Food security: GM maize, beans as the game changer

Achieving food security has been one of the cardinal objectives of the Nigerian government. It is known worldwide that without adopting technologies, food security remains a mirage. In this piece, COLLINS NNABUIFE looks at the outcome of a Town Hall Meeting by the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) and others on the newly approved GM beans and maize in Kano.

Nigeria’s quest to achieve food security has been a burning issue as the government keeps rolling out policies to reposition the agricultural sector.

These policies over the years have made little or no impact in the sector, as the country still depends largely on imports to meet up with local consumption.

According to a November 2019 report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) called Cadre Harmonisé, it indicates that an “estimated 2.6 million people face severe food insecurity in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states”.

The report said, “if no humanitarian support is provided, a projected 3.6 million people in the three states are likely to be severely food insecure from June to August 2020 – traditionally the lean season in the North-East.”

Similarly, Statista in its report said that between 2017 and 2019, on average 14.8 per cent of the population in Nigeria experienced hunger.

“People in severe food insecurity would go for entire days without food, due to lack of money or other resources,” the report noted.

Although there are efforts by the Nigerian government to produce more food in order to fight hunger, the production of some staple crops such as maize and beans in Nigeria have suffered major setbacks due to poor quality seeds, pest/disease infestation, and climatic conditions.

Insect pests such as Fall Armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) and climatic conditions like drought have continued to make maize farmers lose their investments on farm, while Pod Borer Insect (Maruca Vitrata) has been a nightmare for beans farmers.

Though there are other diseases, pests and climatic conditions that affect the productivity of beans and maize on the farm, the above-mentioned insects and climatic conditions remain the major challenge for farmers.

For instance, Chief Ebere Orji, a maize farmer in, Ogwu Uburu, Ohaozara local government in Ebonyi State, South-Eastern part of Nigeria, said the cost of using chemicals to control armyworm on the farm is alarming, it has continued to ravage farms in the State.

Ogwu which is about 64km away from the State capital, Abakiliki, is a farming community and one of the biggest villages in Uburu, Ohaozara local government.

Chief Orji said the armyworm did not spare him and other farmers as it continues to ravage farms in Ogwu village.

“In my farm today, over 5 people are working there, and you cannot pay them because of the damage in the farm, this is not good business,” Orji lamented.

This insect pest has continued to attack farms across Nigeria and farmers have wedged a chemical battle against it, as they spray pesticides constantly on their farms in order to get rid of the worm. But this move is expensive and not sustainable, especially for smallholder farmers.

Tarnongo Viralis a maize farmer in Benue State cultivated about 150 hectares of maize farms, he said he spends an average of N12,000 to purchase biopesticide to fight armyworm for just one hectare. Before harvest, Viralis would have spent an average of N1.8 million controlling armyworm on his 150 hectares of maize farm

He said, for now, he uses the pesticide to control armyworm right from the germination stage of the crop, but he is anxiously waiting for the maize variety that would resist the pest so that he could save the money he spends on purchasing biopesticides.

“Introduction of this new maize variety will be very wise because up till now, many farmers don’t have the knowledge of controlling armyworm in their maize farm,” he said.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “pesticides are potentially toxic to humans and can have both acute and chronic health effects, depending on the quantity and ways in which a person is exposed.

“Some of the older, cheaper pesticides can remain for years in soil and water. These chemicals have been banned from agricultural use in developed countries, but they are still used in many developing countries.

“People who face the greatest health risks from exposure to pesticides are those who come into contact with them at work, in their home or garden.”

Corroborating this, a Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Hilal Elver, and the Special Rapporteur on Toxics, Baskut Tuncak, in a joint statement to the Human Rights Council in Geneva in 2017, said: “excessive use of pesticides are very dangerous to human health, to the environment and it is misleading to claim they are vital to ensuring food security.”

A report published on the website of United Nations News in 2017, said “the Special Rapporteurs pointed to research showing that pesticides were responsible for an estimated 200,000 acute poisoning deaths each year. Some 99 per cent of fatalities occurred in developing countries where health, safety and environmental regulations were weaker.

“Chronic exposure to pesticides has been linked to cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, hormone disruption, developmental disorders and sterility. Farmers and agricultural workers, communities living near plantations, indigenous communities and pregnant women and children are particularly vulnerable to pesticide exposure and require special protections.”

It is obvious that using modern technologies such as biotechnology has been the missing link in getting a permanent solution to excessive use of chemical pesticides to control pests, thereby expediting the country’s drive towards achieving food security.

Genetic Modification is a tool of modern biotechnology practice used in modifying the DNA of plants in order to achieve the desired result which may include increased nutritional enhancement, insect and disease resistance, drought and flood tolerance.

Meanwhile, scientists in Africa have made significant breakthroughs in finding solutions to these insect pests and climatic conditions especially for beans and maize using biotechnology.

Beans

This crop called wake in Hausa, ewa in Yoruba and agwa in Igbo is among commonly consumed food in Nigeria. It is either cooked or processed into moi moi or akara for consumption.

Many households in Nigeria depend on this legume which is one of the crops that contains protein for daily food which can be prepared as porridge with the little ingredient.

Sadly, the production of this staple crop has suffered setbacks due to pest attacks both on the farm and during storage which has led to a shortfall in supply and high cost.

In April 2019, a Federal Permanent Secretary at the Nigerian Ministry of Science and Technology, Mr Bitrus Bako said Nigeria spends N16 billion ($44.4 million) annually importing beans.

In January 2019, the Nigerian National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) approved for environmental release this Genetically Modified (GM) beans which is also called Pod Borer Resistant (PBR) Beans.

Consequently, the National Committee on Naming, Registration and Release of Crop Material on 12th December 2019, approved for commercial release, the GM beans.

Similarly, the former Executive Director of AATF, Dennis Kyetere at a press conference, said a new transgenic beans variety (Pod Borer Resistant beans) that have been developed to resist the larvae of an insect, Maruca that destroys the beans during leaves, flower and pods formations and causes low yields will save Nigeria from importing 500,000 tons of beans annually to satisfy local demand.

In December 2020, the Executive Director of IAR, Professor Mohammed Ishyaku during a town hall meeting with farmers on GM beans and GM maize in Kano State, North-Western part of the country, said Pod Borer insect (Maruca Vitrata) is an insect pest that has the capacity to destroy over 80 per cent of beans while on the farm.

Professor Ishyaku said the improvement on the variety of the new bean is to resist the devastating effect of the Pod Borer insect on the farm. “The improvement in this regard is to enable the cowpea to resist the attack of a very difficult insect called Maruca (Pod Borer).” The improvement along that line has been accomplished, and it is one of the most difficult constraints of cowpea production.

“Earlier, we had improved cowpea in the area of shortening its maturity period, we have also developed cowpea varieties that are tolerant to drought, and we have equally expanded into the development of cowpea varieties that will answer the consumption pattern of different consumers of cowpea.

“We are continually improving as long as consumers, processors come up with problems, we will get back to our research and be able to solve the problem.”

He added that efforts were also being made by scientists to improve on the GM beans so that they could resist the attacks of the storage weevil (Leptoglossus occidentalis) which destroys the cowpea after harvest.

“There is a serious storage weevil called cowpea storage weevil, that is what is threatening cowpea consumers health, in some instances where they are stored improperly, but we have so far developed very safe and cheap preservation method that can keep the cowpea grains healthy for a long period of time without the use of the chemical.

“Additionally, in the area of genetic improvement, we are trying to develop cowpea that will be able to protect themselves against the weevil, we have that at the back of our mind and it is a work in progress,” he added.

On the economic benefit of this new beans variety, Professor Ishyaku said “it is estimated that between N17 billion to N21 billion will be saved annually from the reduction of the use of chemicals insecticide in the production of beans in our fields by planting this new variety instead of the non-resistant one.”

The Trial Manager of GM beans, Mohammed Umar from IAR Zaria, explained that “PBR Cowpea was developed using modern technology, the scientists tried to find out the resistance to Pod Borer insect, but they couldn’t because there is no way you can develop such variety using conventional means, so that is why we go into using modern technology.

“The gene that confers the resistance to this crop was identified from a soil bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis which is harmless.”

The PBR Cowpea Manager for African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), Dr Issoufou Kollo Abdourhamane, said from the farmers’ expression at the town hall meeting, showed they were satisfied with the result they got from planting the PBR Cowpea. “The impression I have is that farmers are satisfied with these products. Many of them know that the cowpea variety is good because they have grown it in their field,” according to him.

“One of the most important benefits of PBR Cowpea is that it resists striga and Electra, in maize, striga is also a big problem, so this is the area we will improve on for farmers who have striga in their maize farms,” Dr Kollo said.

Maize

In Nigeria, the Igbos call it Oka, the Hausa tribe call it masara while the Yorubas call it agbado. The crop could be boiled and eaten, roasted or processed into agidi for the Igbos or tuwo masara for the Hausas. The popular pap (ogi or akamu) is a product of maize.

Currently, this staple crop which provides food for both the rich and poor and also serves as a source of livelihood for many who cultivate it is being threatened by Armyworm and drought.

According to data from the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Nigeria produces about 10.5 million metric tons of maize per annum while its local demand stands at 15 million metric tons, leaving a supply-demand gap of 4.5 million tons per annum.

Similarly, in its 2020 report, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said Nigeria maize production declined to 9 million tons.

That means Nigeria is spending billions of naira importing maize in order to satisfy local demands because our local maize variety cannot get us enough yield locally due to some factors like pest/disease infestation, poor quality seed and climatic conditions.

At a press conference on 26th November 2020, the National President of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Ezekiel Ibrahim warned that the Nigerian poultry industry which is worth over N10 trillion may shut down due to the shortfall of maize and other raw materials used in producing feed for birds.

Fall Armyworm was among the factors that contributed to the shortfall of maize supply at that time.

According to syngentaseedcare.com, “the Fall Armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) mainly feeds on maize/corn but isn’t very picky, it can attack and survive on more than 100 crops in at least 27 plant families.

“The Fall Armyworm is a pest native to the tropical regions of South America and the Caribbean region, it is also present in some southern states of the USA. How it reached Africa is not entirely clear, but it likely travelled on board freight ships or planes.

“The Fall Armyworm was first reported in South-West Nigeria in late January 2016 but quickly spread to almost all maize growing countries in Africa and reached South Africa in 2017”.

In 2017 when the pest had spread to other parts of the country and caused huge damage on maize farms, the then Nigerian Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh convened an emergency stakeholders meeting.

At the meeting, the Deputy Director of Horticulture at the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Mike Kanu said N2.98 billion ($7 million) would be needed to contain the spread of the pest across the country.

“Implementation of the proposed intervention across the 36 states and FCT on 700,000 hectares for over 700,000 maize farmers is projected at N2.98 billion,” Kanu said.

At the meeting, Chief Ogbeh said “if we don’t deal with it, maize production may become almost impossible here. The impact of the shortage of maize has become severe in poultry, and for a country facing a food shortage, especially in the North-East, we will not allow it continue”.

Meanwhile, there is a major breakthrough by scientists in Africa to address the issues of seed quality, pest/disease infestation and climatic conditions which have been part of the factors for the low yield of maize.

According to Professor Adamu Rabiu of the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR) Zaria, who is the Principal Investigator for TELA Maize (GM maize) project in Nigeria, Fall Armyworm could cost 80 per cent yield losses if not properly managed.

TELA maize is a new maize variety that is Water Efficient, meaning that it is drought tolerant and also fights insects and pests such as Fall Armyworm.

TELA maize project is a continuation of the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) project which made significant progress in the breeding work. The TELA maize project expanded into Nigeria in 2019, which presented an opportunity for Nigeria’s scientists, researchers, and farmers to benefit from transgenic drought-tolerant and insect-protected maize varieties.

Professor Adamu said preliminary findings noted that under stem borer and fall armyworm infestation, the TELA maize varieties gave over 2 tons yield advantage relative to the best varieties currently being grown by farmers.

The increase in yield is huge because according to the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), “Africa harvests 29 million hectares of maize, and as the largest producer, Nigeria produced 1.69 tons per hectare in 2019, its highest production rate”.

Speaking on the release of the new maize variety, Professor Ishyaku said “the first step has been accomplished; one of the hybrid varieties has been released, once the seeds are multiplied in a good quantity, these seeds can start selling.

“The actual TELA (drought tolerant and insect resistant) will have to go through another year of multiplication before it will be available. So, we are still on that target of 2022 when it will be released.

Professor Adamu said these preliminary findings from the first phase of the trials also showed that maize farmers in the country stand to benefit when the maize is commercialized as the varieties will save farmers production cost up to hundreds of millions of naira from pesticide spray to the control stem borer and the fall armyworm.

He said to control the pest, farmers are expected to spray at least three different types of pesticides a minimum of three times in each season.

Professor Ishyaku during a press briefing on TELA maize said Nigerian farmers would earn about N9 billion annually cultivating this new maize variety.

“The savings farmers will make from this maize variety is estimated to be over N3 billion from insecticide spray of 500 hectares land and over N6 billion from drought effects,” he said.

Farmer’s Testimonies

Sanusi Dankawu, a maize and beans farmer said the seeds have high potentials, “it’s like the yield are therefore going to be doubled because as a farmer, to get higher yield one of the secrets is using seeds that have high potentials

“Using this variety, one can get triple the use of the old variety that we have been using that indicates that this variety has high potentials,” he noted.

Another beans farmer, Khalid Salihu said that he spends less planting GM beans compared to planting the local variety. Salihu said in a hectare of beans, he saves over N20,000 he spends buying chemicals to control Pod Borer insects because the GM beans resist the insect.

Salihu explained that “the difference is that the GM beans has no infestation of Pod Borer insect compared with the conventional cowpea which when I planted, was attacked by the insect even though I have sprayed the two varieties, yet the insect still attacked the conventional variety but the Bt. Beans resisted it.”

He said he sprayed just 3 times on the GM beans in order to control other pests attacking the crop, while he needed to spray up to 9 times on the variety of the conventional bean in order to control both the Maruca Vitrata and other insects.

“I sprayed the chemical 3 times on GM beans while with the conventional beans, we spray at 6 days interval with a total of 7 to 9 sprays.

“Cultivating 1 hectare of conventional variety of cowpea, a farmer would spend about N26,000 to purchase chemical and labour, but for GM beans, I used and half litres of chemical which cost about N6,000.”

In terms of the Pod, Salihu said they are the same but the GM beans produce a slightly bigger seed compared to the conventional variety. Regarding the maturity, the farmer said the GM beans needs about 70 days to mature for harvest while the conventional one takes about 85 days to mature.

It is glaring that GM maize and beans could be the driving force in Nigeria’s quest to achieve food security. Therefore, it is important for the Nigerian government to support Nigerian scientists at all levels in order to get these crops in the hands of farmers.

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

We Have Not Had Water Supply In Months ― Abeokuta Residents

In spite of the huge investment in the water sector by the government and international organisations, water scarcity has grown to become a perennial nightmare for residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. This report x-rays the lives and experiences of residents in getting clean, potable and affordable water amidst the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state…