Can you tell us why you are attending this meeting?
I am attending this meeting because it’s historical in nature. A technology is being developed and it has come to help the African farmer in the development and cultivation of cowpea. Every farmer in Africa who cultivates cowpea will tell you how much he has been recording as a result of the activities of Maruca. This technology is now coming to take care of this problem. And it will boost the production of cowpea in Africa, boost the income of our cowpea farmers and boost the income of seed growers and companies in the African continent.
Do you think Nigeria has enough seed companies to distribute the Pod borer resistant cowpea when it is released, taking into consideration the population of the country and farmers?
That is the least of our fears because in Nigeria we have very good and committed seed companies that are capable of delivering this technology to the door step of each and every farmer in Nigeria. Our seed companies are well informed and well supported and we thank God our current Minister of agriculture Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has done all that needs to be done to support seed companies in Nigeria. I can say without fear of contradiction that Nigerian seed companies are the best support seed companies in the African continent. Most of the seed companies have their own processing plants. We have agronomists helping us. Some of them are also envisaging engaging breeders of their own. We are well placed to deliver the technology.
Do Nigerian farmers buy seed from seed companies or from the open market?
Prior to the intervention of the federal government under what is called Growth enhancement support, farmers were reluctant to buy seeds from seed companies. They were mostly using farmers own saved seed. Our minister of agriculture commissioned the seed companies to provided certified seeds, linked the seed companies with banks to get finance and then bought all the seeds produced by the seed companies and he is distributing it freely to the farmers. The trick here is, if you don’t know the taste of honey you don’t know what honey is . But once someone gives you a spoon of it to taste and you taste and like it, tomorrow you will go and buy. This is the third year this seeds are being distributed to farmers. About 10 million farmers are being targeted in Nigeria and each year their number has been increasing. Our farmers are well informed and intelligent and the know the different varieties, they come to ask you striga resistant maize or other types and even the market women and food sellers know the variety of maize that gives them most fodder.
Farmers complain of getting fake seeds. Who is responsible for churning out fake seeds in the country?
This is our dilemma in Africa. Corruption is in everything you put your hand in. It is true we have the problem of seed adulteration. Some people go and print your company’s bag and logo and then package grains and sell it to local farmers. Some people were arrested last year for this and successfully prosecuted. The National Agric Seed Council which is the regulatory body is doing everything possible to arrest the situation. It is not easy faking seeds but nevertheless people are taking advantage of the ignorance of farmers. But the way it is designed, it will be very difficult to sell fake seeds to an informed farmer. Firstly, for every seed bag there must be a tag from the National Agric Seed Council giving the variety of the seed, the germination percentage, purity percentage and the date when that test was done. In addition to that tag, the seed company must put its own company tag. More so, the tag form the National Agric Seed Council is a security document. It is stated like a receipt. They don’t even give it to seed companies. They give it to the certification officer of the state where the seed company operates. Also, when you want to package, you will tell the certification officer that you want to package so and so Kg and he will come with his own certification tag.
With so many foreign seeds in the country, it seems foreign countries are taking over seed companies in Nigeria. Is that so?
I don’t agree that the foreign countries are taking over seed industry in Nigeria. There are foreign seeds companies in Nigeria and they are welcome. We have no problem with their healthy competion. It is good for the business. What we don’t want is putting us at a disadvantage point. We should be given equal opportunities, of course, they are stronger because they have more financial clout, their technology is superior to our own, but then, if they are going to be fair to us we will learn from them.
How many seeds companies do we have in Nigeria?
I will make an educated guess but the right person to answer this is the National Agric Seed Council of Nigeria. As at 2011 there were less than 30 seed companies in Nigeria but now as a result of the federal government’s intervention, we have over 100 seed companies in Nigeria.
Is the federal government helping to subsidise the seeds, especially for local farmers?
The prices of the seeds are not subsidised but the seeds are given free of charge. The minister called all seed companies to a meeting and he said as a scientist of international repute he feels uncomfortable with Nigeria spending over 300 billion on the importation of rice. That he wants to stop the importation of rice because he knows Nigeria can produce enough rice to feed ourselves and he asked us, seed companies, ‘can you help me?’ We said ‘yes’. He asked us our constraints and we said finance and he asked us to meet him in three days time. When we got there three days after, we saw most of the chief executive officers of the commercial banks in Nigeria there and he asked them to grant us loans without taking collateral from us, saying he was the collateral and if anyone of us fails to pay, he will pay them. He also asked the banks not to charge us the usual bank rate, we couldn’t believe our ears and by the time I left Abuja for Kano, I found three commercial banks waiting to give me offers of loans that I have not even applied for. All the seed companies that applied were given money some 100m, others 500 million there was no limit , depending on what they needed to go into seed production and, true to his words, the minister bought all the seeds we produced and he gave it to the states governments to distribute to the farmers free of charge. Also with all the corruption happening in Nigeria, nobody from the federal ministry of agriculture, or National Agric Seed Council of Nigeria has ever demanded a kobo or bribe from me. It is really a transparent sector.
What is the relationship between seed companies and research institutes in the country?
Our relationship is very excellent and the research institutes have been supportive. In fact, the nucleus of every seed company is the research institutes because they come out with technology on how to improve seeds, yields or the agriculture output, in general, among others.
With every new technology comes doubts, how do you hope to enlighten farmers about this type of cowpea?
Scientists have already being doing that. Scientists who are against this technology are welcome to tell us why, with statistics and empirical evidence, not just criticism. More so when the bio safety bill is passed into law, we are 90 percent done.
What are challenges of seed companies in Nigeria?
Basically, it is finance but again we are grateful to the minister for helping to uplift our financial status. Another problem is manpower to run seed companies. Seed production is a technical business so we need to employ graduates in different fields. We hope each company will have its own breeder.
