Nigeria Content Online

The nation spends
N4.2 trillion every year to import food despite its rich agricultural
potential, said Gbenga Makanjuola, Chairman House of Representatives
Committee on Agriculture.

Mr. Makanjuole said
yesterday in Abuja at a workshop on agricultural biotechnology
organized by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation that prior
to the emergence of oil in the 1970s, Nigeria had been a major exporter
of agricultural commodities.

“With a Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) of about $40 billion, Nigeria is Africa’s second
largest economy, yet over two thirds of the population lives below the
poverty line of $1 per day,” he said.

He said a concerted
effort should be made to improve the performance of agriculture,
agro-processing, and trade as well as the nation’s infrastructure to
enable Nigeria take fuller advantage of emerging opportunities in the
domestic and international markets.

Technology to the rescue

Mr. Makanjuola
advocated the application of agricultural biotechnology for improved
food production, sustainable socio-economic development, food security
as well job creation in the country.

“The technology has
numerous potentials which include the ability to increase food
production, limit the use of pesticides, reduce the amount of land
required for farming and improve nutritional value of food varieties
for Nigerians,” he said.

Mr Makanjuola
allayed fears about the potentially harmful effect of genetically
modified products. He said that a biosafety bill which is currently
before the Senate will act as a national biotechnology policy. He said
it will define the modules of practice of the technology and the
handling of the products to ensure safety for human health.

“South Africa and
Burkina Faso are examples of two countries in Africa that have embraced
[genetically modified] foods with the passage of biosafety bills,” he
said.