, the National Agricultural Seeds Council, (NASC), has warned all seed producers against the distribution of fake seeds.
In a press release that was made available to The Tide by AgroNigeria in Port Harcourt, recently, the Director General of the Council, Dr Olusegun Ojo, said the failure to stop the distribution would result to a six-month jail term or a fine of N0.8 million.
Ojo who gave the warning in Abuja said seeds to be imported must be registered and released with distinct description from the country of origin and foreign operators to register their companies or face the consequences of non-compliance.
“The seed council must be notified on the arrival of imported seed for necessary quality assurance checks and also, the importing companies must have registered with NASC”, he said.
On the sanction, he said first offenders hadto pay N800,000 or serve a jail term of six months adding that if the offender was arrested for the second time, he would be fined N1.6 million or go to jail for two years.
According to him, the council has approved 157 seeds companies of different categories, four large scales, nine medium scales, about 67 small scale and the others are accredited sellers.