By Obiabin Onukwugha
A researcher, Joyce Brown, has stated that Nigerian farmers and consumers lack sufficient knowledge of risks associated with use and consumption of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) foods.
The researcher also said, GMOs are not designed to build or strengthen local economies.
She said, in Nigeria, over 20 genetically modified products are approved for importation for various reasons – food, feed, processing, and field trials.
Brown, made this submission in a report on a study supported by the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF).
According to her, the study also revealed that farmers do not have sufficient knowledge about the Bt Cowpea, a pest resistant, as they rely on word from the agencies handing the products.
Brown said: “One of the key issues with GMOs in Nigeria is that citizens have no sufficient knowledge on the GM varieties approved for commercial use or those illegally imported into the country. In an interview in a community that have received the Bt Cowpea for planting, a farmer said he wouldn’t plant the crop variety because of the problem of pests. Clearly he doesn’t know exactly what it is the crop is supposedly designed to do.”
She revealed that there were key issues associated with the Bt Cowpea said to be resistant against the lepidopteran insect pest approved for commercial release in 2019.
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Key issues according to her are; “No molecular risk assessment was conducted and safety cannot be demonstrated; No measures to prevent gene flow from the Bt cowpea and next generation effects emerging from spontaneous hybridisation remains an area of major uncertainty and unknown.
“Not even one single feeding study with the whole food was performed; the safety of consumption of the Bt cowpea is therefore not shown and health risk assessment inconclusive.
“No data on the susceptibility of non-target organisms. Toxicity of Bt toxins is beyond the expected range of organisms”, adding that findings have shown an increase in the toxicity of Bt proteins when combined with protease inhibitors (PI), naturally produced in the cowpea.
Brown posited that labeling does not solve the problem of choice in Nigeria as as is obtainable in other climes because the majority of Nigerian citizens purchase food from open markets where items are sold in cups and measure.
“It is also not likely that people who sell these products or by-products as in akara (from beans), moi-moi (from beans), ogi (from maize), etc will put up a stand that their products are made with GM crops especially knowing the controversy surrounding them”, Brown said.
The researcher lamented that the National Biodiversity Management Act, 2015, does not guarantee human, animal or environmental safety in the country and that the composition of the Governing Board of the agency is arbitrary and constitutes serious conflict of interest.
“Nigeria has a National Biosafety Management Agency Act set up since 2015 to regulate the use of GMOs. This Act in its present state cannot guarantee human, animal or environmental safety.
“There are fundamental flaws in areas of risk assessments and management; access to information; public consultation and participation; liability and redress; the right to know; decision‐making and appeals and reviews. The composition of the Governing Board of the agency is arbitrary and constitutes serious conflict of interest.
- “For example, the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) which is the major promoter of the technology sits on that board, yet there is no sufficient representation of civil society and no representative of farmers and consumers. It doesn’t make sense for NABDA to be on the board since it is their conduct, their technology, and products that the law aims to regulate”, she added.
