Research Institutes have been called upon to harmonize their GEN Banks in the country. Dr. Ishiak Khalid made this call at the opening of a 4-Day Breeders Country Team and Centralized Function Expert Meeting to review image first wave result of the image project in Nigeria and data advisory committee training in Abuja.
Dr. Ishiak Khalid, who is the Ag. National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC), charged all research institutions in the country to harmonize their GEN and seed Banks to compliment each other. Also, he encouraged them to engage in more research, as improved seed varieties lead to increased yielding for farmers.
He hails plants breaders and crops expert for their efforts and success they have achieved.
Chatting with the Media, Prof. Lucky Omoigui, Seed System Specialist, from IITA, “said quality seed is very important to increase crop productivity, so we need to make sure that we give farmers quality seed to increase productivity.
According to him, “we need to make sure that whatever breeders or seed system are giving to farmers should have the right genetic material to work effectively.
we need to look at the reference material to examine the seed quality
“Also, having a very good seed bank is very important because when you continue over using your seed yearly without bringing in from your reserve you reduce the quality of seed.” Prof. Lucky said.
Earlier in his presentation, Dr. Folarin Sunday Okelola Ag. Registrar, The Nigerian Plant Variety Protection Office (NPVPO), while speaking on the theme, “Crop Survey Results Nigerian
Cassava, Revised Genotyped Crop Survey based on the Cluster Pipeline Bioinformatics Pipeline”, said the essence of the meeting is to adopt and advice farmers on seed system. He urge stakeholders to consider opportunity for improving access, purity maintenance, improving the genetic reference library; analysis to characterize genetic entities and unidentified samples. Adding that ongoing and regular analysis based on growers report and genetic features will help understand what the farmers are planting.
He encouraged research institution to do further work to understand genotyping and the clustering pipeline which can be effectively applied in a dynamic seed system with uncontrolled variation in an out crossing crop where genetically diverse OPVs and are the majority of varieties.
The 4-day Breeders Country Team and Centralized Function Expert Meeting to review image first wave result of the image project in Nigeria and data advisory committee training will end on Thursday with different stakeholders drawn across the country.