Food Security in Nigeria: Is Biotechnology the Panacea? IV

Food Security in Nigeria: Is Biotechnology the Panacea? IV

The zenith of biotechnology in agricultural sciences may soon be attained sooner than later. It will be at a time described by my academic colleague Dr. Aliyu Ammani as "Agriculture of the future". In a facebook comment, He wrote "we in agriculture are working day and night to make food available to mankind. we hope to develop improved crop varieties and animals breeds that would beat your wildest imaginations. Imagine a day, when you plant your crop in the morning and harvest in the evening of the same day, imagine new breeds of chicken of the future, as the one taller than the average height of a man depicted in the picture,...". It is clear from the ongoing discussion  that biotechnological products are needed to meet the food requirements of the world and make it food secured with higher productivity of the mankind. Another unique benefit of these crops is the reduction in the need for any chemical inputs or inorganic fertilisers as some of them are bred to low inputs requirements or to be resistant to diseases and pests. Thus, some of them get rid of the need for pesticides and herbicides altogether. However, there are many fears - hiccups  associated with the products of biotechnology; some of these fears constitute serious impediment to the use and acceptability of such products especially those developed using genetic engineering named genetically modified organisms (GMO). What are the fears?

The first fear among people is the "unnatural way" the GMO are developed. It seems a little unnatural, and there’s a psychological tendency  among people to desire  naturalness in the way foods are produced. Some people reject and avoid some forms of novelty in the foods are produced. “It’s just not natural to take the gene from one species and put it in another. It’s just not natural!” A quote from survey showing rejection of GMO. The second and most deadly fear is claim that GMO causes cancer. Cancer is the most dreadful and most fearful ailment in the history of mankind, a mere mention of this terminal disease keeps people off and away permanently. Another fear was caused by an allegation by some scientists of detecting multiple toxins from GMOs in Maternal and Fetal Blood. Yet another study, the so-called "90-day feeding on rats with GM Bt corn MON810". The study reported the rats experiencing negative reactions. The rats suffered “serious damage to the surface mucous membranes of the jejunum (a part of the small intestine),” among other ill effects on the digestive system as reported in an article from the website GMWatch.org. The study was the third Egyptian experiment done showing harm to GM-fed rats as claimed by the site. However, many researchers argued that the 90-day duration of the feeding study was incapable of showing visceral harm because of the short duration of the study. They concluded that a study of two years or longer should be conducted to find out if the intestinal mucosa lesions would eventually lead to overt displays of ill health in the animals. Unfortunately, studies longer than 90 days on this subject are rarely reported. Still, similar study claimed to identify tumours in rats fed on GMOs and/or the herbicide glyphosate for a long-term. However, it was found out that the researchers failed to perform statistical analysis of their data and used too few rats for the study. So, it was not possible to determine if the tumours were due to the food, the chemical or to the fact that the strain of rats would get tumours. Generally, the current scientific consensus regarding GMOs remains unchanged for many years. GMOs are safe and do not pose a health risk to humans. However, the beauty about scientific consensus is, it is not cast in stone,  it can change if there is sufficient evidence for it to change, but to the best of my knowledge none of the studies widely reported by reputable sources  presented such evidences. So, to many scientists; GMO, is it!

Nevertheless, the safety of GMO crops has been a top agenda of international organisations; United Nations Organisation, regional and advanced countries food safety authorities, and many others were vividly quoted giving GMO a clean bill of health for public consumption.  The World Health Organisation (WHO) was reported of not finding any risks associated with the consumption of GMO foods.  According to WHO, GM foods currently on the international market have passed risk assessments and are not likely to present risks for human health. In addition, no effects on human health have been shown as a result of the consumption of such foods by the general population in the countries where they have been approved. Another reputable organisation, Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has stated categorically that no adverse impact on human health have been shown as a result of the consumption of GMO foods by the general population in the countries where they have been approved. In African continent, African Union (AU) and NEPAD have all nodded their weights for the use of GMOs and adopted the biosafety measures to safeguard likely health risks to the people: A body known as African Biosafety Network of Expertise (ABNE) was established under the AU-NEPAD to assist member countries to develop the right biosafety expertise to effectively carry out biosafety regulation. This is to balance the adoption of biotechnology as a tool to advance the Continent by AU. Working under the UN, 54 African nations signed the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, that requires countries to domesticate the Cartagena Protocol having their own respective Biosafety Laws.

With all the assurances how risky is the use of GMOs? everything in life has certain level of risk. Scientifically, whether something is risky or not depends on how physically hazardous it is, in which ways and at what level of dose it becomes risky, and how exposed people are to the hazard, at what age and how often.  Example, a radioactive particle in lungs may cause cancer whether the particle came from the natural breakdown of uranium in the soil, which produces natural radon gas, or from a nuclear power plant accident cause by man. Despite all the assurances, some people are still skeptical on the use of GMO foods, while the majority of scientists are arguing that GMO food is safe as shown by a recent poll from the Pew Foundation who reported that almost 90% of scientists from America's largest science body think GMO food is generally safe, while only 37% of the public agree. That is the dilemma of GMOs foods, the campaigners of GMOs must wake up or change strategy, for Biotechnology to address imminent food insecurity globally.

In Nigeria, despite all the brouhaha, so far, no GMOs products are released for commercial purposes. Reports show that GMOs rice, sorghum, cowpea and cassava are on confined trials at various locations in the country. There is a confined field trial of genetically modified pro-vitamin A and iron enhanced cassava at the National Root Crops Research Institute, Umudike.  This is an experimental trial of GM cassava, in its early stages, to assess the accumulation of pro-vitamin A and iron in cassava.  Under the permit of confined trial, no plant material from the trial can be consumed by humans or animals and they must be destroyed after the trial and the trial site inspected for another six months to ensure plant material does not persist in the environment. Only after rigorous food and environmental safety assessments, by independent laboratories appointed by Nigerian Biosafety regulators (Ministry of Environment), a multi-locational regulatory field trial of selected lines, submission to Government of a biosafety dossier for one single line for commercial release, and approval by government can GMO crops cassava  be produced commercially in Nigeria, this may take next four to five years.    

In conclusion, Nigeria has to gear up to take advantage of the clear benefits of biotechnology that includes: environmentally friendly control of pests and diseases (fewer chemical sprays), environmentally friendly farming methods (minimum and zero tillage from round-up ready crops), increased productivity, improved nutrition, and drought resistance (to combat climate change). This is the only road to food security for the over 160 million Nigerians. Government and other stakeholders must champion this cause for posterity.   Click to read the newspaper version