PVP membership: NASC, experts speak on gains

National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) Director-General (DG) Dr. Philip Ojo and other experts have posited the need for Nigeria to become a full member of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties (UPOV), saying there are more benefits in it towards a sustainable food security for the entire nation.

This position was taken in Abuja last week Wednesday during a national training and awareness workshop on Plant Variety Protection (PVP) for Nigerians stakeholders at the seeds value chains.

 

Dr. Philip Ojo speaking with journalists emphasised on the legal roles of PVP to ensuring a very competitive seeds production in the country towards increasing crops yield for food security and sustainability, saying Nigeria is yet to fully accredit into UPOV for full benefit of being a members with protective law for the plant breeders without border. 

He said it is important to note that Nigeria was one of the few countries in Africa with yet a legal framework for the protection of plant breeders as studies in Kenya, Morocco, Tunisia, and South Africa among others have shown the importance of having such legal framework in place.

DG NASC pointed further that ‘’ PVP law will increase investment in plant breeding, enhance development of new plant varieties capable of increasing yield and productivity for our smallholder farmers as breeders must be encouraged to invest in research and development leading to desired innovation, increase in the number of breeders and breeding entities, access to foreign trade in varieties, increased availability of more improved crop varieties with better yield potentials, high stress tolerance and disease resistance with high input efficiency etc, employment generation, income, and knowledge, access to foreign varieties and enhanced domestic breeding programs’’

“It is against this background that the NASC under the leadership of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, and with the support of our partners, locally and internationally since 2017 commenced effort towards the introduction and enactment of a PVP Law for Nigeria and subsequently Nigeria’s membership of the UPOV to enable Nigeria benefit from international Seed trade

“The first phase of having a legal instrument we have achieved, we are now making concerted efforts towards Nigeria full membership of UPOV, and we are hopeful that very soon this will be achieved too” he assured.

In his goodwill message, Peter Button, Vice Secretary General of the UPOV said farmers today would not be able to feed the people in the future owing to the fact that they are yet to embrace technology and new plant varieties in food production as he stressed the need for more improved seed varieties.

Also, Mariska Lammers, First Secretary, Food Security and Climate, Netherlands Embassy in Nigeria, stressed the importance of PVP law, adding that it would enable plant breeders and investors to reap from their investments.

Speaking to journalists, President Nigerian Plant Breeders Association (NPBA) Dr. Chidozie Egesi pointed that joining UPOV is the way forwards to commercialise food production for export like Ghana and Kenya who are already biggest exporters of food in Africa, adding that the PVP is meant to encourage crop breeders to put in their best, and to bring out market oriented high value crop varieties that are going to give higher production for our food crops especially our staple crops.

The National Coordinator, Open Forum for Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) Nigerian Chapter, Dr. Rose Gidado said that becoming a member of UPOV would help further recognize breeders’ rights as ideas conceived will be put into practice using modern day technology to improve upon their research as membership of UPOV would enhance the use of modern biotechnology practices that will mitigate drought and resistant to other crops diseases towards commercial food production.

She stressed that biotechnology would help the breeders put into practice what he wants to do especially with the improve seeds for climate change resilience, drought tolerance, insect and pest resistance.