Recognizing the gap in cassava seeds and the efforts being put in place by the project: Building an Economically Sustainable Integrated Cassava Seed System, Phase II (BASICS-II), the National Cassava Summit appreciated the progress made by the BASICS-II team in creating the BASICS Model for efficient development and delivery of the cassava seed system.
This was contained in a communique issued after the 2021 National Cassava Summit in Abuja, Nigeria. The stakeholders called on the public and private sector actors to adopt the model—the public sector tasked with the role of providing an enabling environment while the private sector to take charge of driving the seeds sector.
The summit reviewed with great concern the approach where donor projects and government were offering cassava seeds to farmers free of charge and in an unsustainable manner.
“Such interventions distort the seed markets and frustrate the already made gains in creating a sustainable seed ecosystem that guarantees job and wealth creation.
Find details of the communique here
Photos from the Summit can be accessed here
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