Mr Olafare Richard, President, Seed Entrepreneurs Association of Nigeria ( SEEDAN ), on Wednesday said farmers required 400,000 tonnes of assorted seeds annually to ensure the nation’s self-sufficiency in food production.
Richard, who disclosed this in an interview in Abuja, however, attributed inability of the seed companies to meet up with the requirement due to paucity of fund.
“The seed companies in Nigeria cannot boast of producing 50,000 tonnes of seeds out of the required number due to lack of fund.
“Agriculture is a business and seed is an essential component to enhance agribusiness in Nigeria.
“Without seed, you cannot talk of food security. You cannot have quality seeds if there is no back-up in terms of finance,” he said.
He stressed the need for the companies to access credit facilities to enable them produce optimally and to enhance the nation’s capacity in food production.
Richard said most of the companies could not go beyond their limit in seed production because they were bankrupt.
“The reason for the reduction in the production is that most of the companies are bankrupt, and with that, there is limit to what they can do.
“There is no access to banking industries any longer because they are reluctant to give us money.”
The president appealed to the Federal Government to ensure that the sector is buoyant again by settling the remaining debts owed the seed companies since 2013.
“If we are pay, we will have that sovereignty to finance and will be able to increase our production from the present level.
“When we had access to finance in 2012/2013, we were able to raise our annual seed production from 11,000 to 190,000 in 2014, and by now, we would have gone further than that level”, he said.