Stakeholders Urge Passage Of Bio-Safety Bill

The National Assembly has
convened a public hearing on a bill for an act to establish the National Bio-Safety Law for the country.
Speaking at the public hearing, the President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) Mr Kabiru Salman stated that the bill would improve the livelihood of small holder farmers in the country.
He said it would further promote food security in Nigeria.
“As farmers, we embrace biotechnology and the passage of the bill will make it possible for us to deploy technology especially GM which we know will bring about high yield and ensure safety.
According to Salman, farmers could resort to smuggling of GMO seeds that they consider would enhance their savings without assessing the risks involved, if the bill was not passed into law on time.
Urging the quick passage of the bill, he said the country might face a problem of quartering the  purity of its agricultural products for the international market, thereby losing her international partners and foreign exchange.
His position was supported by the representative of the Cotton Association, Mr Samuel Ishaku who said the country’s cotton farmers would become rich like their Burkina Faso counterparts and other West African countries that were into BT cotton cultivation.
He urged the National Assembly to pass the bill adding that having a law in place for the regulation of the activities of farmers would enable members of the association make more money from cotton cultivation.
The Senate President, David Mark said that the issue of biotechnology remained an international one and Nigeria as a signatory to the Cartagena Protocol on Bio-Safety cannot shy away from having in place a concrete regulation.
The Senate President who was represented by Senator Atiku Bagudu, explained that global population was growing geometrically and would need to be fed.
“The bill is going to provide guidance in the areas of agriculture stable environment and wealth creation” he said.