OFAB trains agricultural Extension Workers on Importance of Biotechnology 

The Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB), an initiative of the Africa Agricultural Technological Foundation, has held a one-day Biosafety and Biotechnology sensitization workshop for agricultural extension agents and farmers from the North-Central zone of Nigeria.

The workshop seeks to unbundle the importance of biotechnology application to the end users (farmers) for enhanced food production.

The training which was held in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, drew participants from states in the North-central region of the country.

Speaking in an interview with journalists on the sideline of the event, the Director-General of the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), Prof. Abdulahi Mustapha, who gave a lecture on how genetic modification is done, said the training would boost farmers’ understanding of the technology and subsequent acceptance and usage.

“As a new technology, you need to give an insight of exactly what the technology is all about and that is the basis of my lecture.

“…When you show people exactly what you are deploying to them, it gives them confidence; it gives them an insight into the science that you are providing,” he said.

Professor Mustapha explained that sensitizing the farmers, who are the end users, is a necessity as it gives them firsthand knowledge that would help them navigate the different negative information that they would come across.

 “To enlighten them is very necessary and important. When you enlighten the end user of the crop, it means they can pass the knowledge on to others and explain to them what the crop is all about.

“And if anyone comes to them with distorted information about the crop, they can easily dismiss it. So that is the reason why we came here to enlighten the farmers, the extension workers and the stakeholders in the agriculture sector,” he explained.

The Director-General of the National Biosafety Management of Nigeria (NBMA), Dr. Rufus Ebegba, who also spoke to journalists assuring Nigerians that genetically modified crops are safe, said the agency will not let anything that is harmful and unsafe into the country.

“GM seeds that are approved are safe because there have been some Anti-GM groups that go about telling farmers that GM seeds are not safe, that they are harmful to the environment and that they can kill.

“So this training will help them understand that whatever government has approved is safe,” said Dr. Ebegba.

He noted that the issue of food security is very key and it is important that farmers are properly educated to use the right seeds in order to prevent excess chemical usage on the farm, which could lead to green house gas emission.

Some participants spoke on the gains of the sensitization workshop.

Samson Anawo from the Federal Capital Agriculture Development Program said for an extension worker like himself, the training is coming at the right time as it would help boost his knowledge of GM crops which he would, in turn, pass on to the farmers.

For Saba Mohammed, a farmer from Niger state in North-Central Nigeria, the training has given him the opportunity to better understand the PBR cowpea.

According to Mohammed, he had heard of the Cowpea before. He is, however, now more informed about it.