The Acting Director General ( DG) of National Agricultural Seeds Council ( NASC) Mr. Khalid Ishiak has hailed Premier Seeds for registering and releasing the first ever two ( 2) pepper varieties into the Nigerian market for farmers' utilization, saying the impact would be enormous on reducing billions of Naira being expended on vegetable seeds import into the country.
The representative of the acting DG of NASC, Mr. E.J Zidafamor said this towards the close of the 37th National Varietal Release Committee ( NVRC) meeting held at the National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (NACGRAB), Moorplantation , Ibadan where 23 new improved crops varieties along the two peppers were released into market for farmers' economic advantage with commercial production.
Presenting the two pepper candidates tagged Premier Seeds Pepper I and 2 otherwise known as ( PS PEP 1 and PS PEP 2) for release and registration, the Sub Technical Committee on crops chaired by Prof.S.G Ado told the NVRC that the items are medium and early maturing respectively as PS PEP 1 and PS PEP 2 is 80- 90 days with 70-80 in the same order.
After critical scientific questioning about the characteristics of the two pepper varieties to multiple diseases resistance with high yield potential, the chairman of NVRC, Prof. Olusoji Olufajo declared the two candidates being the first ever peppers presented by a local seed company as registered and released.
The NASC DG representative speaking on the economic implications of such registrations by an indigenous company commended the release as part of the laudable effort of Premier Seeds Nigeria into agricultural seeds space saying it would reduce imported vegetable seeds being planted in Nigeria without registration.
He also commended the collaborative effort of Premier Seeds with National Horticultural Research Institute ( NIHORT), Ibadan and Twain Vegetable International for ensuring these two varieties are registered and released for multiplication into the hands of farmers.
The two varieties according to Dr. Samson Afolabi has become very necessary in view of low yield of pepper in Nigeria, adding that the fact the farmers cannot meet demand had motivated his company into researching for an improved variety for more pepper availability.
Dr. Afolabi said that " there is a need to introduce high yielding and quality pepper varieties with acceptable fruit setting ability and pungency to meet the demand for production during dry and rainy seasons"
"Currently pepper seeds are continually been introduced into Nigeria by foreign commercial seed companies and private growers and most of the available varieties have remained undocumented in the National Varietal release registry. The need to develop, register, release and officially introduce new improved varieties of pepper cannot be overemphasized" said he
He continues that " In light of this, Premier Seed Nigeria Limited in collaboration with NIHORT evaluated the performance of some new proprietary lines of pepper sourced from World Vegetable Centre, Taiwan. Hence on station and on farm trials were carried out across various seasons with the objective of reliably identifying promising new pepper varieties for release and registration in Nigeria" said Afolabi.
He pointed that with the new varieties released, Nigeria would now have availability of high yielding, diseases and insects resistance and well adapted genotypes to achieve attaining self sufficient production and becoming a major world player in pepper production.
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