The African Technology Foundation (AATF) and Seed Entrepreneurs Association of Nigeria (SEEDAN) have collaborated to commercialise improved seeds variety produced by Nigerian scientists.
The effort is to make quality seeds available for farmers to achieve food security.
Hosting SEEDAN’s new executives in Abuja, the AATF Regional Representative for West Africa, Dr Jean Baptiste, said the product to commercialise included the Pod Borer Resistant (PBR) and cowpea developed in Nigeria.
Other products, he said, were the Tela Maize which he noted would be released by the end of the year.
Dr Baptiste, however, called on the Nigeria seed industry to support agricultural technology, so it could spill over to other countries still hesitating in adopting gene technology.
He reiterated the need for seed entreprises to take their marketing strategy to farmers in hinterland.
He further noted that AATF was ready to work with seed entreprises for Nigeria and Africa to achieve commercialisation of those varieties that could help improve food security and tackle malnutrition in the country and other parts of the continent.
“We hope that we’ll be able to collaborate in a synergistic way so that we can achieve commercialisation of a certain number of products AATF is promoting in Nigeria.
“And among those products we have PBR cowpea, hybrid rice and the Tela maize that will be released by the end of this year or January 2024.
SEEDAN President, Yusuf Ado-kibiya, lamented that they produced enough seedlings but there was no market to sell.
He called on the government to make relevant policies, funds and the enabling environment for provision of quality seeds.
Ado-kibiya said they would unify all seed companies just like other countries for Nigeria to achieve food security.
He added that the universities and research institutes had been dormant for years due to lack of funds but expressed the hope of partnering with them to do more research to produce quality seeds for Nigerian farmers
Source: News Agency of Nigeria