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Both
the government and farmers in Jigawa State have agreed that there were problems
with the seed processing and supply system with regards to quality, quantity
and timeliness of availability, in the state.
While
the state commissioner for agriculture and natural resources, Alhaji Kabiru Ali
spoke when members of a non-governmental organization, National Advocacy Group
for Access to Quality Seeds paid a courtesy visit to his office in Dutse, the
farmers bared their minds at an event tagged Farmers’ Dialogue organized by the
organization, earlier, in Dutse, Jigawa State.
Alhaji
Ali who said even though the suppliers brought quality seeds as samples, and
government paid for quality seeds, what they usually supplied was another thing
entirely, which was inferior in quality, he also called for early maturing
seeds that would bridge the gap for farmers affected by the floods that washed
away about 125,000 hectares of crops.
The
farmers complained of not being sure of the quality of seeds supplied for
planting and late release of seeds saying that “if you want to plant on time,
you have to reserve your seeds from previous harvest”, a situation which made
them to resort to planting grains.
They
also expressed displeasure at not being part of decision-making in the purchase
of seeds by the state-owned Jigawa Agricultural Supplies Company (JASCO)
Limited, noting that all they heard on radio was usually a terse statement asking
them to go and purchase their needed seeds from JASCO, “no meeting, no
consultation”.
At
the dialogue, efforts made to reach the National Agricultural Seed Council
(NASC) via its helpline 07000073337 took time in yielding results; also, it was
observed that the call rate was higher than that of regular calls and only one
out of eight people who tried got a reply.
The
farmers expressed confidence in the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR),
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and International Institute for Tropical
Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan at supplying quality seeds said they couldn’t trust
many seed companies selling seeds in the state.
They
also acknowledged the existence of the state-owned research institute in
Kazaure, they complained that the seeds produced there were not certified even
though of high quality, and therefore called for seed testing facility to be
installed in the state just as they asked the government to empower the
institute to produce more seeds.
The
farmers also complained of the non-transparent ways the farmers’ associations’
deal with farmers, noting that they (the farmers) were excluded from having a
say in decision-making.
Some
of the farmers later suggested that in order to curb the incidences of
supplying of adulterated or fake seeds, the packaging must be properly labeled
to indicate the suppliers and that the
Community Seed Production programme been managed by IFAD be studied and
replicated for all crops and all over the state and taken to NASC for adoption.
The
National Coordinator of the group, Mr. Celestine Okeke said the meeting with
the Jigawa state government was aimed at building relationships and that it
would be an ongoing adding that it was also to add value to right quality of
seeds going to farmers, and also the needed amount to be allocated and released
for seeds purchase against the 2019 planting season.
The
National Advocacy Group for Access to Quality Seeds is PERL/DFID funded
programme.
Deinde
Ayeni
National
Media Head.
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