A Program Coordinator of The African Seed Access Index (TASAI) in Kampala Uganda, Mainza Mugoya, on Monday, stated that quality control, capacity of seed companies, extension services, and funding for research institutes remain the major challenges of the seed system.
Mainza who made this disclosure during the seed connect Africa 2022 conference/exhibition held in Abuja, revealed that there are several challenges in the seed system and these challenges vary by country.
He said: “In Nigeria, one of the challenges is still quality control, there is a need to ensure that quality is maintained in the very beginning from research through the production of basic seed, through the processing of the seed up to commercialization because any of those steps can be compromised with the expected quality.
“The second challenge is the capacity of the seed companies. Seed companies need to have the capacity to meet the quality control guidelines that the government has set, that is the production standard, the inspection standard, the processing standard, the labeling, and marketing standard have to adhere to the latter.”
According to him, sometimes when companies are established they need time to build their capacity to meet those standards.
The program coordinator further disclosed that the third and fourth, is the extension services in Nigeria, stating that the capacity of extension services is still a bit weak and funding/ technical support to research institutions that developes seed varieties are commercialized for farmers.
“In many cases, these institutions lack the funding to do the breeding activities and also maintain the varieties they have produced.” he added.
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