The National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) is stepping up measures to strengthen Nigeria’s cassava seed system, with emphasis on quality assurance, effective certification and wider access to certified planting materials.

Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of NASC, Hon. Fatuhu Muhammed, said ensuring farmers have access to quality-assured planting materials is critical to raising agricultural productivity, building resilience among farmers and improving food and nutrition security.

Muhammed spoke at a two-day training organised for Licensed Seed Inspectors (LSIs), Seed Certification Officers (SCOs) and cassava stem-cutting producers under the Programme for Seed Systems Innovation for Vegetatively Propagated Crops in Africa (PROSSIVA). The training took place in Abuja from August 26 to 27.

He said NASC, working with development partners over several years, had pursued the establishment of a sustainable and commercially viable cassava seed system. The effort builds on interventions implemented through the Building an Economically Sustainable Integrated Cassava Seed System (BASICS) programme and the ongoing PROSSIVA initiative.

According to Muhammed, LSIs, SCOs and cassava stem-cutting producers have important responsibilities in ensuring that farmers, especially those in underserved communities, can obtain quality planting materials.

While seed inspectors and certification officers are tasked with enforcing established quality standards, he said stem-cutting producers are responsible for ensuring adequate volumes of quality cassava planting materials are available to farmers.

Muhammed called on participants to discharge their duties with professionalism, integrity and technical competence, stressing that their performance would have a direct bearing on confidence in Nigeria’s cassava seed certification system.

“The professionalism, technical competence and integrity of the LSIs and SCOs are essential to maintaining confidence in the cassava seed certification system,” he said.

He further encouraged cassava stem-cutting producers to approach their work as responsible seed entrepreneurs rather than concentrating exclusively on financial returns.

“Your priority should not be profit alone, but also the production and distribution of certified quality seeds to farmers,” Muhammed said.

The NASC Director-General also disclosed that the Council had developed, validated and gazetted three regulations designed to reinforce the regulatory and technical framework governing Nigeria’s seed industry.

The regulations are the National Harmonized Plant Varieties (Registration and Release) Regulations, 2025; National Early Generation Seed Production (Liberalization) Regulations, 2025; and Third-Party Seed (Certification) Regulations, 2025.

Muhammed described the gazettement of the regulations as an important milestone for strengthening NASC’s regulatory oversight and enhancing quality assurance throughout the seed sector.

He, however, said the regulations could only deliver their intended results if stakeholders properly understood and implemented their provisions.

As a result, NASC would prioritise awareness and sensitisation among seed producers, inspectors, certification officers and other stakeholders to support effective implementation.

The PROSSIVA training also equipped participants with practical knowledge covering cassava seed production, field inspection, certification, traceability and quality assurance.

Muhammed said the impact of the programme would not be judged simply by the number of people who participated in the training. Instead, NASC would look for improvements in practices across cassava-producing communities.

“The success of this programme should not be measured by the number of people trained, but by improvements recorded afterwards: better field inspections, stronger compliance with certification standards, healthier planting materials and increased farmer confidence in certified cassava seed,” he said.

NASC Project Coordinator, Malam Dahir Rabiu, described cassava as a strategic crop for Nigeria’s food security, rural livelihoods and agro-industrial development.

He said sustainable cassava production must start with farmers gaining access to healthy, true-to-type and quality-assured planting materials.

Rabiu explained that because cassava is propagated vegetatively, the quality of planting materials is particularly significant, as infected stems can carry diseases from one production cycle into the next.

“Because cassava is vegetatively propagated, poor-quality or diseased stems can rapidly spread diseases and reduce productivity across successive production cycles,” he said.

He stressed that effective seed certification and quality assurance are therefore essential to protecting farmers’ productivity and reinforcing the cassava value chain.

NASC said the Licensed Seed Inspector system would expand the reach of seed inspection and certification services while helping to maintain national seed quality standards.

The Council, however, cautioned that greater participation by private operators in inspection and certification must not result in the weakening of quality standards.

Muhammed said the licensing of seed inspectors must be supported by competence, integrity, professionalism and accountability, given that inspection decisions directly affect seed producers, farmers and the credibility of Nigeria’s seed system.

The Council also called on cassava stem producers and outgrowers to understand that their role goes beyond simply multiplying planting materials.

According to NASC, they are effectively producing the foundation on which farmers’ productivity and livelihoods depend.

NASC further advocated stronger collaboration between regulators, researchers, development partners, seed entrepreneurs and farmers to expand access to certified planting materials in cassava-producing communities.

The Council commended the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Sahel Consulting and other research institutions for supporting the implementation of PROSSIVA.

It also urged participants to put the knowledge acquired during the training into practice by improving seed production and certification activities in the field.

NASC reiterated its commitment to building a credible, technology-driven and sustainable seed quality-assurance system that allows responsible private-sector participation without compromising national standards.

The Council said better access to certified cassava planting materials would contribute to increased productivity, lower losses linked to poor-quality stems and stronger farmer confidence in Nigeria’s formal seed system.

Source: msme Africa online