The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu and The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Chief Audu Ogbeh |
The federal government has released two new biotechnology transgenic
hybrids cotton as a step to improving the quality yield produced in the country.
This was made known during a press conference held in Abuja.
The event which hosted the minister of science and technology, Dr.
Ogbonnaya Onu and the minister of agriculture and rural development Chief Audu
Ogbeh unveiled cotton that tolerates bollworm, high maturity rate fibres and
oil.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Onu said that so far, there was no
scientific evidence that shows that this variety of cotton can constitute a
health hazard to humans and assured that the newly released MAHYCO C 567 BGII
and MAHYCO C 571 BGII varieties of transgenic hybrid cotton were safe as his ministry
always ensured that whatever was coming out was safe for farmers’ use as
against anyone writing on BT cotton being hazardous to provide scientific evidence.
He also added that bringing these two varieties of cotton into
cultivation would help in fighting extreme poverty in the country and provide
job opportunities.
His words: "It is important to note that this research was done
with our own local variety of cotton, from every available research as of
today, there is no disadvantage to the variety because there is what is called
the crime protein, which could be hazardous but generally if you touch this BT
cotton there will be no effect because for human beings out guts is acidic so
even if it is ingested, our guts does not have those receptors that binds and
creates those physiological changes that leads to death in insects.
Continuing, he said: "We have looked at it because we must make
sure that whatever we release to our farmers or the Nigerian market must be
safe and we are happy that so far, there is no scientific evidence that shows
otherwise so this is essentially a win-win situation where we are going to
improve on the yield by planting these two varieties. So anyone writing about
it being hazardous to humans should provide scientific evidence. The bollworm
that attacks and devastate cotton fields can no longer be effective, the yield
of this cotton variety is higher, the cotton and fibre from the cotton is
higher and this variety has a higher maturity rate."
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogeh in his
remarks said that he thought the whole matter GMO (Genetically Modified
Organisms) was more in the media than in science and that if the country
continued to import the way it does the naira would further depreciate.
He added that farmers in the country are right now making so much profit
and money from agriculture that jobs are presently being provided, adding that “we
won’t run away from BT cotton simply because we are afraid. This last hajj,
55,000 people went for the pilgrimage and 90% of them were farmers who paid for
their way and that of their wives, farmers in the country are getting
richer."
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