The National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) has trained seed certification officers in line with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation Development (OECD) standards as part of its efforts to ensure the country benefits from the $86 billion global seed trade.
This will help checkmate the importation of substandard seeds into the country and increase Nigeria’s chances of exporting seeds, thus boosting the country’s foreign exchange earnings.
Although the country has started some level of seed export within the West African region, it is yet to benefit much from the international market where the country battles trust challenges.
However, with Nigeria aspiring to be a member of OECD, the international market will no longer have any reason to question the standard of seeds coming from the country.
The Director General of the National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC), Dr. Philip Ojo, while speaking at the OECD Seed Skill Capacity Building, said the aim was to train seed certification officers on the standard, certification scheme and inspection activities of OECD.
For Nigeria’s seed industry to be part of the global structure, he stressed, it has to align with the OECD skill such that seed companies can participate in the international seed trade and its regulations.
Ojo stated that the training, which started online last year was to ensure that participants are fully trained in relevant skills, making the physical meeting necessary.
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