From Desmond Mgboh, Kano
Agricultural bio-technology is a soft landing for Nigeria in the face of growing issues of food and nutritional insecurity, the Minister for Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu has said.
Speaking in Kano, Tuesday, at the unveiling of Sampea 20-T to farmers and other stakeholders in the region, the Minister explained that agricultural biotechnology has the ability to quickly respond to issues of low productivity, diseases, insect and pest challenges as well as climate change.
Onu, who was represented by the Director General of Natonal Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), Professor Abdullahi Mustapha, maintained that global landscape is experiencing new challenges and opportunities and science and technology is one of the ways to to go in the present age.
Specifically, he noted that, ” Nigeria is gifted with vast land that had sustained us over generations, but this land is fast losing its fertility and even our age long method of farming, which involved using holes and cutlasses is no longer as productive as it used to be “
“Today, we have a population of over 200 million and feeding this population requires thinking outside the box” he told his audience.
The Minister of Agriculture, Sabo Nanono, while addressing the audience, said that right from the inception of the administration; the Federal Government has given priority to addressing farmers’ constraints across with a view to improving their living standards and enhancing their contributions to national development.
He added that in this direction, the President recently signed into law the plant variety protection bill into law with a view to facilitating research in plant variety development adding that he has equally established the Federal University of Agriculture in Zuru which he had already taken off.
Nanono also noted that plans are under way for the development of an agriculture based radio and television station across the country, saying the project would take off before the end of the year