Nigeria's National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) and the Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND) have signed a two-year agreement to expand farmers' access to certified seeds and quality planting materials across the Niger Delta.
The partnership is designed to strengthen community-based seed production, improve certification and inspection, develop local seed enterprises and attract investment into Nigeria's domestic seed industry. The agreement was signed at NASC's headquarters in Abuja on September 10.
The focus is on a problem that often begins before a crop reaches the field: farmers may understand the importance of improved seed but still struggle to find certified planting material in the right location and at the right time.
Under the agreement, NASC will lead certification and quality assurance, while PIND will support enterprise development, technical assistance and market linkages. The organisations will also expand NASC-certified community seed multiplication across the Niger Delta and extend the council's Licensed Seed Inspectors Scheme into the region.
The approach is intended to bring more seed production closer to farming communities rather than relying entirely on large commercial seed companies operating from outside the region. PIND's network of Community Seed Entrepreneurs, Farm Service Providers and Business Service Providers will provide a platform for developing local seed businesses and potential seed inspectors.
The partnership will initially support several crops. Alongside cassava, the programme will promote domestic production of high-demand vegetable seeds such as tomato, pepper and cucumber, while expanding access to planting materials for cassava, banana and yam through NASC's programme.
For cassava in particular, the agreement builds on almost a decade of collaboration. NASC and PIND began working together in 2016 under the Building an Economically Sustainable Seed System for Cassava programme, alongside the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and the National Root Crops Research Institute. That work later expanded into community-based cassava seed multiplication, with NASC certifying seed plots across the Niger Delta.
The new agreement also links seed access with enterprise development. Rather than treating certified seed purely as an agricultural input, the partners want to build businesses around its production, inspection and distribution. That could create additional opportunities for seed entrepreneurs and service providers while making quality planting material more commercially available to farmers.
The partnership will also support the Mastercard Foundation-funded WISE programme, through which NASC will certify Community Seed Entrepreneurs trained to supply quality cassava planting materials to women producers in the Niger Delta.
A Joint Technical Working Group made up of representatives from NASC and PIND will coordinate implementation and monitor progress. The partnership's first major joint activity is expected to be the Nigeria Seed Systems Forum 2026, bringing together policymakers, regulators, researchers, investors, seed companies, development partners and farmers to discuss investment and market development in the sector.
Nigeria's seed regulator describes quality seed as a foundation of agricultural productivity, but access remains as important as certification itself. A seed can meet quality standards and still have limited impact if farmers cannot obtain it when planting begins.
NBF Insight
Nigeria's seed challenge is not only about producing better varieties; it is about getting trusted planting material into farmers' hands at the right time and at a viable price. The NASC-PIND partnership is interesting because it connects regulation with local enterprise and distribution. If community seed businesses can become commercially sustainable, the Niger Delta could move from being primarily a consumer of certified planting material to becoming a stronger regional source of quality seed and planting materials.
