The Director-General of the National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC), Dr Philip Ojo has said that its new electronic seed tracking system would sanitize the seed market and curb seed adulteration.
The new technology called Seedcodex allows purchasers of seeds to scratch a silver panel on the seed container, unveil a number, then send the number to a particular number through SMS, then get instant feedback on the quality of the seed.
Dr Ojo, while speaking with journalists at the Consortium Planning Meeting on the Implementation of the NASC Seedcodex in Early Generation Seeds, said the process would rid the seed market of fakes.
“We are talking about a situation where we want to sanitize the market, particularly ensuring that farmers have access to good quality seeds that they would be able to authenticate the seeds immediately they are buying.
“So, seeds are not sold in open containers, they are sold in closed containers and those containers are tagged, but unlike what we have in the past when we have two certification tags, one inside and one outside.
“We have now decided to produce a tag which is going to be attached to the container outside which cannot remove, and it has a silver panel that you will remove, scratch unveil a number which you send to a dedicated number, and immediately, the purchaser would be advised as to the content of the container, you will see immediately the name of the producer, where was it produced and all the quality parameters, that’s exactly what we are saying”, Dr Ojo explained.
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Furthermore, Dr Ojo said: “the question everywhere ask today is the issue of low yield of agricultural productivity in Nigeria. This was recently mentioned again at the highest quarters in the Nigerian polity.
“That is exactly why we are here today to discuss a way forward from our own end to contribute to the improvement in the yield of crops in Nigeria by ensuring that we give the best early generation seeds.
“There are other issues but this one we have come to deliberate on today, the issue of introducing the Seedcodex our turn-key electronic authentication system is of paramount importance”.
While identifying seed adulteration as a threat to the collective progress of the seed industry, Dr Ojo said all complaints from farmers on fake seeds would stop through the deployment of effective seed tracking system.
“We, however, do have a lot of threats inhibiting our collective progress, for which reason we are all here today. In recent years, there has been an increase in complaints from farmers on sharp practices, such as counterfeiting and fake seeds, fraudulent labelling, regulatory offences.
“All the complains need to stop and if it will we must do the right things and one of the right things is to provide efficient tracking and tracing of seeds which the Seedcodex will help us to do.
Feel free to ask questions and we are ready to listen to you,” he added.