Agro biotechnology: The way to go

The event  was jointly organised by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), National Biotechnology Development Agency, Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB), Nigeria and Federal Ministry of Science and Technology.The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Abdu Bulama, at the occasion opined that the  introduction of agro biotechnology would […]

The event  was jointly organised by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), National Biotechnology Development Agency, Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB), Nigeria and Federal Ministry of Science and Technology.
The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Abdu Bulama, at the occasion opined that the  introduction of agro biotechnology would solve the numerous agricultural challenges in the country and improve productivity of small holder farmers.
He said agricultural biotechnology is a collection of scientific techniques used to improve plants, animals and microorganisms, adding that based on an understanding of DNA, scientists have developed solutions to increase agricultural productivity.
Bulama noted that biotechnology was all about producing genetically modified crops (GMOs) that would improve farmers’ crop yields, develop insect and pest resistant crops, drought and flood tolerant crops and nutritionally enhanced crops.
He commended the national assembly for passing the Bio-Safety Bill and appealed to President Jonathan to sign the bill into law before the 2015 general elections.
If signed into law, he added, the bill would allow the application of biotechnology that will help in wealth creation, enhance food security and domestication and commercialisation of the technology in the country.
The occasion unveiled the Executive Summary of the “Global Status of Commercialised Biotech/GM Crops 2014 Report,” which chronicles countries that have commercialised Agro-Biotechnology around the globe.
The 24-page report says Monsanto has donated biotech drought tolerant DT Maize technology to Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, Tanzania and South Africa, with a combined land mass of eight million hectares.
Participants and agricultural biotechnology researchers maintain that the most needed weapon to mitigate hunger is genetic engineering, which can be deployed to generate crop varieties and animal breeds with higher yield and nutritional content, resistant to pest, diseases, drought and flood among others.
One of the researchers, Malam Muhammad Umar Lawan, a plant breeder with the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR), Zaria in Kaduna State, in chat with our reporter that for Nigeria to be food secure and hunger free, agricultural biotechnology must be used to produce genetically modified (GM) foods to feed the teeming population.
“Let’s tell ourselves the truth; in crops where conventional breeding doesn’t work, we have to apply genetic engineering. It is scientific. GM foods is not only about food security and hunger, but will yield more income to the nation, lead to reduction in cost of production and improve nutritional content of crops to tackle health issues especially among women and children,” the researcher pointed out.
Lawan maintained that GM foods are safe as all rules are strictly adhered to by researchers, adding that the foods will properly address all the indices of food security including quantity, quality, availability and affordability if well positioned by the government and other stakeholders.
According to the Country Coordinator of Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB), Mrs. Rose M. Gidado, who is a microbiologist and director with the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), to get a food secure Africa including Nigeria, “conventional agric cannot do it alone, we need agric biotechnology as well.”
Mrs Gidado said all stakeholders must be well informed about agricultural biotechnology and GM foods so as to allay perceived fears, misconceptions and opposition among people.
The Country Coordinator said GM foods were science based, stressing that the mounting opposition against it were due to various reasons including business interests of some agrochemical and fertilizer producers, who are afraid of losing market if crop varieties that don’t depend on their products are introduced.
She, however, pointed out that application of agricultural biotechnology in Nigeria depends on the passage of the bio-safety bill by the National Assembly and its eventual signing into law by the President.