2020 planting: NASC promises improved seeds to farmers

 In a bit for quick intervention to increasing productivity to checkmate Covid 19 impacts on food security, the National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) has promised to release about 81,000 metric tons of improved seeds that will cut across crops to farmers for 2020 planting season.


The Director General (DG) of the council, Dr. Philip Ojo disclosed this during a zoom media briefing held yesterday.

 Dr. Ojo said the seeds intervention to farmers for the 2020 planting season was meant to mitigate the impact of Covid 19 pandemic disease towards ensuring massive food productivity that would ensure food security and adequate availability of quality seeds for the next cropping season in a very structured market for easy accessibility, and compliance to social distancing as directed by the Federal Government.

He said the 81,000 metric tons of seeds intervention would cut across crops like rice, maize, sorghum, soya beans, cowpea, millet, groundnut, wheat, sesame and potato so as to guarantee availability of grains varieties of food crops in the immediate and after covid 19 pandemic disease.

 NASC boss said that “The current situation has brought to the fore in a more pronounced way the importance of Agriculture to our sustainability as a nation, and the huge responsibility placed on the farmers across the globe has come out more clearly’’ adding that the depleted food stuff would be quickly recovered through the use of highly quality seeds.

  “The seed Council will therefore be working with various stakeholders to implement various coping actions that will help the sector to continue to function even in the midst of the crisis” said Dr. Ojo.

He also highlighted planned actions that would ensure farmers’ access to seeds and other agro inputs in designated market places on specific days where social distancing compliance would be observed in order to keep off the spread of the corona virus among the food value chains stakeholders.  The DG advocated for the...