Experts in Agriculture have reported that Nigeria and other parts of Africa face imminent hunger and in a special way over 3 million Somalians face imminent famine and food insufficiency.
The experts and discussants gave this hint during a 1-day South East Biotech- Biosafety Sensitisation Workshop themed, “The Role of Biosafety Regulation and Modern Biotechnology Towards Realizing Economic Diversifications In Nigeria”, held Monday in Enugu.
The experts and officials from the National Biotechnology Development Agency and the partnering host, Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu, and the National Biosafety Management Agency and Programme for Biosafety, USA, underscored the need for the adaptation of Genetic Modified Organisms, GMOs technology to boost food production and sufficiency.
They stated that conventional food production cannot adequately cater for the growing population of Nigeria now hovering above the 200 million.
Speaking earlier in an address of welcome, the Vice-Chancellor of Godfrey Okoye University, Rev Fr Prof Dr Christian Anieke, who was represented by the institution’s Deputy Vice Chancellor (DVC), Rev. Prof Sylvia Nwachukwu, said Godfrey Okoye University was involved in the sciences as well as other fields of knowledge that enhanced human life, including GMO research and development.
“This has made it possible for the university to operate and run a GMO centre and laboratory that serves as a hub for other universities to tap, and over 200 secondary school students have been trained at the centre on genetics”, she explained.
In his opening remarks, the Director General of the National Biotechnology Development Agency, Prof Abdulahi Mustapha, noted that the workshop for Southeast was part of on-going efforts to increase outreach and sensitisation on Modern Biotechnology practice and Biosafety regulation in agriculture in the country.
“Nigeria is currently at a crossroads in view of looming food crisis and this requires that all hands must be on deck to fashion out strategies on how to improve and boost agricultural productivity to guarantee food and nutritional security.
“In the last 30 years, we were comfortable with agricultural productivity because then we had less people to feed and the soil was very productive, so, even with aged farming population, we did not envisage food crisis. But today, we cannot afford such luxury as most of our population go to bed hungry on daily basis.
“The sensitisation workshop is to among other things, open our eyes to the fact that we cannot continue to rely on the aged population to feed the nation of over 200 million people.
“We can also not rely on the same piece of land to be as productive as it was 20 years ago. The time has come for us as a nation to fully embrace technologies that will change our farming experiences. It is based on this reality that we are all gathered here today,’’
“In the last decade, scientists across the country have been working, seeking for solutions to the challenges confronting our farmers especially as it relates to yield potentials of our legumes”, he said.
Prof Mustapha stated further that “the difference between agricultural yield in Nigeria and other parts of the world is not only alarming but very disturbing.
“Our legumes are not performing according to their potentials, hence, the introduction of technologies to ensure that our quest for food and nutritional security is guaranteed”, he concluded.