In this report, KENNETH AZAHAN analyses the gains Nigeria will make if the House of Representatives replicates the feats achieved by its counterpart, the Senate, in passing the Biosafety Bill before the end of its tenure
Recently, the upper chamber of the National Assembly passed the bill for an act to establish the National Biosafety Management Agency charged with the responsibility of providing regulatory framework, institutional and administrative mechanism for safety measures in the application of modern biotechnology in Nigeria.
The Lower Chamber is also expected to do same before the bill will be transmitted to the president for his assent. It would be recalled that the 6th Assembly passed the bill in the year 2011 but failed to get the president’s assent before the end of the Assembly. Interestingly, members of the National Assembly revisited it in view of the potentials of the bill.
Expectedly, this development will serve as a new impetus to Nigerian agricultural scientists who have long argued for passage of the biosafety bill into law with a view to leveraging on the country’s opportunities in a market which commercial value in the area of genetic materials alone has been valued at over $500 billion dollars.
Due to legal constraints, Nigeria has been missing out in the application of biotechnology, hence the need for the country’s lower legislative chamber, House of Representatives to do the needful by replicating the passage of biosafety bill.
The chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, Emmanuel Bwacha while speaking at a public hearing on the subject explained that there was need for adequate modalities to be put in place to protect Nigerians against any adverse effects that may arise from GMOs technological misuse.
The director-general, National Biotechnology Development Agency, NABDA, Professor Lucy Ogbadu, on her part, argued that the absence of biosafety law in the country might make Nigeria a consumer of foreign genetically modified organism, GMOs, foods such as maize products, instead of being a producer thereby holding Nigerian farmers hostages of their foreign counterparts.
According to her, the agricultural transformation agenda of government calls for the development of GM cotton to make Nigeria cotton competitive in the local and export markets. “Biosafety law will make GM cotton for Nigeria a reality. International partners are wary of doing business with Nigeria in the absence of an enabling law”.
The DG also hinted that there were strong indications that Nigerians are currently consuming uncertified GMOs unknown to them because of the importation of food items from countries that produce GMOs.
“The safety of these imported GMOs cannot be guaranteed if there is no biosafety law to ensure that they are tested suitable and confirmed for our environment and health before consumption.
“The absence of biosafety law will make it impossible for Nigeria to develop its referred varieties and continue to depend on imported ones. Business benefits from the technology will be an underground enterprise, denying genuine corporate entities opportunity to participate transparently.”
Absence of a biosafety law has made it difficult for the agency to effectively perform its statutory functions and bring the benefits of the technology to the country, she noted.
Many countries of the world have taken the initiative to embrace GM including African countries who are already tapping the benefits of the global market.
For instance, Burkina –Faso, one of the first countries in Africa to approve genetically modified crops like cotton is reaping the benefits. Farmers there
had cultivated about 690, 976 hectares as at 2013 compared to 615,796 hectares in 2012, equivalent to a 12% increase over 2012 despite the fact that global hectares of cotton were down significantly by 10 to 15%.
Out of 690,971 total cotton hectares, 474,229 hectares or 69% were planted to Bt cotton, BGII, an increase of 51% in 2013 from 313,781 hectares in 2012. Based on average cotton holding of 3.16 hectares the number of farmers growing Bt cotton in 2013 was approximately 150,072.
In Nigeria, cotton production is put at 533.31 metric tones far below what is obtained in Burkina Faso, despite being the country with the largest arable land. Challenge facing cotton farmers in Nigeria is majorly access to quality seeds, which Burkina Faso farmers have through BT cotton.
Cowpea (beans) is another area the biosafety law would have given Nigerian farmers advantage. Despite been the largest producer and consumer of cowpea in the world, its production capacity has continued to suffer attacks from pest known as Maruca which hampers yield.
According to statistics from the World Food and Agricultural Organisation, FAO, Nigeria produces average of 2.58 million metric tons of beans between 2001- 2010. Despite being the largest producer, the produce does not tally with the annual consumption rate of the commodity in the country which is estimated at 2.7 million tons.
Arising from the statistics, Nigeria has a deficit of over 250,000 tons, which is made up through imports from other sub-Saharan regions like Niger, Bokina-Faso, Mali among others.