Expert Harps On Genetically Modified Crops

Genetically Modified Crops (GMC) can be used to lure the youth to agriculture, Prof Solomon Bamidle , Director-General of National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), has said.

Solomon said this in an interview with newsmen on the sidelines of the biotechnology study tour of the United States and the 12th edition of the International Symposium on Genetically Modified Organisms.

He attributed the unwillingness of the youth to engage in farming to the laborious nature of conventional agriculture.

The director-general said with genetically modified crops, farming would be much easier and cheaper.

He said the youth preferred white collar jobs to farming because they were lazy, a development which he said, had become a global issue.

“For Nigeria, the problem of not getting our youths to go into agriculture can be addressed by the use of GMO.

“If we have the herbicide-tolerant maize for example, the herbicide-tolerant soya beans whereby our people do not need to weed.

“Even to cut the grass around their homes is a problem now, they use the herbicide to kill grass how much more when you talk about having huge hectares.

“So I can now decide that I want to have a white collar job than being a farmer because  I will not sweat unnecessarily.

“The other is on the aspect of pest resistance: a lot of money go into buying these chemicals if we can eliminate those, then we can farm of course cheaper.

“Of course it’s going to give us opportunity to spare some money: at the end the pest would not destroy the crop so you get a higher yield: you are not sharing your yield with the pest. With these, a lot can then come in.”

Solomon also spoke on the effect of not passing the Bio-safety Bill.

“Not having the bill passed is making us short-change ourselves because the Direct Foreign Investment, which our government and our people so much need is not flowing.”