The Collaborative Seed Programme (CSP) on September 29, 2022, facilitated a webinar for plant variety release stakeholders to discuss performance trials in the Nigeria and Netherlands seed sectors. The session featured keynote presentations by Professor O.O. Olufajo of the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR) at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria – the Chairman of the Nigerian Variety Release Technical Sub-Committee –

The NextGen Cassava Breeding project, the IITA Cassava Breeding Unit, and Sahel Consulting organized a triadic comparison of technologies (Tricot) workshop with the Nigerian variety release committee recently. Sahel Consulting works with the Nigerian Variety Release Committee, through the Collaborative Seed Programme (CSP), to innovate the procedures and approaches used to enable variety release. The workshop proposed employing Tricot as an alternative and better way

The Collaborative Seed Programme (CSP) held its quarterly seed platform meeting on the 26th of April, 2022. The webinar is part of the programme’s strategic pathway in establishing and institutionalizing a functional national seed sector platform to improve sector coordination and governance. The quarterly seed platform meeting reviews and discusses emerging topics relevant to improving the seed sector and recommend

The Collaborative Seed Programme (CSP) team, in partnership with the Seed Entrepreneurs Association of Nigeria (SEEDAN), conducted due diligence visits to 15 seed companies in Kaduna and Kano states. This is part of an evaluation process designed to select ten (10) innovative Nigerian seed companies that will receive technical and financial support for crop variety demonstration and promotion.

On the 4th of December 2021, the Extension on Seed and Cultivation Practices topic held its first on-station demonstration at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria. The training involved a varietal demonstration of improved nursery production on vegetable seedlings compared with conventional practices using local varieties of tomatoes and cabbage. The training had in attendance a total of 37 people comprising

An effective and efficient crop registration and variety release system is crucial to the growth and development of Nigeria’s agricultural sector. The system ensures that only high-performing and well-adapted varieties enter the seed sector and become available for multiplication and marketing to farmers for food production. The current process and procedure to release new varieties in a timely and cost-effective

The Collaborative Seed Programme (CSP) was once again in the spotlight, this time at Seed Connect Africa 2021. The event organized by the National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) and its partners, is the single largest gathering of seed sector stakeholders in West Africa. This was the fourth edition of the event hosted in Abuja, Nigeria between the 29th and 30th

On the 7th of December 2021, a total of fifteen (15) seed certification officers from the National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) gathered at Sarina suites and Apartment, Kano to understand and assess the upgraded National Seed Tracker. The National seek tracker is a software that collects and organizes seed production information, making it easier for institutions to monitor seed quality

Collaborative seed programme reaches out to Nigerian seed companies with an ambition to promote improved varieties and quality seed for field crops. CSP offers an opportunity for seed companies to engage in CSP to motivate and to convince farmers that are using improved varieties and quality seeds brings direct benefit to the farmers in terms of increased productivity, lower costs,