“Nigeria needs a seed industry revolution”. This is what Nigeria’s minister of agriculture, Audu Ogbeh said as he exposed the failures of the country’s seed industry. The industry currently records a deficit of about 230,000 metric tons of seeds for the three major grain crops grown in Nigeria: rice, maize and sorghum. Nigeria needs N112 billion to overcome this deficit.

“The 2015 annual seeds production was about 122,000 Mt for a demand of about 350,000 Mt. This, effectively translates into a gap supply-demand of about 231,000 Mt. Presently, the gap is filled through massive use of low quality seeds, such as farmers saved seed and supplies from unscrupulous seed merchants,” the minister said before adding that the situation must be reversed to improve agricultural productivity and make the industry, the driver of Nigeria’s economy.

According to him, the solution is to establish as soon as possible, a strategy that aims to provide Nigeria with high quality seeds. Also, a good distribution system will have to be developed so that farmers have access to them.

Nigeria which is currently suffering from the ongoing global oil crisis, wishes to reposition its agriculture as its top-priority sector thus making it a major foreign currency source.

Aaron Akinocho