Farmers across the Niger Delta are set to gain greater access to certified seeds and quality planting materials.
The development followed a two-year deal between the National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) and Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND).
The organisations signed a Memorandum of Understanding at NASC’s Corporate Headquarters in Abuja, to expand community-based seed production, strengthen certification and inspection, develop local seed enterprises and mobilise investment in Nigeria’s domestic seed industry.
NASC Director-General, Fatuhu Muhammed, said the agreement would help bring quality-assurance services closer to farmers and seed producers.
“A productive
agricultural sector begins with quality seeds. By working with PIND and its networks across the Niger Delta, NASC can extend certification and inspection services to more communities, protect farmers from poor-quality planting materials and create stronger pathways for investment in Nigeria’s seed industry,” Muhammed said.
PIND’s Executive Director, Mr Sam Ogbemi Daibo, said the partnership would help move proven community-level interventions to institutional adoption and scale.
“Many farmers understand the value of quality seeds but cannot access certified planting materials when and where they need them. By combining NASC’s regulatory leadership with PIND’s market systems experience, we can close that gap, strengthen local seed enterprises and help farmers build more productive and commercially viable livelihoods,” Daibo said.
The MoU formalises a collaboration dating back to 2016 through the Building an Economically Sustainable Seed System for Cassava programme, implemented with the International Institute of Tropical
Agriculture (IITA) and the National Root Crops Research Institute(NRCRI). The collaboration later expanded into community-based cassava seed multiplication, with NASC certifying seed plots across the Niger Delta.
Under the new framework, NASC and PIND will expand NASC-certified community seed multiplication across the region. NASC will lead certification and quality assurance, while PIND will support enterprise development, technical assistance and market linkages.
The partners will also extend NASC’s Licensed Seed Inspectors Scheme into the Niger Delta, drawing potential candidates from PIND’s Farm Service Provider and Business Service Provider networks.
Other priorities include promoting domestic seed production for high-demand vegetables such as tomato, pepper and cucumber, and expanding access to cassava, banana and yam planting materials produced through NASC’s PROSSIVA programme.
The agreement will also support the Mastercard Foundation-funded WISE programme by enabling NASC to certify Community Seed Entrepreneurs trained to supply quality cassava planting materials to women producers across the Niger Delta