Agric minister stresses need for quality seeds

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Sabo Nanono has stressed that if quality seeds are not provided to farmers there cannot be meaningful progress in the nation’s agriculture sector. He made the remark at a retreat on seed at the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR), Zaria, Kaduna State. The retreat which ended yesterday […]

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Sabo Nanono has stressed that if quality seeds are not provided to farmers there cannot be meaningful progress in the nation’s agriculture sector.

He made the remark at a retreat on seed at the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR), Zaria, Kaduna State.

The retreat which ended yesterday was part of the effort by the minister and the various agriculture committees at the National Assembly to strengthen the seed system, which stakeholders believe is central to good farm yield.

Nanono said he ordered the retreat to better understand the major issues that have slowed significant progress in the country seed industry with the view to addressing some of the challenges with the sense of urgency.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Abdullahi Adamu reiterated the commitment of the legislative arm to quick passage of the various bills pending at the National Assembly into law in order further strengthen the industry.

Adamu particularly expressed concern over the neglect of the nation indigenous food crops by the Nigerian research community and called for a review of those researches to increase the potentials and potency of our indigenous crops.

The President, All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Architect Kabiru Ibrahim and the leadership of the seed entrepreneurs led by Richard Folarin called on the government to look at various ways of increasing funding to the industry and build the capacity of seed companies and producers to produce high quality seed.