158 companies get licences to produce quality seeds
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has licensed 158 new seed companies to commence production of quality seeds as part of efforts to allow more players in the seed industry to produce and distribute quality seeds to farmers.
Philip Ojo, director-general, National Agricultural Seed Council ( NASC) said the new approvals were given in addition to the 156 already existing licences, adding that Audu Ogbeh, the minister of agriculture and rural development, gave the approval in order to address the problem of inaccessibility and lack of quality seedling.
The approvals comprise of 16 new small-scale companies, 133 producer and seller entrepreneurs and nine seed dealers. Of the 158 new seed entrepreneurs, 10 were foreign companies while the rest 148 were Nigerian outfits.
Admitting that a deficit in seed availability still exists, he said this would bridge the gap to a large extent. “The governing board of NASC, under the chairmanship of the minister of agriculture and rural development, Audu Ogbeh, has ratified and approved the licensing of 158 new seed entrepreneurs of different categories to add to the existing 156 already operating. I want to assure you that this is borne out of the determination to allow many qualified entrepreneurs to explore the bidding liberalised landscape of the seed industry. I wish to allay your fears that most of these newly licensed companies are greenhorns in the business, but are mostly out-growers with long years of experience,” he said.
“They have acquired necessary facilities in relevant categories they have been classified into after due assessment by NASC. We all know that presently, the seed supply- demand gap is still wide and there are more calls from our neighbouring countries that look up to us for their seed supply,’’ Ojo added.
Nigeria now has 314 seed entrepreneurs, 223 produce sellers and 20 seed dealers.
He noted that the Coun- cil was not interested in the number of seed entrepreneurs but the quality of seeds being supplied to farmers.