2 research outputs found
Seed yam production at GoSeed
IITA GoSeed is a unit of the IITA Business Incubation Platform (BIP) and registered as
a Limited Liability Company. The company saddled with the responsibility for the
commercial promotion of the early generation seeds of the improved crop varieties
generated by IITA and other CGIAR Centers across the glob
Commercially sustainable cassava seed systems in Africa
Published online: 07 Apr 2022Cassava is an important crop in sub-Saharan Africa for food security, income generation, and industrial development. Business-oriented production systems require reliable supplies of high-quality seed. Major initiatives in Nigeria and Tanzania have sought to establish sustainable cassava seed systems. These include the deployment of new technologies for early generation seed (EGS) production; the promotion of new high-yielding and disease-resistant varieties; the updating of government seed policy to facilitate enabling certification guidelines; the application of ICT tools, Seed Tracker and Nuru AI, to simplify seed system management; and the establishment of networks of cassava seed entrepreneurs (CSEs). CSEs have been able to make profits in both Nigeria (US1,000 1,500/ha). In Nigeria, the critical demand driver for cassava seed businesses is the provision of new varieties. Contrastingly, in Tanzania, high incidences of cassava brown streak disease mean that there is a strong demand for the provision of healthy seed that has been certified by regulators. These models for sustainable cassava seed system development offer great promise for scaling to other cassava-producing
countries in Africa where there is strong government support for the commercialization of the cassava sector