Food shortage: Stakeholders seek thriving environment for biotechnology

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STAKEHOLDERS have called on the government to create an enabling environment for biotechnology to thrive in order to build, boost and sustain a national economy.

The stakeholders spoke at a Biosafety and Biotechnology Sensitisation Workshop for North Central farmers and Agricultural Extension Agents in Abuja on Thursday.

The Director-General of National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), Professor Abdulahi Mustapha in his presentation, said population growth has placed greater demand on land, water, forests, minerals and energy resources as food production does not match population growth rate.

Professor Mustapha said the world population will rise to 9.5 billion by 2050 and a quarter of the population will be in Africa.

Abdullahi noted that agricultural transformation in Africa requires a new approach focusing on science, technology and Innovations to increase productivity for food security, and generate surplus for trade and export.

While noting that biotechnology is the way to go to overcome the challenges, he said several advancements have been made recently in Africa towards biotechnology application.

With biotechnology, he said there will be more abundant and healthy food as farmers would depend less on pesticides.

He said: “There will be decreased production risks for farmers and high yields to feed a hungry, growing world population.

In her remarks, the Country Coordinator, Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB), Dr Rose Gidado advocated the need to unbundle the application of this technology for national growth to secure popular support from the masses.

Gidado observed that developed nations of the world took advantage of the advantages biotechnology provided by investing in technology and growing their economies.

She said the objective of the workshop, among others, was to implement proactive communications strategy and policy, implement outreach and awareness framework, based on evidence.

“The need for safe biotechnology application, especially in agriculture is integral in the roadmap towards achieving the set objectives of improving productivity, quality of food crops and income of farmers.

“It is therefore important to sensitise the North central on the benefits of modern biotechnology practice to counter most health- related claims made by the antis”.

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