Posted on May, 21, 2024 at 09:34 am
Nigeria has joined the conversation among countries considering the introduction of genetically modified crops into its agricultural system.
Conversations about GMOs became intense following the Federal Government’s approval of the commercial release of four varieties of GMO crops known as TELA maize by the National Committee on Naming, Registration, and Release of Crop Varieties, Livestock Breeds/Fisheries, headed by Prof Olusoji Olufajo, at its 33rd meeting at the National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology in Ibadan on January 11.
TELA maize, a project by the African Agriculture Technology Foundation, is genetically engineered for improved insect resistance and drought tolerance.
Following its commercial approval, concerns have been raised in some quarters about the safety and the perceived health and environmental impact of the genetically modified crop, and rightly so.
Some citizens expressed fears that consuming genetically modified food might affect or even alter the human body’s constituents.
In response to this, the Federal House of Representatives on Thursday (May 16), urged the Federal Government to suspend the commercialisation of genetically modified crops in Nigeria amid concerns over food and environmental safety and then mandated that its Committee on Agricultural Production and Services conduct an investigation into GMO introduction in Nigeria by the National Biosafety Management Agency and report back in four weeks.
The committee was also tasked to assess the potential health and environmental risks associated with the crops.
Despite the concerns, some agricultural experts expressed conviction that the introduction of GM crops into the Nigerian agricultural sector is a good thing while others called for caution.
The United States Agricultural Services projected that the yield of TELA maize could reach up to 10 tons per hectare if grown under good agronomic practices. This will be a sharp rise from an estimated 12.7 million metric tons of corn, with an average yield of 2.2 tons per hectare in the marketing year 2022/2023.
The TELA maize project by AATF is a public-private partnership working towards initiating the commercialisation of transgenic drought-tolerant and insect-protected maize varieties to enhance food security in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Genetically modified crops are plants whose DNAs have been altered by using genetic modification methods. Typically, the alteration is done to introduce a new trait that does not naturally occur in the plant. The seeds produced by these plants will then inherit the new trait.
The United Kingdom’s Royal Society, a fellowship of many of the world’s most eminent scientists and the oldest scientific academy, describes it as the genetic modification of plants involving adding a specific stretch of DNA into the plant’s genome, giving it new or different characteristics. This could include changing the way the plant grows or making it resistant to a particular disease.
The new traits are usually ones to make the plant resistant to infection, and diseases and increase its yields.
A professor of Genetics and Plant Breeding in the Faculty of Agriculture, Federal University Dutse, Usman Adamu, explained that the negative perception and reception a lot of people have about GMO crops was perhaps due to a fracas between insecticide-producing companies and plant companies.
Source: Punch