In its effort to implement the new seed act and ensure farmers have access to quality seed, the National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC), have unveiled the Seedcodex observatory, designed and set up by its partner, mPedigree Network Limited, to sanitise the seed industry in the country.
Seedcodex solution is an integrated, comprehensive turnkey technological platform, which uses unique digital codes to authenticate and secure the seeds by enabling farmers to text the unique codes on the tags to a short code and instantly receive response informing the farmers whether what they bought is genuine or not.
Speaking during a press briefing in Abuja, the Director General, NASC, Dr Philip Ojo noted that the Council will be piloting the deployment of smart, tamper proof and enhanced certification tags which will replace its old seed certification tags.
Dr Ojo explained that the certification tags will have scratch able portion with a serialised electronic codes which the farmer will be able through SMS to send to a dedicated NASC number so as to receive information on the genuineness of the seed he is purchasing.
He explained that the initiative was launched earlier this year with the support from, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), USAID, under the umbrella of Partnership for Inclusive Agricultural Transformation in Africa (PIATA), and m-pedegree Network, to enhance the efficiency of quality assurance mechanism with the deployment of a tamper evident traceability system.
Speaking on the Seedcodex solution, the Head Corporate Affairs mPedigree Network, Chukwudi Madu, said the use of the digital codes enables the farmers take their destinies into their own hands by empowering them to reliably authenticate any seeds they purchase.
“We are ready to take all those steps together with NASC to ensure that in the future when they are talking about sustainable agriculture productivity in this country, the role that the NASC had in beginning the foundation through the provision of quality certified seeds would be the bedrock of the story of success of agriculture in the whole of Nigeria”.
“We are looking to improve agriculture being that it is the basis for our growth, we are not going to take this responsibility lightly, the Seed Council has been doing a great job, we are only going to take this to a higher level and make much better gains for the Nigerian agricultural sector.
“Market efficiency is a major expected outcome of the project, since fraud and faking shall be suppressed through the business process automation and enhanced transparency. Mission control facility from which the seedcodex project shall be diligently monitored”, Madu added.
SOURCE: TRIBUNE
