The Nigeria-Netherlands Seed Partnership
SeedNL attended the kick-off seminar on Seeds and (Protected) Horticulture including a panel discussion with Ayodeij Ibosiola, Victoria Madedor, Rutger Groot and Ewout Schurink and chaired by Bram Wits.
The Nigeria-Netherlands Seed Partnership (NNSP) is a platform, which brings together all seed sector development projects funded by the Dutch government in Nigeria. The NNSP is managed by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN) in Abuja, in close collaboration with the Consulate-General in Lagos, the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LVN) and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). The next NNSP platform meeting will take place on the 24th of May.
The NNSP was designed to be a SeedNL Flagship project fully aligning the partnership with our guiding principles focusing on enabling environment, public-private partnerships and local capacity building. It stimulates alignment, collaboration and synergies of project activities and between implementation partners. Prior to the founding of the NNSP, a National Seed Road Map was designed for Nigeria based on an extensive and inclusive consultation process. Seed sector development projects can be implemented in line with the Road Map and embedded in the NNSP. Moreover, the NNSP promotes openness about project outcomes contributing to knowledge sharing with the SeedNL community. The next steering committee meeting will be held in May 2022.
Examples of projects part of NNSP are the Collaborative Seed Programme and the Seeds 4 Change (S4F) project. The CSP is a four-year programme coordinated by WCDI and financed by the Dutch government working with a wide variety of local and Dutch partners. The overall objective is to improve farmers’ access and use of quality seed of new, improved varieties to sustainably increase agricultural productivity. SeedNL is part of the steering committee of the CSP and kept up-to-date of milestones achieved and challenges encountered.
The S4C project is a three-year project implemented by NABC and six Dutch companies and co-funded by the Dutch government. S4C aims to contribute to the development of the vegetable sector in Kano through the provision of high-quality vegetable seeds, introduction of biological crop protection and capacity building of farmers. The project activities include variety trials, demonstrations and trainings (on-farm and field days) focused on crop management, basic and improved cultivation techniques and good agricultural practices.
Last month, a Nigerian delegation travelled to the Netherlands. This fact-finding mission was organised by NABC in collaboration with the Consulate-General in Lagos and RVO. The mission had separate horticulture, renewable energy and circular economy tracks. Dutch and Nigerian stakeholders in the horticulture sector explored opportunities for collaboration: how can they work together to overcome challenges related to production and market access? At the end of the mission, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed to explore opportunities for horticulture and protected cultivation in the South-West of Nigeria close to Lagos. In this area, food and nutrition security remain fragile. A future project would be embedded in the NNSP.