Press Release-- Jigawa Govt, farmers agree there are challenges in seed supply system

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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.