As farmers begin planting in the 2022 rain-fed farming season, the National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC), has advised them to use only seeds with SeedCodex, which authenticates genuine seeds.
The agency stated this during its quarterly stakeholders’ meeting, themed: “The SeedCodex: Improved seed quality assurance providing farmers’ value for money,” held under the Collaborative Seed Programme (CSP) in partnership with the Kingdom of the Netherland, to discuss issues in the Nigerian seed system.
According to NASC, the development was a strategic pathway in establishing and institutionalising a functional national seed sector platform to improve sector coordination and governance.
In a virtual presentation, Chief Agricultural Officer on Quality Assurance, NASC, Mr Osho-Lagunju Bankole, explained that farmers and other stakeholders in the sector must understand the SeedCodex concept, saying it was an electronic authentication tool for all crops, which is mandatory for all seed classes traded in Nigeria, for traceability, elimination of adulteration and to entrench integrity of traded seeds.
He said, “Seedcodex stands on the legality of seed law 2019, section 32, subsection 1, which states, In addition to the labelling requirement under section 31, certified seeds shall not be placed in the market unless they are labelled with a certification label issued by the official certification service or authorised private certification body.”
“With this law, every seed traded in Nigeria that does not have a codex is more or less categorised as adulterated or fake seeds. In every traded seed market, there’s a need for a label, and the label must measure up to international standards.The seed council label starts with a paper label.”
According to him, the issue of adulteration of processes and instrument has been a major challenge in the Nigerian seed industry, saying the agency found out that fake seed breeders supply seeds that are not traceable and present them to vulnerable farmers, who in turn do not get the value for their money.
He said SeedCodex reduces the cumbersome process involved in ensuring that the agency gets certified seeds to farmers, which requires a lot of paperwork in addition to being traceable.
“In the present dispensation where everyone is going digital, the NASC thought it wise that the best way is to go digital to solve all these issues and to correct the failed safe system of labelling and digitalisation of operations,” Bankole added.
Agro Nigeria