Agriculture

Our conventional farming method cannot guarantee food security —DG NABDA

THE Director General, National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), Professor Abdullahi Mustapha has said that the country’s normal way of farming which is devoid of modern technologies cannot guarantee food security.

Professor Mustapha noted that the country’s farming population is decreasing, hence the need to adopt modern technologies like biotechnology becomes necessary.

The NBDA DG said this at a One-Day Sensitisation Workshop for Council Chairmen, Religious Cleric, Traditional Rulers, Farmers and Extension Agents From Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council.

The theme of the Workshop is ‘Community Empowerment Through Agricultural Biotechnology: The Role of Council Chairmen, Clerics, Monarchs, Extension Worker and Farmers’.

Professor Mustapha who was represented by the Country Coordinator of Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB), Dr Rose Gidado, said the meeting is very critical because Nigeria has reached a stage where an average citizen is finding it difficult to provide food for himself and his dependent because the farming method is no longer productive and the population is growing rapidly.

“The reason for this is not far-fetched. We have continued to plant on the same size of land that is depleted every year to urbanization, desertification and other vulnerabilities associated with climate change. We lose a substantial portion of our agricultural land annually.

“Let me also inform you that our farming population is not getting younger. The age of the average farmer in Nigeria is about 60 years, the youths are all going into the city for white collar jobs, leaving the feeding of over 200 million people entirely in the hands of aged men and women”, he said.

He said the essence of inviting the traditional rulers, clerics and others is to inform them about the latest innovation Nigeria has embraced in providing affordable, safe, and nutrient rich food to the populace.

“Biotechnology and its tools have proven to provide spot on solutions to most of the challenges facing agricultural productivity. With biotechnology, we can undertake precision agriculture that brings about increased yields, safe and clean harvest.

Already, our farmers have started celebrating as we have successfully released some varieties of improved crops to ensure they maximally benefit from this technology that other countries have been using for over 25 years.

He said in Africa, leaders have shown interest in adopting modern agricultural biotechnology because of its potential to address hunger and unemployment.

Modern biotechnology practice, which uses genetic modification tools, will provide safer, cheaper, better, quality, less waste, less energy, more environmentally friendly and more sustainable products.

Hence, application of biotechnology to agriculture will ensure the production of significantly more food on less land with less water in conditions of increasingly unpredictable climate and market, with less manual labour as well as reduce the amount of waste and losses and produce more nutritious and safe food.

In his address, the National President of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN). Arc Kabir Ibrahim, said the recently released and commercialized genetically modified beans has the potential of helping Nigeria to close the deficit of nearly 500,000 MT now being experienced and also enable it to be a net exporter of the commodity to all of Africa through AfCFTA and the rest of the world through sustainable Agribusiness.

He said farmers will spend less on insecticides and labour and thereby mitigate losses due to insect infestation especially the dreaded pod borer which is known to wipe out about 75 per cent to sometimes 100 per cent of cowpea plantation.

I can testify to the efficacy of the PBR cowpea because I have planted it and sprayed insecticide only twice instead of 8-10 times. The yield is also quite remarkable.

The BT cotton is also resistant to insects and drought with an enhanced yield. The fear of GM as expressed by the Anti-GMO activists is not supported by good science as I have personally attended international meetings and held several discussions all over the world to come to the conclusion that GM crops do not cause any disease especially as they are certified by the Biosafety Agency of Nigeria before being released.

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