By Grace Samuel
The National Biotechnology Research and Development Agency (NBRDA) has allayed fears associated with Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).
Recently, there has been serious campaign against GMO crops in Nigeria as it is said to have adverse effect on both human and soil health, especially as adequate tests are not carried out on them before introducing to the markets.
But the Director of Agricultural Biotechnology at the National Biotechnology Research and Development Agency (NBRDA), Dr Rose Gidado, has stated that Nigeria need science and innovative farming to achieve food security.
Gidado, who spoke during an interactibe session with journalists at the Biotechnology and Biosafety Forum in Abuja, highlighted the potential of biotechnology in Nigeria’s quest to achieving its goal of ensuring that no child goes hungry.
Gidado noted that biotechnology has been successful in enhancing food security in countries like the USA, Canada, Argentina, and Brazil. She stressed that Nigeria has the potential to achieve the same success and become food secure with the help of biotechnology.
According to her food security is a pressing issue in Nigeria and innovation, science, and technology are the only means to achieve it.
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She posited that biotechnology practices hold tremendous potential for enhancing food security in Nigeria, regretting the misinformation about GMOs.
The NBRDA Director, said misinformation and panic surrounding biotechnology in Africa has made it difficult to make informed decisions and emphasized the importance of consumers accepting the technology to ensure that farmers can sell their produce.
“Food security is of utmost importance in the country, it is a matter of emergency and you cannot achieve that food security without the use of innovation, science, and technology, and we have this modern biotechnology practice which has a lot of potential for food security enhancement and for us to really get where we want to be, where no child goes to bed hungry.
“Biotechnology contributes a lot to food security, we have seen the success stories of other countries that have adopted this modern technology, like the USA, Canada, Argentina, and Brazil. We were all in the same space with Brazil, but now Brazil has moved far and today they are food secured with the help of biotechnology.
“Here in Africa, when the adoption of this technology came in for the government of Africa to adopt, most of these people have been inundated with a lot of negative information about this technology, so taking decision became a big problem because of the misinformation and disinformation, causing confusing and panic in the minds of people that products of GMOs cause cancer and diseases.
“So, with all this negative information, we have been working hard, in fact, to be able to get to where we are today in Nigeria because of advocacy and awareness creation that we have put on by the OFAB since 2003.
“We have three crops today being commercialized, but why we are worried is that this is the time that we should reap the benefits of this, commercialization has started, and farmers have had access to these seeds, but with this negative information going on, we need the consumers to accept the technology because when the farmers fail to sell off their produce, it will become useless.
“So, we felt as government agencies, we cannot work against one another, the National Biotechnology Research and Development Agency and the National Biosafety Management Agency will have to work together,” she stated.
