The National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) has intensified efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s cassava seed system, focusing on quality assurance, effective seed certification and improved access to certified planting materials for farmers.
Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of NASC, Hon. Fatuhu Muhammed, said access to quality-assured planting materials was essential to improving agricultural productivity, strengthening farmers’ resilience and advancing food and nutrition security.
Muhammed spoke during a two-day training 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 was held in Abuja from August 26 to 27.
He said NASC had worked with development partners over the years to establish a sustainable and commercially viable cassava seed system, building on interventions under the Building an Economically Sustainable Integrated Cassava Seed System (BASICS) programme and the ongoing PROSSIVA initiative.
According to him, LSIs, SCOs and cassava stem-cutting producers play critical roles in ensuring farmers, particularly those in underserved communities, have access to quality planting materials.
While seed inspectors and certification officers are responsible for enforcing established quality standards, he said stem-cutting producers must ensure that sufficient quantities of quality cassava planting materials reach farmers.
Muhammed urged participants to carry out their responsibilities with professionalism, integrity and technical competence, noting that their performance would directly influence 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 also urged cassava stem-cutting producers to view themselves as responsible seed entrepreneurs rather than focusing solely on profit.
“Your priority should not be profit alone, but also the production and distribution of certified quality seeds to farmers,” Muhammed said.
The NASC boss disclosed that the Council had developed, validated and gazetted three regulations aimed at strengthening the regulatory and technical framework of Nigeria’s seed industry.
They 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 a significant milestone in strengthening NASC’s regulatory oversight and improving quality assurance across the seed sector.
He, however, stressed that the regulations would only achieve their objectives if stakeholders understood and implemented them effectively.
He said NASC would therefore prioritise awareness and sensitisation among seed producers, inspectors, certification officers and other stakeholders to promote effective implementation.
The PROSSIVA training also provided participants with practical knowledge on cassava seed production, field inspection, certification, traceability and quality assurance.
Muhammed said the Council would measure the success of the programme by improvements in practices within cassava-producing communities rather than simply by the number of people trained.
“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 begin with farmers having access to healthy, true-to-type and quality-assured planting materials.
Rabiu explained that the vegetative propagation nature of cassava makes the quality of planting materials particularly important because infected stems can transmit diseases from one production cycle to another.
“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 were therefore critical to protecting farmers’ productivity and strengthening the cassava value chain.
NASC said the Licensed Seed Inspector system would help expand the reach of seed inspection and certification services while ensuring that national seed quality standards are maintained.
The Council, however, warned that increased private-sector participation in inspection and certification must not come at the expense of quality standards.
Muhammed said licensing seed inspectors must be backed by competence, integrity, professionalism and accountability because inspection decisions have direct implications for seed producers, farmers and the credibility of Nigeria’s seed system.
The Council also urged cassava stem producers and outgrowers to recognise that their responsibilities extend beyond simply multiplying planting materials.
It said they were effectively producing the foundation upon which farmers’ productivity and livelihoods depend.
NASC further called for stronger collaboration among regulators, researchers, development partners, seed entrepreneurs and farmers to improve access to certified planting materials across cassava-producing communities.
The Council commended the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Sahel Consulting and other research institutions for their support towards the implementation of PROSSIVA.
It also urged participants to apply the knowledge gained from the training to improve seed production and certification practices in the field.
NASC reiterated its commitment to developing a credible, technology-driven and sustainable seed quality-assurance system that supports responsible private-sector participation without compromising national standards.
The Council said improving access to certified cassava planting materials would help increase productivity, reduce losses associated with poor-quality stems and strengthen farmers’ confidence in Nigeria’s formal seed system.