Nigeria Provides 70% Of Seeds Used In West Africa Lokpobiri

The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri has said that Nigeria provides about 70 per cent of the seeds used in West Africa.The Minister who made the assertion while on a familiarisation visit to the Nigerian Agricultural Seed Council in Abuja yesterday also said the reason for the high cost of foods currently is because Nigeria is not producing enough food .Lokpobiri said,Our objectives is to ensure that by this time next year we produce enough food and this can only be possible if we have the right variety of seeds.He said, The cardinal objective of this administration is to see how we can feed ourselves within the shortest possible time because we cannot afford the import bill of twenty two million dollars that we have been spending every year to import.The objective of this administration is to see how we would be able to produce enough food in Nigeria to feed ourselves and also to see how we can export as a lot of the goods we produce are substitutes of our products. He noted that the foundation of achieving all this objectives is the availability of quality seeds.The Minister also posited that the mandate of the seed council is so fundamental with its objective of producing and providing enough food which cannot be achieved except the seed council is supported.Lokpobiri added that Its interesting to note that Nigeria also provides for about 70 per cent of the seeds used in West Africa and I believe this is a very golden opportunity for a lot more companies to enter the seed market, produce more seeds to meet the demands of Nigeria in agricultural diversification.
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