THE National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) has commenced a move to join the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which will give way for Nigeria to explore the global seed industry.
This move is also expected to allow more foreign seed companies to produce seeds in Nigeria and sell to other countries, having the backing of OECD.
At the end of Practical training of Seed Certification Officer in Abuja by NASC in conjunction with OECD, the Director General of NASC, Dr Philip Ojo told journalists that the training is an OECD seed scheme capacity building programme to train our seed certification officers on the standard and certification scheme and inspection activities of OECD.
“The reason is that we in the industry must be part of the global structure, and the way to go is the OECD scheme so that seed companies here can participate in International seed trade, and there are rules and regulations concerning this, that is exactly what this training is all about”, Dr Ojo stated.
He said a total of thirty persons have been trained so far, “we have many seed certification officers, this is train the trainer training”, he added
Director Seed Certification and Quality Control at NASC, Dr Ishaq Khalid, said the aim of the training is for Nigeria to take advantage of global seed trade.
He said Nigeria as of today has a restricted market in West Africa for seed trade due to a standard issue which is currently being addressed.
“We are principally targeting seed trade, if you observe our market particularly the vegetable seeds, we hardly have made in Nigeria seeds, you will see all vegetable seeds standard and substandard from every part, making this place a dumping ground.
“Nigeria has to take its place in the global seed industry, it is a source to also earn foreign exchange, we encourage foreign investors to come and produce the seeds here and market in other countries because we want to create jobs.
“The question of substandard seeds will also phase out because if you are a member of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), if your seed is coming to Nigeria, it must not be below the minimum standard.
“Nigeria has started some level of international seed trade, particularly within the West African Sub Region, we were not able to go further because they do not believe in our standard, now that we are aspiring to be member of the OECD, they will not be looking at our seed like Nigerian standard, rather as OECD standard.
“In Nigeria we already have some international seed companies, so they know that anywhere they go to trade these seeds, they will be OECD standard, our indigenous companies are not doing badly too, we want them to very used to this standard”, he noted.
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