Members of the national seed council yesterday in Yaounde, debated on a budget of CFA 414 million.

The year 2008 is expected to witness a relative increase in investment in seed production with special focus on laboratory equipment, laboratory analyses centres and transportation means for agents in charge of seed certification. The Director of Agricultural Development at the ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Abdou Namba, underscored this yesterday while opening the second session of the National Seed and Plant Production Programme.

The main item on the agenda of the meeting was the adoption of the budget for 2008. But before the budget could be appreciated, Abdou Namba recalled the importance of seed and plant nursery to agricultural development. "In effect, it requires a medley of actions to acquire increased production but all these would produce no positive results if there are no good seeds or nurseries", Abdou Namba said. But this will again depend on the quality of the seed. He said, good seed must take into consideration genetic potentials of the plant concerned.

A budget of CFA 414 million has been proposed for this year's activities. This amount as explained by Abdou Namba, takes into consideration the prescriptions of the 2005 law on the creation, organisation and management of the seed fund. "Seed and plant certification refers to the end of an inspection and control system which have gone through the various stages of production, multiplication, harvesting, transportation, treatment and parcelling", he said.