Agency Lauds Nigeria On Genome Editing Technology

The Head Supervisor at Centre of Excellence in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI),   South Africa, Dr. Olalekan Akinbo, says Nigeria has created enabling environment for genome editing technology to thrive.
Akinbo, an official of the African Union Development Agency-New  Partnership For African Development (AUDA-NEPAD), stated this in an interview with newsmen at a workshop to develop a Genome Editing National Communication Strategy for Nigeria in Lagos recently.
He said the workshop consisted of two parts: the first was to develop a genome editing national communication strategy for Nigeria which lasted from December 12 to 14.
The second part was a Policy-Science-Practice CoP Dialogue to Enhance the Domestication and Use of Genome Editing Science, from December 15 to 16.
He said in the second part of the workshop, Nigeria played host to five other African countries of the African Union.
“Nigeria is playing host critically because of the role the country has played about the technology. Nigeria has created the enabling environment for genome editing to thrive, they have the policy, the regulation and they have the scientists that are working in this space”, he said.
Akinbo stated that cassava was called an orphaned crop because, “it is yet to get the attention of multinationals to improve on its productivity”.
According to him, cassava is a crop of interest in Africa and when indigenous scientists focus on traditional crops of interest, “it gives the leverage that there was no competition with the industry”.
According to him, an improved cassava crop would be beneficial to the livelihood of the people.
Aknibo explained that genome editing technology was not about introducing foreign information into the plant.
He said rather, the technology took advantage of the original information stored in the plant’s DNA which was not useful to the plant, to help the plant maximize its actual yield.
Explaining further, the AU official said fertilisers and insecticides were applied to plants due to the condition of their health in order to help them grow.
“But as a result of the advancement of knowledge, genome editing can be used to mitigate poor health of plants by using the characteristics found in its DNA to improve on its health. When the plant’s health is improved, its actual productivity would be maximised”, he said.