IITA’s seed tracker App now available on your phone

After years of concerted efforts, IITA together with the Nigeria Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) have institutionalized SeedTracker, an ICT system facilitating real-time e-certification. The App is now available for free via Google’s PlayStore and is being expanded to include other crops, not only cassava. “This tracker has the ability to transform seed systems; not just cassava but all crops.” Lava Kumar IITA’s head of germplasm health explains.

How to use the App

The seed tracker can be downloaded onto any smartphone. The user, who is either the seed producer or a farmer, inputs information. “The required information is the source of parent seed, variety, and quantity as well as the location of the field where it will be grown. When the seed producer feeds this information into the App while standing in their field, the App automatically saves the field’s coordinates. It is these coordinates that other users rely on to locate the producer,” Kumar explains.

After the producer inputs the necessary information, it is assessed by the seed regulator who verifies that the source of the seed is accurate, and the quality of the seed adheres to national standards. For the producer, the tracker provides visibility, thus making it easy to be located by farmers searching for quality certified seed. According to Lava, “This is a formidable step forward in regularizing Africa’s seed sector, which has for so long been informal.” IITA’s cassava seed tracker will ensure that seed is no longer bought and sold haphazardly. There are plans for the technology to be tailored to other crops to improve traceability and ensure that disease-free seeds are traded.