GMOs: The Nigerian Milestone As West Africa's Launch Pad
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Loading... - Andrew Igho
- 09 Jun 2022
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The mere mention of the acronym GMO elicits some shivers in the nerves of most Africans. Although the body of knowledge on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) is swelling, the naysayers are still holding a fair share of the people’s mind..
The reason is simple. Just like every bad news, to hear that GMOs are the causes of cancers and even other health conditions whose causes have been known for ages seems to have gained more popularity among the people than the problems they are solving.
It remains an absurd irony that the introduction of genetic engineering as a technological tool for solving some of the continent’s age-long problems like the persistent food crisis is being resisted by a group of people.
The anti-GMOs crusaders have used anecdotes to preach against the introduction of genetically engineered crops, saying they would result in adverse consequences on people and the environment. Incidentally, the preachers have failed to explain their deductions with scientific evidence.
Unknown to the people, the anti-GMOs may have been recruited by major producers of chemical inputs like fertilizers, herbicide and pesticides to enable them hold on to the market, despite evidence that persistent use of such has rendered most of Africa’s soils unproductive.
Countries in West Africa are losing millions in hard currencies to purchase chemicals that are mostly substandard and can cause deaths and ageing among farmers struggling to keep insects and pests away from their crops.
The situation is worsened by low farm productivity due to increasing cases of insect and pest infestationand climate change.
The good news is that some countries like South Africa and Nigeria are turning these challenges into opportunities using biotechnology as the tool.
Scientists at Nigeria’s Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR) at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in Kaduna State, have successfully incorporated the Bacillus thuringensis (Bt) genes into the Nigerian varieties of beans.
Sampea 20-T, the resultant product of painstaking scientific research, released in 2021 for commercialization after nine years of high-profile vetting and trials has proven to resist the damaging insect larva-Maruca vitratacommonly called butterfly.
Prof. Abdullahi Mustapha, director general of the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), the body that oversees and promotes biotechnology research and appropriate utilization in Nigeria, described the burden that the introduction of the Pod Borer Resistant (PBR) Cowpea has taken off the Nigerian farmer thus: “A farmer can loose everything he has cultivated to this damaging insect larvae- Maruca. This new variety, Sampea 20-T requires two to three sprays for a planting season to control the pest instead of spraying up to eight times as in the case of the local variety. This is the working of Biotechnology.”
Hitherto, the Bt Cotton was similarly released.
Prof Mustapha said both varieties of Genetically Modified Crops were developed and released by the scientific community to meet specific needs of the people and address some of the challenges that hitherto could not be mitigated using the conventional breeding methods.
Sub-Saharan Africa has, in recent times, recorded the most rapid rate of agricultural production growth since 2000 more than any other region of the world. Read More…
