The National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) has announced plans to institutionalise DNA-based crop variety monitoring as part of efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s seed system, improve food security and ensure farmers have access to genuine improved seed varieties.
The announcement was made on Tuesday at the final meeting of the National Executive Steering Committee (NESC) and Focal Points of the Institutionalising Monitoring of Crop Variety Adoption using Genotyping (IMAGE) Project held in Abuja.
Speaking at the event, the Director-General of NASC and Chairman of the National Executive Steering Committee, Dr Fatuhu Mohammed, said the IMAGE Project had transformed the way Nigeria monitors crop variety adoption by combining DNA fingerprinting with household surveys to generate more reliable data for agricultural planning.
According to him, the project has provided evidence-based information that will support policy formulation, investment decisions, seed system strengthening, varietal development and the country’s broader agricultural transformation agenda.
Mohammed said NASC had already established a Varietal Monitoring Unit (VMU) and developed data governance and sharing mechanisms to sustain the gains recorded under the project after its current phase ends.
He noted that Nigeria would build on the achievements of IMAGE through its participation in the Varietal Intelligence for Seed Systems Transformation in Africa (ViSTA) Project, a two-and-a-half-year initiative aimed at strengthening varietal intelligence systems across Africa.
The NASC boss disclosed that the council would serve as a key implementing partner for the West Africa Regional Rice Genetic Reference Library while also supporting seed system quality assurance, quality control assessments and regional data governance under the new initiative.
He urged partner institutions to deepen collaboration to ensure the successful implementation of ViSTA and future agricultural innovation programmes.
Project Lead of IMAGE Nigeria, Dr Folarin Okelola, explained that the project replaced traditional perception-based surveys with DNA fingerprinting technology to accurately determine the crop varieties cultivated by farmers.
He said farmers often misidentify the varieties they grow, leading to inaccurate adoption statistics and reduced productivity.
Using DNA analysis, he explained, researchers compare samples collected from farmers’ fields with a national genetic reference library containing registered crop varieties to determine the exact varieties under cultivation.
Okelola revealed that findings from surveys conducted in 2022 and 2025 showed many farmers overestimated their adoption of improved varieties.
He said adoption rates for rice, cowpea and several other crops remained below 10 per cent, while cassava recorded adoption of more than 50 per cent. Maize recorded adoption of about 42 per cent, although most of the varieties grown were open-pollinated varieties rather than hybrids.
He expressed concern over widespread seed adulteration, mix-ups and poor quality control within Nigeria’s seed system, noting that many farmers were not planting the genuine varieties released by breeders.
According to him, the project’s next phase will focus on quality assurance and quality control assessments across the seed value chain to identify where seed contamination occurs, from breeders and seed producers to agro-dealers and farmers.
Managing Director of Resourced and Lead of the IMAGE Centralised Function, Mark Nelson, described the conclusion of the current phase of IMAGE as the beginning of a new chapter rather than the end of the programme.
He said the project had successfully institutionalised genotyping-based varietal monitoring within NASC, giving Nigeria the technical capacity to continue monitoring crop varieties independently.
Nelson commended NASC, national partners and stakeholders for their commitment over the past five years, saying the knowledge, genetic reference libraries and technical capacity developed under IMAGE would continue to strengthen Nigeria’s seed system beyond the lifespan of the project.
He added that the achievements of IMAGE have positioned Nigeria to utilise modern genetic technologies to better understand farmers’ varietal preferences, improve seed quality and support national food security objectives.
