Food security: Nigeria to release drought-tolerant maize variety

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Following the recent announcement by President Bola Tinubu declaring a state of emergency on food security, the Director General of National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), Professor Abdullahi Mustapha, has said that the country is in the final year to release the new maize variety called TELA.

In 2021 during an on-farm trial of the TELA maize which is transgenic in Zaria, the crop was able to resist Fall Armyworm on the farm and also showed a significant resilience on the field.

The maize which was developed at Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria is water efficient, drought tolerant and fights insects and pests such as Fall Armyworm.

Professor Mustapha while speaking recently with journalists at biotechnology and Biosafety Sensitization Workshop for Senior Editors in Abuja said the maize is now at the last stage of varietal release where some trials would be carried out in different parts of the country with proper assessment of the performance of the crop.

“NABDA was also formed to uphold the Federal Government policy on food security and we have already started, remember the cowpea that has been released and people are very happy about it and now maize which is very important component for the development of the economy in Nigeria is on the pipeline to be released and also soybean.

“So we are working hard to see that we have met with what Mr President said and we are happy to align ourselves with the President’s vision and the President’s way of trying to pull the country together to make sure that we are self-sufficient in food production.

“This maize has to go through so many processes before it is released, now it is at the stage of varietal release where a trial is supposed to be conducted for the proper assessment for it to be released in the country. I think we are in the last year of assessment, the maize has been given to so many sections of the country where it is going to be planted and assessed and after the conclusion it is going to be released in the country”, he said.

Professor Mustapha further stated that biotechnology can be used to solve so many problems, but Nigeria is not harnessing the importance of technology maximally.

“It is ethical that whenever you are going to deploy research that is a product of biotechnology, you tell people what it is all about so that people will know that this is the product of biotechnology research and they will form opinions and positive opinions for that matter.

“There are people that may try to give misinformation about the technology, and if they will give misinformation about the technology, they will use the media, and if the media is being enlightened about the whole process of the research of biotechnology, it means you are well informed and if it come to your table that somebody is trying to misinform people using, but because you are well informed, you will try to balance the story.

“This is why we gathered the media here, especially the editors where the news goes through for them to filter and find out the truth about everything and balance the story”, he added.

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