The National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) has warned farmers in the country not to use substandard seeds or risk being poor for life.
The Director of Seed Inspectorate, Agbola Adebayo made the disclosure in Minna, shortly after an exercise where the council confiscated fake seeds being sold in markets in Minna, Niger State.
He explained that farmers who purchased such kind of seeds would suffer a lot of losses and even become poorer than they were before planting the seeds.
“The impact of farmers using substandard seed is enormous. You reduce them to being poor farmers for life, because the yield they will get cannot justify the investment they put in.
“Oftentimes, they cannot take care of the cost of production, talk more of getting interest which would improve the standard of their living.
“The effect is enormous on an individual and the country. Low yield affects the GDP and food security. Because the seed are substandard, the farmers will not get the stimulated yield and it means we are calling for famine,” the director insisted.
He explained that most of the seeds sold to farmers in some markets across Minna are substandard.
The Director told journalists that at the Garatu market in Bosso local government area, his Team confiscated about 138 kilograms of maize seeds.
According to him, before the exercise, the Seed Council dispatched a surveillance team ahead of them to identify the markets where substandard seeds are sold.
“The exercise is to come and enforce the seed standard to ensure that people comply with the rules and regulations, the dos and donts of the seed business.
“What we noticed is that the seed that is being displayed to be sold here are substandard and that is why we confiscated them. They did not meet the quality specification as enshrined with the law. They did not meet any of our standards,” Adebayo noted.
The Director further stated that the NASC has the mandate to regulate the seed industry, stressing “we are in the state to observe seed activities, visit seed markets and evaluate the level of compliance by the players in these seed markets, retail outlets and shops.”
“For a seed to meet the standards, it has to be packed, tagged and processed according to specifications and undergo tagging by the Seed Council,” he added.