Low quality seeds cripple farmers’ income
Nigerian farmers have identified poor seeds as the major challenge facing their cultivation of crop efforts and reducing their yield per hectare, BusinessDay investigations have shown.
Access to adequate, secured and timely supply of quality seeds is a major hurdle on the nation’s way to achieving food self-sufficiency that demands urgent attention, if the country is to diversify its economy through agriculture, experts said.
Despite efforts of successive government to give farmers’ access to improved seeds farmers are still unable to get access to good and quality seedlings.
“We don’t have access to quality seeds. Even the seeds they gave to us last year under the Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES) are of low quality,” said Abiodun Olorundenro, a farmer in Oke-Odan, Ogun State, who registered under the growth enhancement scheme.
“This affected my produce badly that I couldn’t even produce anything significant. My income was badly affected that I had to take a loan for the next farming season. The government should improve on the scheme by ensuring that these agro-allied contractors distribute good and quality seeds to farmers,” Olorundenro said.
This is the case of many farmers across the country. The number of seed companies in country increased from five in 2011 to about 80 seeds companies today, yet, most of the hybrid seeds in the country are not viable and are of low quality.
“The issue of seeds in the country is that farmers are not informed and they don’t know where to get these quality seeds from. Extension service agents that are supposed to educate and inform farmers hardly visit their farmlands,” said Afioluwa Mogaji, chief executive officer, X-RAY Farms.
The farmers also complained that the low quality seed is affecting their yield per hectare capacity, which is making it very low. And the quantity of seeds in the market is very low compared to the numbers of farmers in the country.
Muhammed Augie, a rice and wheat farmer in Kebbi said, “Farmers farming rice and wheat in Kebbi don’t have quality seeds to use on their farmlands. Most of the seeds in the market are of low quality.”
Augie stated that Nigeria is supposed to be sufficient in rice and wheat, but if farmers can’t access quality seeds, production will be affected and farmers will be unable to meet demand which is also responsible for the nation’s low yield per hectare.
According to experts, seeds are the basis for crop improvement, allowing farmers and plant breeders to develop cultivars with high levels of adaptation. This is the reason why a lot of efforts are put into breeding improved varieties in terms of yield and tolerance to production limitations such as drought and diseases.
Josephine Okojie