The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) has called for quick passage of the Plant Variety Protection (PVP) Bill into law to improve agricultural performance and business environment.

A statement by the group yesterday, said when enacted into law, the measures set out in the PVP Bill would create more appropriate system that meets current realities.

The NESG, which applauded the senate for passing the PVP Bill into law on March 3, 2021, maintained that once the PVP law is passed and implemented, Nigeria, would move from generating $0 from seeds export to generating over $2b from seeds export within the first five years.

The passage and implementation of the bill, the NESG said, would give plant breeders intellectual property over a new plant variety, with exclusive rights to commercialise seed and/or propagation material of the variety.

The group noted that a well-functioning PVP system would encourage in-country breeding activities, stressing that it would also attract foreign companies to introduce high quality improved varieties, knowing that others cannot easily copy their effort or take advantage of it.

It added that the PVP also promotes marketing of new varieties and allow breeders to earn back the considerable costs involved in the long process of variety development.

That through the Partnership for Inclusive Agricultural Transformation in Africa (PIATA), together with AGRA, the Rockefeller Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID, the NESG has been collaborating with the Nigeria Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) to support the enacting of legislation that will provide a plant variety protection system with a view to incentivise national and multinational agribusiness investments and aid the development of Nigeria’s agriculture value chain.

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