2025 Vol-5 Issue-2 | ASSESSMENT OF THE ACTIVITIES OF NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL SEED COUNCIL (NASC) ON ADOPTION OF IMPROVED RICE (Oryza sativa L.) SEEDS BY HOST COMMUNITIES

This study aims to assess the activities of the National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC),Abuja on the adoption of improved rice (Oryza sativa L.) seed by Host Communities. Amulti-stage sampling technique was adopted to purposively select 398 rice farmers inKwali Area Council FCT, Abuja. The results were analysed by well-structuredquestionnaires, descriptive statistics, and Logit Regression. The socio-economiccharacteristics of the rice farmers were analyzed and their involvement and benefits fromNASC activities were equally examined. 95.7% of the farmers were aware of thecouncil's activities. 94.5% of the farmers participated in the activities while 95% of theseparticipated in the farmers’ field day, 88.9% participated in training activities, 86.7%participated in green field day, 51.5% participated in seed fair and 39.7% participated inroad walk activities. 88.9% of the farmers participated in training sessions, 97.4% adoptedthe use of improved seeds provided by NASC while 19.3% of farmers experienced a "fair"increase in production and 2.3% had a "great" improvement in their rice farming activities.2.3% did not experience any increase in production following the adoption of the newtechnologies. 96% experienced improved awareness of enhanced farming practices while95.7% of the farmers benefited from access to improved rice seeds. 85.9% of farmersexperienced significant improvement in manpower development while about 70.4%benefited from access to farming machinery. The value of the Nagel kerke R squared is0.243 and 75.7% is due to error or variables not captured in the model. This implied that years of farming experience and farm size were significant at 10% level of probability. The host communities are not only aware but have benefitted immensely from the various activities of NASC on improved rice seeds.