Dr Onyekachi Nwankwo; Lead, Product Stewardship at African Agriculture Technology Foundation (AATF), speaks on how the AATF has been using its stewardship program to assist farmers and seed companies in Africa.
In the last two years, AATF has been preaching stewardship in Nigeria, are there milestones recorded yet?
Stewardship is in different dimensions, it applies for every agricultural product and even pharmaceutical and in the health sector. We are preaching it in agriculture because of its relevance, it is not like it is practically new, but we have been able to put it together as an area of focus that agricultural products should begin to look into especially when it comes to these new agricultural technologies so that you manage the technology properly for the benefit of the consumer, the farmers and even the technology owners.
So, we have been preaching it since and not just preaching it because it is something that has to be proactive, we developed a whole stewardship strategy on how to manage, for instance Pod Borer Resistant Cowpea and that strategy is what we are preaching to the people who have to implement them and then guide them towards the implementation and also make sure that the end users are also implementing at their end.
So, in terms of the milestone, I will say we have recorded very significant milestone because at those seed company level, you could see things are beginning to improve, every players are falling in place and at the farmer level, we also see some great compliance because we have been able to do survey, we did a survey at the of 2021 planting season and the compliance level was very high. We did a similar survey at the end 2022 planting season, from preliminary analyses; the compliance level is also very high at the level of the farmers.
What has contributed to this is the way we have involved all stakeholders, and the enthusiasm also seeing that the product works, so everybody is happy that they are contributing to it.
We formed a stewardship committee at the national level. So this committee involved all the players along the seed delivery chain up to the farmers. For instance, the classes of seeds, we have the breeders seeds, which is developed by the breeder, then we have the second level which is the foundation seed which is also part of an early generation seed, then we the third aspect is the certified seed which is what is planted by farmers.
As we have these three classes of seeds, we also have three classes of seed producers, for example in the case of this PBR Cowpea, the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR), Zaria is the breeder, so they produce the breeder seed which is usually in small quantity but of extremely high quality. So IAR is involved in that committee to make sure they follow the guideline to ensure that the quality is seed is of good standard.
Then the next level is the foundation seed, we don’t need to many people producing the foundation seed, so in this case, the IAR seed unit is producing foundation seed and Eco Basic, a private seed entity is also producing foundation seed and Eco Basic is also represented in that stewardship committee. Beyond Eco Basic for the production of certified seed, we have licenced a total of ten seed companies.
We are making progress, someone from the Amadu Bello University, Zaria is developing the seed systems for Cowpea in Nigeria, then this seed systems that is being developed through stewardship management will not just benefit the PBR Cowpea, once it is properly established, it will benefit every other conventional cowpea, it will also benefit every other product both conventional and treated product in a way that the farmer can be sure of what is coming to him as seed and the farmer produce the consumer will also be sure of what is coming.
The issue of fake seeds, is it still a problem in Nigeria especially for PBR cowpea that has high demand but low supply?
Yes, counterfeit seeds is still a problem and will be a problem, that is the stewardship programme is trying to be proactive to reduce it to the barest minimum. The fact is that most people don’t know the difference between seed and grain. For instance if the government gives a contract to anybody to supply seeds to farmers, the tendency is that those people will go the market and buy beans for instance and give to farmers because they thing it is also seed.
Sometimes some people don’t know, some who know also do it because they think it is not a big deal, but there is a difference between seed and grain. The seed is supposed to produce more, grain is meant for eating.
Now, what we are trying to do is since we have seed companies that follow the normal way production, processing and packaging, of course the National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) is involved in that process, and NASC before now has developed what is called Seedcodex where for every seed that is certified, they put a code in it, and we now put in the hands of the farmers the power to verify, because part of our communication is before you buy seed, just check the scratch code, text the number that you find there, just follow the instruction. If it is a authentic, you will get a feed back immediately, if it is not authentic, you may probably not get a feedback or it will tell you that it is not authentic.
Now, where the responsibility is now is for everyone educate the farmers and make the farmers to be serious about it because sometimes people buy seed without verifying if it is authentic, but it is always very good to verify and be sure that what you are planting is the PBR Cowpea, because if it is not the PBR Cowpea, when you plant it in the field, you will know, and if you plant it in place of PBR Cowpea, we have a a way of coming to verify, even in your presence we just collect the sample and do a quick test and see if the gene of interest is there, if it is not there, then we will know it is the PBR Cowpea.
For the last one decade you have been with the AATF, how has your work with the AATF affected your career?
I was very much interested in biotechnology when I saw the benefits of biotechnology, AATF afforded me that opportunity to work in an area that I am so much interested in, I will say that significantly I have been able to also advance my career in this biotechnology field in the sense that of course I started with AATF and I have been with AATF and it has also exposed me.
Because of some of the things I have done successfully, I have even got a leading role in AATF, I was based in Nigeria, now I am leading a global stewardship programme for AATF, I am also in other committees, research teams, even products not developed by AATF but because of the value I bring in to stewardship, because I have taken time to also understand it.
In terms of career progression and career growth, looking at the experience and the contribution I will say it has improved significantly.
What does the future hold for agriculture biotechnology in Nigeria?
There is no alternative than to invest in technology to improve agriculture and food supply, and research will continue because we want to solve as many problems as possible, we might not solve all of them but keep on solving the problem.
Does innovative technology really need stewardship program?
For every technology that comes in every field, if it is not managed properly, it will not give the desired outcome especially overtime. For instance, if particular anti-malaria is being used over and over again without anybody checking what’s going on, at some point, even the parasite will develop resistant to that particular anti-malaria. If the parasite develops resistance because it has been used and abused, it will no longer work in that person. So, which means that the anti-malaria has a timeline because you are dealing with biological organisms, even as human beings, we have a way of adapting to the environment.
So, if you are developing a product that is targeting at a particular disease, so far those disease causing organisms are around, it keep developing on how it will resist that product. If it is against insect pest, the same thing will happen, if it is against mycotoxins, the same thing will happen, and you will not know when it happens if you are not monitoring.
The technology might at some point encounter problems, so if you are also not monitoring, stewardship is actually about looking at what are the inherent characteristics of that technology, then you ask yourself is there any potential that the technology at one point may encounter any problem, even if you cannot see it immediately, you need to develop a way to monitor so that you can keep track of whatever is going on with the technology, even if it means looking at farmers’ field and comparing it, so stewardship will always be relevant for effective technology
