Nigeria
February 5, 2021

Context Global Development (CDG) is leading a BMGF supported project aimed at developing a national system that supports “Institutionalizing Improved Crop Variety Adoption Monitoring using Genotyping” (IMAGE). This project will be simultaneously implemented in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania in collaboration with relevant National Partners, stakeholders and institutions. In Nigeria, the National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) will lead the implementation of this effort.

The main objective of this project is to assess the varieties that farmers are cultivating for Four (4) stable crops (Maize, Rice, Cassava and Cowpea) in Nigeria and develop a system to effectively and accurately track farmers adoption of improved varieties and how varieties turn over through time using DNA finger printing. We expect that the IMAGE project will provide insights and evidence for seed sector actors to enhance government agency capacity, improve stakeholders’ coordination, and lead to better investment and resource allocation decisions for varietal development and commercialization in Nigeria.

To this end, the physical launch of this project and the inauguration of the country’s National Executive steering committee as well as a technical working group meeting was held on January 26 & 27, 2021 in Abuja.

Website: http://www.seedcouncilngr.org/

Published: February 5, 2021