Nigeria is to begin eliminating fake and adulterated seeds from circulation electronically following the Agricultural Seeds Council’s Collaboration with technology operators, in order to check the trend.
Lara Afolayan reports that the influx of fake and adulterated seeds affect agricultural production in Nigeria, but the country’s agriculture authorities are now introducing an electronic seed certification system to control this trend.
The seed certification technology has an integrated call center desk software. It also offers blockchain verification to strengthen its resistance to sabotage. It will allow farmers access to verifying genuine seeds within seconds thereby helping ensure only seeds approved by the council are in circulation.
The electronic seed certification system was introduced in Kenya three years ago. Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Malawi all in the Common Market for the Eastern and Southern Africa region, have now began processes to introduce the technology into their seeds procurement system.
Nigeria will be the first country in the West African region to adopt the technology. The development follows the country’s efforts at finalising steps to having a plant variety protection law.
