The Alliance for Seed Industry of
West Africa (ASIWA) in its quest to expand seed quality frontier recently organized
a meeting in Abuja to sensitize stakeholders on how the national office of the
programme will be set up in the country towards quality improved production through
partnership between the private and public sectors at the value chains of
farmers, processors and marketers.
ASIWA is aimed to achieve an alliance
for Seed Industry in the region towards a sustainable production of improved
quality seeds in the major staple crops for commercial food production just as WASP
seeks to expand the availability of the products from the current 12% to 25%
from 2012 to 2017) with a goal to contributing to the s improvement of
agricultural productivity across the countries of west Africa.
In his speech, the National Project Coordinator,
WAAPP/ WASP, Prof. Damian Chikwendu commended the harmonization of the seeds
rules and regulations as gazetted in Nigeria with emphasis to removing all the
bottle neck hindering market transfer of the seeds from one country to the
other in the region saying that “all this effort may not will the desired
dividend if cross border movement of seed continue to be a night mare.
Permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture
and Rural Development (FMARD) Ach. Sonny Echonono in his address noted the
strategic position of the industry in commercial food production saying the
critical position of quality seeds demand more enhancement and capacity
building towards sustainable agricultural productivity being a genetic potential of the crop plant that
determines the upper limit of yield and the ultimate productivity of
fertilizer, agro- chemicals and other inputs of machines and farming
techniques.
Arc Sonny said “ to achieve the goals and objectives of
the National Agricultural Seed Policy of the Nigerian government which becomes
very important to provide a conducive policy environment of ensuring the
sustenance of a virile National Seeds System and a market-driven seed industry
for the production, processing and marketing of high quality seeds that are
readily available, affordable and accessible to all farmers in irrespective of
their location, there is need to further strengthen the seed system and market,
the seed sector must be fully supported to develop capacity and gain experience
on the entire complex component for an effective and productive industry which
is the fulcrum of the nation’s food security.
Effort must be made to identity relevant issues and bottlenecks related
to the smooth growth of the sector, determine the type of interventions needed
(technological, regulatory and others), to make quality seeds available to
farmers through sustainable system and construct roadmap, with specific
recommendations, to create a sound level, sustainable dissemination, and
strategies for improved crops to resource poor farmers in Nigeria in particular
and West Africa in general”
The Director General, National Seed
Council, Dr. Ojo described ASIWA as a testimony of working partnership between
the NASC and other relevant international organization saying togetherness of
the leading players in the seeds industry would help to galvanize the potential of the sub
sector in the agricultural economy.
Dr Ojo said he is confident that
“ ASIWA will grow to become a solid platform for dialogue on the transformation
of the Nigerian and Regional seed system through collective participation of private sector, national and
regional government agencies, and development stakeholders, capturing the
respective needs, goals, and resources of each other and responds with informed
planning and programming to further develop our national seed sector.”
The WAAPP/WASP – Nigerian National Project
Coordinator, Prof Damian Chikwendu, said that ASIWA marks an epoch in the
effort to develop the seed industry in Nigeria saying “the organisation is
supporting the National Research Institutes to produce adequate good quality
breeder seeds, seeing to the implementation of the 2008 harmonized seed rules
and regulation which is designed to facilitate seed trade in the region, supporting
private seed sector to produce adequate good quality foundation and certified
seeds and forming an inclusive Alliance for Seed Industry in West Africa”
The two day workshop attracted participant from
both private and public organizations including SEEDAN, Agro- input dealers, AFAN, Processors,
Financial Institution, NASC, NAQS, IAR, IAR&T, NGOs, ICRISAT, and WASP as
they were present at the presentation of
the ASIWA’s concept, objective and initiative) being promoted by WAAPP/WASP.
The presentations were thoroughly discussed in relation to the stage of
development and challenges’ facing the Nigerian seed industry.
At the conclusion of the workshop, stakeholders
agreed to domesticate ASIWA national office in Nigeria with these
recommendations.
-
ASIWA has to be domesticated in Nigeria in
order to solidify the seed system in Nigeria and for our seed to move from its
present state to a higher level.
-
Need for all stakeholders to understand the
concept of ASIWA and a need for continuous awareness among stakeholders.
-
Need for continuous advocacy particularly
MDAs agencies to buy into ASIWA concepts and support.
-
The steering committee need to mobilize funds
for the smooth take-off and implementation of ASIWA.
-
The need to appoint competent facilitator to
ensure that the objective and aspiration of ASIWA is actualised.
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The need to bring in other relevant
stakeholders into the seed industry.
-
Stakeholders
agreed to have a National affiliate of ASIWA, collaborating to ensure its
establishment, giving effects to this, an ad-hoc committee was constituted as
shown below.
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