IAR&T-Centre of Excellency for improved seeds for self sufficiency in food production

 Seed Industry Development in Nigeria has become issues of critical importance in the Agricultural Sector.  It plays a frontline role in Nation development in terms of food security.  Agricultural research activities in most countries of Africa involve varietal development, its testing, release and registration.  Seed security strategies for Food Security Programmes enhance regular flow of seeds of staple food crops to the farmers.  The Institute of Agricultural Research and Training adopts a multidisciplinary approach to develop technologies directed at enhancing agricultural productivity with efficient low level external farming inputs.

The Institute is committed to producing high quality Breeders and Foundation Seeds for the use of seed companies to produce certified seed for production of grains by farmers.  In order to achieve high quality seed production, the Institute has six seed production stations located in five states across various agro-ecologies of South Western and Central Nigeria.  These are Ilora (Derived Savannah) and Kishi (Southern Guinea Savannah) in Oyo State; Ikenne and Ile-Ife (Rain Forest) in Ogun and Osun States respectively; Orin-Ekiti (High Rain Forest) in Ekiti State and Ballah (Southern Guinea Savannah) in Kwara State.By extension of her activities in developing seed industry, the Institute has developed adaptable disease resistant and high yielding varieties of maize and cowpea that have addressed production constraints of farmers.  It has also collaborated with other International Research Organizations such as International Institute for Tropical Agriculture to develop a number of maize and soybean varieties.  

Generally, harvesting of crops and threshing of soybeans, cowpea and kenaf or shelling of maize are carried out at the Institute’s Outstations.  They are afterward transported to the seed processing section of the Institute in Ibadan for processing.  The seeds brought from Outstations are allowed to undergo drying to maintain optimum moisture content of between 8 – 12% depending on seed type.  This eases machine processing, prevents seed germination, and allows the seeds to retain maximum qualities with genetic purity, viability, germination potentials, physical, analytical and storage qualities.  It also ensures prevention of diseases and insect infestations during storage.

 The Breeder and Foundation seeds are weighed and stacked on pallets separately.  They are further labelled given the name of the crop, the name of the Station where it was produced, varietal name, lot number, total number of bagged seed brought, field weight, date the seeds were received, etc.  Furthermore, samples of the seeds are taken to the Seed Testing Laboratory to ascertain the moisture content and other qualities like viability, germinability, seed vigour, etc.

Seed processing involves cleaning the seed samples of extraneous materials, drying them to optimum moisture levels, testing their germination and packaging them in appropriate standard containers for conservation and distribution.

The seeds with required safe moisture level are then cleaned by a machine called CLIPPER CLEANER which removes all extraneous materials that came with the seeds from the field, viz: broken cobs, straws, thrashes, broken seeds and weed seeds and other inert materials.  The cleaned seeds by this machine are conveyed by a specially designed conveyor belt into a DESTONER MACHINE that removes all stones from the seed lot if there is any.  The cleaned seeds are further conveyed directly into a machine called GRAVITY SEPARATOR that separate or grade seeds into sizes.  The bigger seeds are collected separately at a point as a grade A seed, the medium size seeds are also collected at another point as grade B seeds while broken cobs, and other extraneous matters not removed by the cleaning machine are collected as impurities termed Discards.

The Institute has standard processing plant equipped with multi seed cleaner and gravity separator that ensure prompt and timely seed processing of the seeds.  An air conditioned seed store equipped with mobile dehumidifier is used to maintain conducive seed storage environment while thermohygrometer is used to monitor the storage condition.  Quality has been the watchword of the Institute seed unit.  This has been possible with the standard seed testing laboratory used for internal quality control.

The grade A seeds are sold to Seed Companies and farmers for planting.  While grade B seeds are termed “GRAINS” which are not fit for planting but fit for consumption by both man and livestock.  After cleaning and separation, the seeds are weighed and packaged in 50 kg bags.  It is then treated with Aluminum phosphide against insect attacks and tagged with appropriate information such as Crop name, Varietal name, Germination percentage, Lot number, Seed class, etc.  These information on the TAGs are obtained from the National Agricultural Seed Council of Nigeria that is responsible to certify all the Institute’s seed production.

The seed bag is usually sealed using sealing machine or sewed by using bag sewer machine.

The packaged seed is then trolleyed to the cold room that has already been cleaned, washed, dried and fumigated for storage.

The bagged seeds in the cold room are stacked on pallet, avoiding them touching the ground or the walls to allow spaces for air circulation.In the cold room temperature range is maintained between 21^oC and below and a relative humidity of 30% and below, which have been found ideal for short term seed storage.  We monitor these two critical parameters for seed storage by using an instrument called Thermohygrometer.The Institute has two cold rooms for seed storage, one for Breeder seed and the other for Foundation seed to avoid mix up and contaminations.  Routinely, we check our store for insect infestation every month and seed viability every three months.At the beginning of raining season, farmers and Seed Companies patronize the Institute for stored good quality seeds.

The improved varieties are available in the Institute for farmers to grow in different agro ecologies of Nigeria.  Due to the quality of work done in IAR&T, it has consistently received patronage and support from different seed initiatives such as Alliance for Green Revolution of Africa (AGRA), West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP) and West Africa Seed Programme (WASP).  Seed Certification Officers of National Agricultural Seeds Council, South Western Region has closely and consistently monitored seed production activities of the Institute.  Other agencies such as ADPs, Universities and Research Organizations have relied on the Institute for seed supply.  Since 2012 to date WAAPP has indented and collected 18 metric tonnes and 92 metric tonnes of breeder and foundation seed of maize respectively from the Institute while WASP had collected 9 metric tonnes of breeder and foundation seed of maize from the Institute.Also, in line with the objective of the Institute to develop manpower for seed industries, the Institute has facilitated or supported training of some Plant Breeders, Seed Scientists and Agronomists who have been well trained as certified officers for seed production.   They have in turn trained over 120 other relevant stakeholders on different seed related topics such as Agro Practices in Seed Production, Seed Production in Self-Pollinating Crops, Seed Production in Cross-Pollinating Crops, Seed Testing, Certification and Quality Control, Seed Processing and Storage, and Seed Distribution and Marketing. It is worthy of note that the improved seeds are always given to secondary schools in the South Western region as a mean of encouraging the use of quality seeds among the younger generation.

The Institute seed production is confronted with a number of constraints/challenges such as, how to improve the operational efficiency of our tractors and farm implements, lack of 10 tonnes truck for transporting seed from production station to our processing plant in Ibadan, lack of supplementary irrigation facilities to produce off season seeds, need of some vital processing equipment in our processing plant and seed testing facilities for quality control.

The management of the Institute under the leadership of the dynamic and erudite scholar,            Prof. James Alabi Adediran is leaving no stone unturned to seek for support to surmount the challenges we have in seed production and processing in IAR&T, Ibadan.

Agricultural stakeholders in the country and Sub-Sahara Africa interested in improved seeds of maize, cowpea, soybean and kenaf should feel free to contact the Executive Director of the Institute.