By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan
The Director-General, National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) Dr Olusegun Ojo on Monday hinted that the agency is determined to enhance quality seeds production in Nigeria.
Dr Ojo dropped this hint in Ibadan while speaking at a -week training of staff of the Council in conjunction with the Department of Crop Protection and Environmental Biology, (CPEB) University of Ibadan (UI).
The NASC DG maintained that the one week long training is to ensure production of improved quality seeds which is one of the mandates of the agency and that it will focused on seed research methodology, data analysis and reporting.
Represented by the NASC Director of Seed Coordination and Management Services, Dr Jimmy Zidafamor, the Director General states that ” the training is to strengthen collaboration with other agencies to provide quality seeds to farmers.”
“We want to equip the staff more as well as deepen their knowledge on seed research, methodology and data analysis so that they can go back to do the needful on the field.We are responsible for the regulation and coordination of seed industry”, he said.
Dr Ojo added, ” we have the seed components and take research on seeds very seriously because without seeds there will be no crop to protect.We have a crop of staff, green hands, to be trained and we have been able to set up our research works with the trainings,”
The Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ibadan, Professor Stella Odebode, in emphasizing the importance of seeds said without them the country would not be food secured.
“It’s with the seed multiplication that we can produce adequate food for the populace and export. This training is apt because it will impact positively on farmers and agriculture sector in general,” she said.
In his remarks, the Director of Research Management Office, University of Ibadan, Professor Ayodele Jegede, stressed that any nation that does not focus on research would be far away from development.
Professor Jegede said it’s unethical for one to collect data without analysing and reporting it to disseminate the information, saying, ” when your data is of no quality it will automatically affect the quality of data you are going to produce, so the basis of your report should depend on the quality of your data analysis.
“Researchers need to always check their data and do literature review which is very critical in carrying effective research,” he said.
The Head of Crop Protection and Environmental Biology, University of Ibadan, Professor Rasheed Awodoyin, disclosed that the training is the third of its kind since 2017.
“The first one was held in 2017, second one in 2019 and this is the third, I’m optimistic that the success we will record in this one will supercede others.Crop protection starts from production, provision of quality seeds, our department will continue to support the NASC in its mandate,” he said.
Similarly, the workshop facilitator, Dr Morufat Balogun, says that Nigeria is at the fore front in terms of seed production, research and improvement.
Balogun commended the NASC for always being in motion, especially in the aspect of training its staff.
“The workshop is loaded with worthy resource persons to handle the training. There will also be feedback from participants at the end, of which we will work with later,”
