The
recent pronouncement of N14 billion grants for dry season farming by
federal government, undoubtedly, is a welcome development, considering
that such special grant was unprecedented, especially, when it is
targeted at boosting the chances of Nigeria in achieving food
sufficiency, particularly in rice production as planed by the federal
government.
But how far this grant will go remains unclear, given
that the Presidency is still withholding the bio-safety bill passed by
the National Assembly, which is expected to arm Nigerians farmers with
the latest technological tools and inputs to compete favourably with the
food producing majors across the globe.
By Emmanuel Elebeke
The bill is one of the bills passed by the National Assembly that have been gathering dust on the desk of President Jonathan.
Although
President Goodluck Jonathan has set up a committee to
vet the long
awaited biosafety bill as passed by the National Assembly before he
could sign it into law, the new law is expected to usher in a new era in
the deployment of biotechnology to boost food production, ensure food
security and reduce the high incidence of food importation.
Participants
at the 10th anniversary of African Agricultural Technology Foundation,
AATF seminar held in Abuja recently said, Nigeria’s dream of achieving
food sufficiency in 2015 will be a mirage, unless the country adopts
biotechnology in the agric sector.
To achieve these goals, they
were of the view that President needs to sign into law, the bio-safety
bill currently before him, which they believe would open a new vista for
massive production of food for local consumption and export,
irrespective of other reforms going on in the sector.
Agricultural
biotechnology is the application of technology to agriculture to make,
modify or improve on a product for the benefit of mankind.
When
the bill is signed into law, it is expected that Nigeria with vast
arable land and so many agricultural potentials would benefit more, as
it would make a significant economic impact on the populace by
contributing immensely to job creation, wealth creation, eradication of
hunger and malnutrition.
Farmers on their part, experts say, would
not require special skills or training to key into the benefits of the
initiative, as they are the end users of the agricultural biotechnology
product otherwise called Genetically Modified Organisms, GMOs; such as
seeds and plantlets, which are the same as conventional crops.
Speakers
at the seminar said the introduction of GM foods processing system in
Nigeria would multiply food production that would ensure food security,
improve nutritive value of food, improve agricultural practices by
minimizing use of chemicals such as herbicides and pesticides.
GMOs are organisms in which the genetic material, DNA has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally.
The technology is often called gene technology and allows selected
individual genes to be transferred from one organism into another, also
between related species. It is this method that is used to create GM
plants, which are used to grow GM food crops.
While, announcing
the N14 billion grants during the inauguration of the dry season farm
support programme held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, President
Goodluck Jonathan said the sum was reviewed upward by 56 per cent from
N9bn earmarked for the programme in 2013 because more states were now
part of it and promised to increase the financial support as more states
keyed into the project.
According to him, the resolve to expand
this dry season programme stemmed from federal government’s commitment
to ensure that farmers from October get what they need before the
commencement of the dry season.
Jonathan said he would expand the
Growth Enhancement Scheme to reach more farmers, adding that sometime
this year, the federal government would launch a fund for small and
medium scale farmers.
He admitted that agriculture remained the
largest contributor to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product and the
largest employer of labour.
“Our nation shall be green, our barns shall be filled and our farmers shall prosper,” Jonathan said.
On his part, the Minister of State for Agriculture, Alhaji Bukar Tijani
said he believed that biotechnology has the strong potential to achieve
sufficient food for every Nigerian, one of the aims of the
transformation agenda of the present adminis-tration, which is to ensure
food security for all Nigerian.
“The African Agricultural
Technology Foundation, AATF, through its synergy with NABDA does not
only ensure food security, but ensures the local farmers utilize
appropriate technologies such as biotechnology. One of their key
projects in Nigeria is the development of nitrogen-use, water efficient
and salt tolerant rice. This is key because Nigeria is the second
largest importer of rice in the world, about two million metric tons of
rice from countries like Thailand and China. The project would ensure
Nigeria is self sufficient in the production of rice and would boost the
countries revenue,” he added.
The Director-General of NABDA and
Chairman, Open Forum for Agricul-tural Biotechnology, Professor Bamidele
Solomon said though, he believed in the ability of President Goodluck
Jonathan in sign the bill into law soon to ensure food security in the
country, there was need to prioritise the importance in order to
fast-track the high food yielding process.
According to him, the
new law will usher in a new era in the deployment of biotechnology to
boost food production, ensure food security and reduce the high
incidence of food importation. Food production will soon take an upward
swing
He said, “Having a law will ensure the safe use of modern
biotechnology while protecting human health, the environment and
national biodiversity.
“It will also facilitate risk assessment
exercises, monitoring and enforcement measures relevant to import,
export, trans-boundary move-ment of the products of modern
biotechnology, laboratory and field testing/use of modern biotechnology
including handling, containment disposal, control, monitoring and
release of biotech products.
“Therefore, biotechnology research
will be given the opportunity to thrive as soon as the bio-safety
framework is in place. It will soon be signed into law.”
The global
convention by which the world keeps watch over biosafety issues is the
Convention on Biological Diversity, CBD. Health of Mother Earth
Foundation, HOMEF recently hosted an interaction around this convention
between experts and farmers.
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