The North-West Regional Office of the National Agricultural Seeds Council has restated its commitment to fight against seed adulteration and the compromise of the council’s regulation.

Abdul-Dallami Abdul, the council’s director, communicated this in an interview with journalists on Monday in Zaria.

Mr Abdul said the move would ensure farmers had access to quality seeds at affordable prices for dry-season farming, adding that food security would not be achievable without seed security.

He said the seeds inspectorate of the council would be on the field to enforce the council’s regulations on seed companies and agro-dealers to tame adulteration of seeds, among other offences.

According to him, the inspectors will be at the stores of seed companies and agro-dealers, especially dealers who store chemicals, fertilisers and seeds in one store.

“Storing chemicals, fertilisers and seeds in one store is an infringement of the council’s rules because it kills the efficacy of the seeds,” said Mr Abdul. “Such seeds would be confiscated alongside other punitive measures.”

Mr Abdul advised the farmers to use the seed codex on the bags of each seed to curtail buying adulterated seeds. He advised the farmers to get high-quality seeds from reputable and licenced seed companies.

According to him, quality seed contributes to over 50 per cent of agricultural production, and other inputs are just to complement it.

“If a farmer fails to get a quality seed, he can put in whatever amount of fertiliser, but he will not get a good result,” Mr Abdul explained.

He said the council had registered over 430 seed companies in 2023, which was unprecedented, stressing that such a number indicated that farmers saw the advantages of planting seeds, not grains.

Mr Abdul urged the companies to do the needful and refrain from cutting corners to augment the government’s efforts on food sufficiency in Nigeria. 

(NAN)