ByJOHN NWOKOCHA, Abuja

Citing need to increase local consumption and meet export demands,Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Muhammad Sabo Nanono on Tuesday tasked investors in the private sector to participate fully in production of cassava value chain, adding that it will also achieve food and nutrition security and generate revenue for the country.

The minister disclosed that the ministry would create appropriate policy measures for successful production and distribution of cassava product to ensure availability of food and raw materials for industries.

He dropped this information during a courtesy visit by the project team of the Economically Sustainable and Integrated Cassava Seed System Phase 11 (BASICS 11), in Abuja in the ministry.

According to Nanono statedthe BASICS 11 would transform the cassava value chain sector by promoting the dissemination of improved varieties thereby creating a hub of seed entrepreneurs across the cassava valve chain in the agric sector.

He said ‘’the ministry will continue to collaborate with the BASICS 11projects through facilitating capacity building of farmers in area of yield gaps ,strengthening research and development in diseases and pest control to improve cassava productivity among others’’

In his remarks, the Team lead and Director for Development and Delivery, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Dr. Alfred Dixon, said that ‘’the BASICS-II project intends to address the gap by creating a formal seed system for cassava that links breeder seeds with foundation seed producers and foundation seed producers to commercial seed entrepreneurs who will sell to the cassava root producers.

‘’Cassava root producers will subsequently process into various end products or sell surplus roots to processing industries in the Country. In this fashion, we will be creating jobs and income generation opportunities for young people that will serve as seed entrepreneurs and modern producers of cassava, Furthermore, the use of certified seeds will increase the national productivity of cassava’’.

He appealed for the support of the Federal Government towards the IITA GoSeeds and NRCRI Umudike Seed which he said would be imperative for sustainable production of Early Generation Seeds (EGS) that will feed the demand pool for commercial seed producers.

Also, he solicited greater collaboration with the agric ministry, IITA and national partners including: National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) and National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI). He recalled previous contributions by IITA to the Ministry, assuring that the agency will continue to play a higher and pivotal role by becoming a technical hub for the ministry for cassava innovations. He hopes that the process could scale to other clonally propagated crops in Nigeria.