Farmers demand Bt Cotton to attract dollars

There are strong indications that Nigeria may lose out in the race for foreign exchange earnings accruable from exportation of the agricultural biotechnology cotton simply known as Bt cotton, which some African countries are already reaping from.

This is as a result of complaints by cotton farmers, especially in Northern Nigeria, that they have been recording low yield and are currently farming without gain. This development, the farmers said, is already forcing many of them to shift to the cultivation of other crops and may finally abandon cotton farming. 

One of the farmers, Malam Kabiru Shehu, said he got little from the cotton he planted last year and has decided to shift to maize and guinea corn in order to generate more income.

“We have been farming cotton because we inherited it. I can no longer continue farming cotton at a loss. I will now cultivate maize, guinea corn and other crops to get enough money to take care of my family and pay other bills,” Shehu disclosed. 

He added that the country’s cotton output will continue to drop drastically if high yielding, pest and disease resistant variety such as the Bt cotton is not quickly adopted by Nigeria and made available to cotton farmers.

Reports indicate that the Bt cotton, which is genetically modified by agricultural biotechnologists to confer on it some advantages such as bollworm resistance and high yield, is being embraced by Burkina Faso, Senegal, Kenya and Mali, among other African countries for some years now, but Nigeria is yet to see the need to join the race.

This year makes the eightieth that Burkina Faso’s farmers will be cultivating Bt Cotton and they have benefited significantly from it. This is not the case with Nigerian cotton farmers as their contribution to the country’s GDP dropped significantly from 25 per cent in 1980 to only five per cent in recent times.

Available data on benefits from Bt cotton in Burkina Faso include an average yield increase of almost 20%, plus labour and insecticide savings (2 rather than 6 sprays), which resulted in a net gain of about US$95.35 per hectare compared with conventional cotton.

It is estimated that Bt cotton has the potential to generate an economic benefit of up to US$70 million per year for Burkina Faso.  Other African countries that have adopted the Bt cotton are also earning millions of dollars from the crop.

Analysts maintain that Bt cotton can provide solution to the challenges faced by Nigerian cotton farmers, but government apathy for agricultural biotechnology promotion has led to non-existence of bio-safety laws in the country, and this has remained a serious impediment over the years. 

“If not until proper laws and regulations are put in place, Nigeria will continue to be flooded with GM foods, even as the country is losing a lot of foreign exchange by not adopting Bt cotton and other GM crops,” Mr. Kehinde Johnson, a Business Development Manager with Monsato International maintained.

An agricultural biotechnology expert, who is the Country Coordinator of Open Forum On Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) in Nigeria, Mrs. Rose M. Gidado, pointed out that the major obstacle to the release and commercialization of agricultural biotechnology crops including the Bt cotton in the country is  bio-safety law.

“Our farmers need to use GM crops including the Bt cotton if not, they will continue to record low yield due to pests, disease and other factors,” she said.

Another expert who is a plant breeder with the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR),  Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Malam Muhammad Lawan Umar, said cotton farmers and the country at large stand to benefit a lot from the export of cotton if Bt cotton can be adopted.

He said the Bt cotton is safe and capable of improving yield, income and livelihood of cotton farmers and urged the government to work out modalities to introduce the crop so as to assist the farmers and the nation as well.

Reports indicate that the bio-safety bill, which has been lying at the National Assembly for several years, has been passed by the law makers and signed into law by President Goodluck Jonathan at the dying minutes of his administration. 

Now that the major obstacle to the application of agricultural biotechnology in Nigeria has been removed, the next hurdle is the time it will take the country to adopt Bt cotton and other GM crops so as to boost production and export.