Agriculture development agencies in Liberia, Nigeria to hold summit
Agricultural development agencies, researchers, and policymakers from Liberia are set to organise a business summit to draw a seed road map for the West African country.
The consortium includes the Building an Economically Sustainable Integrated Cassava Seed System, Phase 2 (BASICS-II) project of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), AfDB-funded Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) of IITA, the Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) in Nigeria, and the Liberian government.
The two-day Seed Business Summit themed, “Building a Harmonised Roadmap for Seed Sector Transformation”, being organised in collaboration with the Liberian Ministry of Agriculture, will be held between 25 and 26 March in Monrovia, the Liberian capital.
The forum, which aims to catalyse an agricultural revolution in that country, is targeted at the establishment of an economically sustainable seed system for priority crops like rice, cassava, maize, soybean, and aquaculture.
“Factors limiting growth in Liberia’s agricultural sector include the underdeveloped seed sector characterised by poor quality seeds, a weak seed regulatory framework, a struggling research system for variety maintenance, and a feeble private sector participation in the seed system”, said Godwin Atser, the Country Director of Sasakawa Africa Association in Nigeria.
He said a solid seed system will surely change the country’s agricultural landscape. In this summit, SAA, BASICS-II, TAAT, and other partners will share the models currently strengthening the seed system in Nigeria.
He said: “For example, there’ll be powerful technical sessions where the host and other countries will be exposed to how BASICS-II is building a sustainable cassava seed system in Nigeria, and Tanzania.”
Mr Atser noted that they will also showcase how they are scaling and replicating seed system development in cassava, maize, soybean, and rice in other African countries.
The BASICS-II Project Manager, Lateef Sanni, explained that the seed business summit would elevate the voices of value chain actors in the rice, cassava, maize, soybean, and aquaculture seed system by sharing success stories on increasing the availability of climate adaptive, improved, and disease-free seed to improve farmers’ livelihoods.
“The summit will produce outcomes that will form the basis of future investment in Liberia’s seed system. It will produce recommendations that will help forge a roadmap that will feed into the country’s agricultural policies and plans: the Liberia Agriculture Sector Investment Plan, the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development, and other developmental initiatives in the country. Moreover, other sub-Saharan African countries can take a cue from it,” he said.
The Liberian Minister of Agriculture, Alex Nuetah, will chair the opening ceremony of the summit with the support of other Liberian dignitaries from the parliament and related ministries.
According to the organisers, apart from the IITA, Sasakawa Africa Association and the project leaders and partners of the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) and BASICS-II, several national stakeholders and International Development partners will participate at the summit.
They include the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO); the Competitive African Rice Initiative (CARI); the Integrated Rice-Fish Farming System (IRFFS), and the World Bank.
Others are the European Union’s Development Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture (DeSIRA) initiative; World Food Programme (WFP), International Monetary Fund (IMF), United States Agency for International Development (USAID); the EU, France, GIZ, Ireland, JICA and China, as well as agencies of the UN system.
Farmers, seed producers, Universities of Agriculture, and the National Seed Board of Liberia will also attend.
Support PREMIUM TIMES’ journalism of integrity and credibility
Good journalism costs a lot of money. Yet only good journalism can ensure the possibility of a good society, an accountable democracy, and a transparent government.
For continued free access to the best investigative journalism in the country we ask you to consider making a modest support to this noble endeavour.
By contributing to PREMIUM TIMES, you are helping to sustain a journalism of relevance and ensuring it remains free and available to all.
Donate
TEXT AD: Call Willie – +2348098788999
Agricultural development agencies, researchers, and policymakers from Liberia are set to organise a business summit to draw a seed road map for the West African country.
The consortium includes the Building an Economically Sustainable Integrated Cassava Seed System, Phase 2 (BASICS-II) project of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), AfDB-funded Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) of IITA, the Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) in Nigeria, and the Liberian government.
The two-day Seed Business Summit themed, “Building a Harmonised Roadmap for Seed Sector Transformation”, being organised in collaboration with the Liberian Ministry of Agriculture, will be held between 25 and 26 March in Monrovia, the Liberian capital.
The forum, which aims to catalyse an agricultural revolution in that country, is targeted at the establishment of an economically sustainable seed system for priority crops like rice, cassava, maize, soybean, and aquaculture.
“Factors limiting growth in Liberia’s agricultural sector include the underdeveloped seed sector characterised by poor quality seeds, a weak seed regulatory framework, a struggling research system for variety maintenance, and a feeble private sector participation in the seed system”, said Godwin Atser, the Country Director of Sasakawa Africa Association in Nigeria.
He said a solid seed system will surely change the country’s agricultural landscape. In this summit, SAA, BASICS-II, TAAT, and other partners will share the models currently strengthening the seed system in Nigeria.
He said: “For example, there’ll be powerful technical sessions where the host and other countries will be exposed to how BASICS-II is building a sustainable cassava seed system in Nigeria, and Tanzania.”
Mr Atser noted that they will also showcase how they are scaling and replicating seed system development in cassava, maize, soybean, and rice in other African countries.
The BASICS-II Project Manager, Lateef Sanni, explained that the seed business summit would elevate the voices of value chain actors in the rice, cassava, maize, soybean, and aquaculture seed system by sharing success stories on increasing the availability of climate adaptive, improved, and disease-free seed to improve farmers’ livelihoods.
“The summit will produce outcomes that will form the basis of future investment in Liberia’s seed system. It will produce recommendations that will help forge a roadmap that will feed into the country’s agricultural policies and plans: the Liberia Agriculture Sector Investment Plan, the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development, and other developmental initiatives in the country. Moreover, other sub-Saharan African countries can take a cue from it,” he said.
The Liberian Minister of Agriculture, Alex Nuetah, will chair the opening ceremony of the summit with the support of other Liberian dignitaries from the parliament and related ministries.
According to the organisers, apart from the IITA, Sasakawa Africa Association and the project leaders and partners of the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) and BASICS-II, several national stakeholders and International Development partners will participate at the summit.
They include the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO); the Competitive African Rice Initiative (CARI); the Integrated Rice-Fish Farming System (IRFFS), and the World Bank.
Others are the European Union’s Development Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture (DeSIRA) initiative; World Food Programme (WFP), International Monetary Fund (IMF), United States Agency for International Development (USAID); the EU, France, GIZ, Ireland, JICA and China, as well as agencies of the UN system.
Farmers, seed producers, Universities of Agriculture, and the National Seed Board of Liberia will also attend.
Support PREMIUM TIMES’ journalism of integrity and credibility
Good journalism costs a lot of money. Yet only good journalism can ensure the possibility of a good society, an accountable democracy, and a transparent government.
For continued free access to the best investigative journalism in the country we ask you to consider making a modest support to this noble endeavour.
By contributing to PREMIUM TIMES, you are helping to sustain a journalism of relevance and ensuring it remains free and available to all.
Donate
TEXT AD: Call Willie – +2348098788999
Denial of responsibility! Techno Blender is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.