Dr Rose Gidado, the Country Coordinator, Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB), has called for investment in biotechnology research in the areas of vaccine and drug development.
Gidado said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday that investing in herbicide-tolerant soybean, maize, and cotton among others would lead to cleaner environment and industrial development.
The OFAB Country Coordinator explained that agricultural biotechnology involved scientific techniques used in improving plants, animals and microorganisms.
“Based on an understanding of DNA, scientists have developed solutions to increase agricultural productivity.
“It starts from the ability to identify genes that may confer advantages on certain crops and the ability to work with such characteristics very precisely,’’ Gidado said.
She added that agricultural biotechnology enhanced breeders’ ability to make improvements in crops and livestock which were not possible with traditional crossing of related species.
The expert expressed optimism that agricultural biotechnology would play a role in ameliorating the current and future state of malnourishing pandemic beyond providing increased yields.
“Recent work applied to plants and livestock has indicated that gene editing in agricultural biotech may effectively increase desirable nutritional metabolic and reduce anti-nutrients,” she said.
Gidado further said that gene editing could also alter macronutrients in ways advantageous to human health.
According to her, biotech crops will ensure abundance of healthy foods with less dependence on pesticides, decrease production risks for farmers and boost agricultural yield per land mass, among others.
She also underscored the necessity for Nigeria and Africa as a whole to embrace agricultural biotechnology.
Gidado said that according to the Food and Agricultural Organisation and similar organisations, out of the total number of undernourished people in the world more than 282 million people were from Africa.
She hinted that more alarming was the fact that the figure kept increasing with 118 million more people facing hunger in 2020 than in 2019.
“Recently, the war between Ukraine and Russia has further thrown several millions across the globe into severe hunger and malnutrition, more specially regions across Africa that depend on these conflicting countries for food supply.’’
She said Nigerian youths should be encouraged and empowered to embrace modern agriculture as this was necessary to replace the country’s ageing farming population.
She expressed optimism that the active involvement of the youth and women in modern agriculture would also be a game changer, with guarantee for massive employment and food production.
Gidado further said that biotechnology tools would make agriculture efficient, smart and pleasurable.
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Accordingly, she said it was imperative for government to set aside funds for indigenous technologies and provide enabling laws to protect them.
