GMOs: Addressing the myth, fallacies, benefits

IN recent times, the issue of the safety of food that contains Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) has become topical in Nigeria, as oppositions have intensified their campaign against the technology using all forms of communication to push their message home.

This kind of rejection is expected because new technologies are not easily accepted wholeheartedly even if it has come to addressing any prevailing issue, GMO cannot be an exception.

Nigeria over the years has been struggling to find a sustainable means of addressing food insecurity as it continued to witness surging population and increased cases of malnutrition and hunger.

Food security has been the priorities of successive governments as they invest massively on food production, yet, hunger and malnutrition continue to fester across the population.

It is understood that a seed is the foundation of agriculture, and a good and quality seed is a road to sustainable agriculture. The missing link in all these efforts over the years to grow food is quality seed and technology.

In getting good seed, the conventional breeding method does not have a place, biotechnology which is a scientific tool has proven to offer a sustainable solution on quality seed.

Scientists in Nigeria, especially those at the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR), Ahmadu Bello University, (ABU), Zaria, with support from the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) and other partners, leveraged on the potentials of biotechnology to produce genetically modified seeds that can give quality and increased yield.

During a symposium on Biotechnology Crops: Myths, fallacies and facts, scientists took time to address these concerns raised by those who do not support the deployment of GMOs in Nigeria.

One of the concerns raised by these oppositions is the environmental impact of GMOs, but from study, it was learnt that the GM crops in Nigeria were developed to resist insects that would require farmers to use chemicals to control.

One of the major causes of environmental pollution is the excessive use of chemical insecticides on the farm. GM crops have addressed this challenge by requiring minimal chemical spray to perform optimally, unlike the conventional seeds which require multiple chemical sprays.

Professor Mohammed Ishiyaku, the Principal Investigator of Pod Borer Resistant Cowpea, said the modern tool of science was used to develop a variety that can now withstand the infestation of devastating insects.

So our farmers can now instead of spraying severally, maybe up to 8 times chemical insecticide to protect against this insect, they can now spray only twice and get a good crop, because the new variety protects itself against this insect which causes up to 80 percent of yield loss in the field.

On the health implication of GMOs which the Anti have used as their selling point, Professor Ishiyaku challenged the authorities to subject their products to scientific scrutiny and then the products be adopted on the merit of their performance based on science not based on fabrications.

All that we do in terms of improving our national worth in terms of agriculture is a product of science and all that comes out should only be judged on its scientific merit. We improve the performance of crops using science tools to breed new varieties in response to problems being faced by farmers, for example, resistance to insect instead of spraying chemicals, we can develop a variety that can protect itself or resistance to disease instead of spraying chemical to protect against the disease, we developed a variety that can protect itself against the disease.

In addition to that, we have now gone further in science that you can now specifically target the heritable material that can confer resistance to disease or tolerate drought and put across species. For example, I can take a good character from rice and put inside soybean or a good character from soybean and put inside cotton, this is called genetic transformation, this is a new approach in science and that was what we used in the institute to develop the pod borer resistant cowpea.

Before that, more than 15 thousand different types of cowpeas were checked to find the source of resistance to this damaging insect but there is none. But this modern tool of science was used to develop a variety that can now withstand the infestation of this devastating insect, so our farmers can now instead of spraying severally, maybe up to 8 times chemical insecticide to protect against this insect, they can now spray only twice and get a good crop, because the new variety protects itself against this insect which causes up to 80 percent of yield loss in the field.

Similarly, the technique was used to develop a new variety of maize which is resistant to other insects and so on.

So, to make Nigeria think that we cannot use science is very retrogressive and any individual who is attempting to slow down our progress and harvest the potentials of science and technology for our development is an enemy of Nigeria, but at the same time, we are saying that all the products of science that we have developed, let them be subjected to scientific screening and then be adopted on the merit of their performance based on science not based on fabrication, he said.

Professor Muhammed Umar, Cowpea Breeder, at IAR while harping on the need to adopt biotechnology said Nigeria for example in terms of food security, is in 97th position out of 140 countries, which means that it is food insecured despite that it is the largest producer of cassava and cowpea.

Umar explained that most of the cowpea that is produced in the country is bombarded with heavy chemicals to protect them against insects, otherwise it will not get a good harvest.

So, to address these issues, we came up with a new variety of cowpea that is resistant to pod borer. Pod borer is an insect that damages the flower of the cowpea, if the flower is damaged, that means there will be no pod, if the pod escapes, it will burst into the pod and damage the grains, meaning that we will get either low or poor harvest at the end. This is what is limiting the production of cowpea, and also limiting the demand of cowpea.

So, now we have a technology, which is modern biotechnology, to develop this new cowpea called SAMPEA 20-T. this is the cowpea that will withstand these challenges and also at least produce more.

In contrast for example in one hectare it is hard for a farmer to harvest 600kg of cowpea, but with is new cowpea variety, when the farm is well managed, the farmer can get not less than two tons of cowpea, in a well-managed farm, he can get 2.5 tons, meaning you can get 25 bags per hectare.

If you do some analogy, if Nigeria can grow cowpea in 1 million hectares, in every hectare if you can get 25 bags which means we are getting 25 million bags, if the cost of one bag for example is N100,000, if you multiply that with 25 million bags, you will get N2.5 trillion unlike the conventional one, he explained.

It is worthy of note that an international workshop for Islamic scholars, held December 1-2nd 2010 in Penang, Malaysia, adopted a resolution that accepts genetically modified (GM) crops and GM food products as halal (or acceptable under Islamic law), as long as all ingredients used to develop them are from halal sources.

The workshop, entitled “Agri-biotechnology: Shariah Compliance, was jointly organised by the Malaysian Biotechnology Information Centre (MABIC) and the Malaysia-based International Halal Integrity Alliance (IHIA).

The participants included high-ranking ulamas (Islamic legal scholars) from Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iran, Malaysia, and Indonesia, and scientists from Malaysia, the U.S., Iran, and Egypt

According to Professor Rabiu Adamu, the Principal Investigator of TELA maize, with over 220 million people, Nigeria is the most populated country in Africa and the seventh in the World.

He said however, around 84 million Nigerians, representing about 37 percent of the total population, live below the poverty line (WPF 2024).

Professor Adamu said in 2023 Nigeria was a beacon for investment opportunities, particularly in agriculture, which plays a central role in driving economic growth. He noted that Nigeria’s food security is under significant strain, with projections showing that 26.8 million Nigerians will face acute food insecurity by 2025.

While highlighting the importance of TELA maize variety in Nigeria, he said the new maize variety will target small and medium Scale farmers who need to uplift their socio-economic status to move from subsistence to higher income generation.

Boost productivity and substantially reduce Maize importation to conserve foreign exchange; Food is the second largest import after petroleum products. More Agripreneur and other business opportunities for the Agriculture seed industry and expertise in grains for exports. Bt Maize cultivation will have public health benefits, it reduces grain damage which predisposes it to Mycotoxins, he noted.

He said the new maize variety will greatly reduce use of pesticides and exposure to pesticides hazards to farmers, preserve beneficial insect populations, soil health, and overall ecosystem balance.

Professor Adamu further emphasized that the cultivation of Bt Maize will immensely reduce Nigerias importation of pesticides to manage Stem borers and fall army worms and save at least 256 million USD (4.31 Billion Naira) annually.

The Executive Director of IAR, Professor Ado Yusuf while presenting his remarks at the symposium, noted that as a public institution with a national mandate for the genetic improvement of crops, they are committed to ensuring that their research outcomes benefit all Nigerians.

Professor Yusuf, who was represented by Professor Lucius Bamaiyi, said the Institutes research is not conducted in isolation and it is driven by the needs of the people.

Whether it is developing drought-resistant crops or combating pest infestations, our goal is to improve the livelihoods of farmers and strengthen the agricultural sector. A recent example of our commitment is our intervention in Kaduna State during the 2023 ginger blight disease outbreak.

Farmers in the state faced near-total crop losses, threatening their incomes and food security. In response, IAR dispatched a team of scientists to assess the situation and developed over five thousand disease-free ginger seedlings using modern biotechnology techniques in our tissue culture laboratory.

He however, said that the Symposium is a platform for the scientists to dispel misconceptions, address fears, and present evidence-based facts about the benefits and safety of biotechnology.

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