Council trains NYSC members, others on seed certification, quality control

NASC’s Director, Seed Information and Capacity Building, Mr. Kehinde Adelugba, said in Jos that the training was in line with the federal government’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA), adding that, with the ATA, the issue of the seed to drive the transformation agenda came up and it was discovered that the quantity of seed required is […]

NASC’s Director, Seed Information and Capacity Building, Mr. Kehinde Adelugba, said in Jos that the training was in line with the federal government’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA), adding that, with the ATA, the issue of the seed to drive the transformation agenda came up and it was discovered that the quantity of seed required is enormous.
“Prior to the ATA, the number of officers available to certify the seeds was not enough, not to talk of now that the expected quantity has increased. And inasmuch as government is not recruiting more staff, we thought that another area we can augment the number of staff doing certification and quality control is to make use of members of NYSC,” he said.
Adelugba also said that the corps members being trained to complement or augment the number of certification officers of NASC on the field were those with agriculture as discipline.
The director said that it was based on the inadequacy that the minister of agriculture approved the engagement of 100 corps members to bridge the gap.
He said that seed certification was a specialised area that was not taught in universities and even where it was done, it would be at the rudimentary level. He added that the training would give the corps members the adequate knowledge to carry out their activities effectively and efficiently on the field.
In his remark, North Central Regional Head of NASC, Mr. Olusola Adeleye, said that the corps members, certification officers and seed companies were drawn from the six states, namely; Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau and the FCT (Abuja) that comprise the zone.
On his part, Operations Manager, Feedall Integrated Service, Mr. Daniel Olawumi, said that the seed company believed that the training would boost seed production in the country, and help in the provision of high quality seeds for farms, which would in turn have multiplier effects on the agricultural sector.