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As it will be recalled in 2019 that Nigeria made a significant progress by approving two GMO crops which included two varieties of Bt cotton with code numbers ( MRC7377BG11 and MRC7361BG11), and Bt cowpea towards her determination to adopt new improved agricultural technology of biology engineering to reposition Agriculture as business capable of giving reliable source of better living to farmers through higher yield over our conventional old seed varieties.
No doubt, the unavailability of improved seeds for cotton had negatively impacted and contributed to the economic down turn in our textile industry, where thousands of Nigerians fully employed had been disengaged with only few firms still in scanty operations, just as the cowpea national production demand has suffered down turn due to seeds that cannot withstand flood and drought stresses occasioned by climate change and other diseases like striga.
However, the unrelenting efforts of the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NBDA) coupled the sensitization strategy of Nigerian chapter, Open Forum of Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) have really assisted the productivity of Bt cowpea and cotton as the availability of these new improved seeds with thorough regulations of breeders in the Institute of Agriculture Research (IAR), Samaru, Zaria where they had successfully produced and officially released these two crops for the use of farmers is well commended and appreciated by farmers who spoke with us.
In view of the two years countdown of the commercial approval and release of both the Bt cowpea and cotton by the National Committee on Varietal Release (NCVR) in Ibadan had motivated our correspondent to pay a visit to some of the farmers who are actually planting these new improved seeds to get their reactions upon criticisms.
At the Milli Goma, opposite Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Teaching hospital, Sabon- gari local government of Kaduna state, Alhaji Ibrahim Sherif, a farmer told us that he was part of the team that started Bt cowpea as trial crop for more than ten years until it was finally released to the public for commercialization, saying there is a higher yield in the Bt cowpea over the old conventional seeds as it gives more economic returns to farmers.
Alhaji Ibrahim Sherif who applauded the profitability of the Bt cowpea in terms of yields, however pleaded for the availability of the improved seed technology for the use of farmers, pointing that ‘’ there is a big difference between the Bt cowpea and the conventional ones. The new PBR Cowpea is more economical to handle than the old conventional ones. We have to apply pesticides 5 to 6 times to ensure the survival of the conventional cowpea seed, meaning more money has to be spent to purchase chemicals that may even be dangerous to human health, while in the case of PBR cowpea, all you need do to is to spray once or twice before harvest’’
He added that farmers are always happy during the harvest of the Bt cowpea for double increase in yield as against the traditional ones where the pods are always destroyed by insects while the PBR cowpea will retained all its bean grains without any damage, just as the improved seeds can be planted twice in a year.
Sheriff advocated for more accessibility of the new Bt seeds for cowpea saying that ‘’ there is problem in accessing the seed, because it is difficult to get unless you go to IAR, but to say you want to access it from the market places is difficult, and expensive for farmer as the price goes as N1,500-1,600 while the conventional one is N1,000 and very available’’
He however hailed the effort of all the government institutions that have assiduously worked in order to achieve this feat for farmers and Nigeria food productivity with sustainability system, saying that ‘’ great job has been done in the development and introduction of this new technology, and it must be spread to other crops and livestock for food sustainability’’
Malam Yakubu Adamu, an extension agent with IAR at the adopted village school in Jaja kudan local government area of Kaduna State also shared his experience, saying that the improved seed technology can be harvested twice in a year in the North, and four times in the South Nigeria with an assurance of 800kg harvest per hectare as against a very poor ton from the old conventional seeds due to the vulnerability to stress and diseases that always attack them from giving an expected higher yield.
Adamu pointed that the economic gain from Bt cowpea is more than double especially in the south where harvest of 800kg per hectare can be made almost four times in a year as against the only one harvest from the conventional seeds.
He said that ‘’ i have enjoyed Bt cowpea and i am still enjoying it as it is harvested twice in a year here in the North, but in the South you can grow Bt cowpea four times in a season. It has a great advantage as it gives early harvest for farmers to make some money to finance the farming of other crops for the year. This BT cowpea when you plant it earlier enough say like in the month of May will be due for harvest come around end of July and August. And the proceed from the harvest will enable you to be able to finance other crops preparation in the farms. Also this particular GMO cowpea variety has reduced the numbers of chemical spray usually applied on the crop which also had resulted to low chemical residual in the cowpea harvest, and thereby reducing the export rejections that is very popular with our old conventional seeds that are sprayed seven times before harvest’’
He further called on IAR to set on motion a survey monitoring committee to verify the percentage of reduction in losses through adoption of the new improved cowpea variety, saying it is very necessary to be able to ascertain quantity of money the technology has saved for farmers adding that ‘’ every 10% losses on 100 bags expected to be harvested amounts to Four Hundred Thousand Naira (N400.000.00) at the price of N40.000.00 per bag in the market, and it is important this 10% loss is removed to save the economy of Nigeria through the use of new Bt cowpea’’
Bt Cotton
Today in Nigeria only a few companies are left in textile industry due to low yields and high production cost that is associated with insect damages on our traditional seed varieties thereby reducing yield by 60 percent as many farmers had abandoned the cultivation of cotton against what it used to be in the 1970s to 1990 when the sub-sector was Nigeria’s second highest employer of labour with 350,000 direct jobs, and 1.2 million indirect among farmers, suppliers, transporters, dealers, traders and exporters.
The released Bt cotton varieties have the capacity of giving 4.5 tons per hectare of land as against a very poor harvest being associated with the old traditional seeds, thereby giving hope to restoring the lost glory of our textile industry to all stakeholders at the value chains of the industry sector.
In our conversation with the president, National Cotton Association of Nigeria (NACOTAN), Mr. Anibe Achimugu revealed that Bt cotton varieties had the potential to improve quality and yield, saying these two major factors are already encouraging farmers to go back into growing more towards the resuscitation of our textile industry.
Mr. Anibe said that “we expect to earn more money because the new Bt cottons had improved yield significantly from 500/600 kg (per hectare) on the average to a minimum of two tonnes. And if farmers followed the agronomic processes properly they should be able to get up to four tonnes, and with that we expect that cotton will be more available and the textile industry will now have enough cotton’’
He thanked all the government agencies that conducted the work to get the two cotton varieties approved and released for commercialization, and pointed that the new technologies would save farmers the trouble of rejection in the international markets.
Feedback on seeds getting to farmers
Malam Muhammad Umar Lawan, a plant breeder with the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR) disclosed that seeds have been made available to farmers by the Institute in partnership with a private seed company called Agric Gold, saying lack of information might be the reason why some farmers are complaining of not getting access to them.
Also, Malam Yakubu Adamu, an extension agent with IAR at the adopted village school told us that many farmers were still with seeds given them during the field trails , adding effort is on top gear to release more GM crops into the hands farmers.
The Director-General (DG) National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) Prof. Abdullahi Mustapha has said that five more GMO crops will soon be released into the Nigerian markets for more improved yield to stem down food prices.
Prof. Mustapha disclosed cassava, maize and soybean as part of the crops that would soon be released into the market as GMO crops to increase food production to reduce the sky rocking food prices.
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