The NextGen Cassava Breeding project, the IITA Cassava Breeding Unit, and Sahel Consulting organized a triadic comparison of technologies (Tricot) workshop with the Nigerian variety release committee recently. Sahel Consulting works with the Nigerian Variety Release Committee, through the Collaborative Seed Programme (CSP), to innovate the procedures and approaches used to enable variety release. The workshop proposed employing Tricot as an alternative and better way for on-farm testing with farmers and processors. Representatives from CGIAR research centers and National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES) from various African countries shared experiences with the Tricot method. The workshop moderated by Prof Chiedozie Egesi, Project Leader for the NextGen Cassava Breeding, highlighted the procedure for variety release, among other key areas.
During the opening remarks, National Variety Release Committee Registrar, Dr Sunday Aladele, shared the idea and process that birthed the need for the Tricot workshop. According to him, consideration to include the Tricot system in the variety release system results from brainstorming on the best way to reduce the length of time and generate more representative on-farm data that will meet the National Variety Release Committee’s requirements for registration and release in Nigeria. “This was because recent studies showed that Nigeria’s variety release system is one of the lengthiest in Africa,” he said. Chinedu Agbara presented the Collaborative Seed Programme objectives that aim to increase efficiency, transparency, and accountability in the variety release system, which will be a critical contributor to a broader seed sector transformation.