Lagos - "With the global movement towards cleaner, renewable energy sources assuming not just greater urgency but becoming an obsession, the country must position itself to pursue all available forms of non-petroleum export earnings."
It is imperative that there should be a holistic and detailed debate on the benefits and safety of genetically modified crops (GMCs) and determine whether their formal adoption for human consumption in Nigeria will be in the national interest. The reason for concern on both sides of the divide is understandable. With Nigeria expending billions of United States dollars annually from its diminishing foreign exchange reserves on the importation of food, there is great cause for concern, indeed even alarm. Besides, there is also the question of food security, which is vital to any modern sovereign state. The need to search for alternatives is, therefore, obviously sensible.
However, the nation should proceed with caution. The jury, worldwide, is still very much out on the issue of GMCs. In some instances the introduction of GMCs has been met with stiff resistance. For example, in the case of GM rice, its introduction has been quite disastrous. In addition, throughout the developed (particularly the G-8 countries) there has been increasing movement towards organic foods. Such has been the explosion of interest in organic foods (i.e. non-artificial fertiliser grown, non-GM) that in many rich countries there are upward price premiums of up to 15 to 20 per cent on them, and the margin is increasing. Evidently, food consumers in the developed nations are voting with their purses against crops grown with inorganic fertiliser or by genetic engineering.
Projections, based on current conventional wisdom, are that, as the populace becomes better educated, people shift more towards organic foods. In the case of the rich countries, the population is ageing. Thus, the people are more fastidious and health-conscious in their food intake. Put differently, there is an established trend and emerging mass market for organically produced foods. Informed projections for demand are mouth-watering. Some anticipate up to $200 billion dollars annually, worldwide, by the year 2015.
Countries with foresight and sensible planning capacity are already working seriously to tap into and exploit this delicious (the pun is deliberate) market. With Nigeria's unique endowments, the nation should ensure it is one of these future exporters of organic foods. A hefty slice of what will be a continuously growing, every-ready hard currency market will be vital to the depleting public treasury, and Nigeria must determinedly secure its access to the growing market. With the global movement towards cleaner, renewable energy sources assuming not just greater urgency but becoming an obsession, the country must position itself to pursue all available forms of non-petroleum export earnings. The GM foods debate should be guided by this factor, among other crucial ones.
The National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) has put forward a bill, currently before the National Assembly, for the introduction of biotechnology foods in Nigeria. Biotechnology regulation in Nigeria dates back to the 1990's when researchers in the emerging sector started developing competence in modern biotech research, alongside concerns to take precautionary measures to ensure safety in the application of biotechnology to the food sciences. Initiatives such as the NABDA bill are welcome. The legislature should see to it, however, that the relevant issues involved are subjected to thorough public debate. As the Federal Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Alhassan Bako Zaku, has pointed out, the bill is important as it embeds in it "the rules and regulations that will safeguard, guarantee and reassure all citizens of the safety of the genetically modified organisms." It would be a disservice to the nation for such a bill to be stampeded through the National Assembly.
Biotechnology as a scientific process is, in principle, as old as the hills: basically a process of converting living organisms or parts of living organisms into other useful and edible nutritious food products. However genetically modified crops are a different ball game, on which the jury is still out. Let's weigh the risks as we explore the opportunities in the exciting new field.
Copyright 2009 AllAfrica
