TECHDIGEST – The Director-General, National Biotechnology Development Agency, Prof Abdullahi Mustapha, says Federal Government will soon deploy genome editing technology in agriculture.

This, he said, would help to boost productivity and ensure food security.

Speaking in Abuja on recently at the commencement of the validation workshop to review the draft of the genome editing national communication and advocacy strategy and action plan, Mustapha stated that as soon as the strategy was validated, Nigeria was ready for implementation.

At the programme, held in partnership with the African Union Development Agency, were researchers from various institutes and ministries, farmers, lecturers, civil society and faith-based organisations and regulators like the National Biosafety Management Agency.

Also present were representatives of the National Orientation Agency and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control.

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The organisers stressed that GEd agricultural products would help to boost agricultural productivity, alleviate poverty, enhance the nutritional value of farm produce, and reduce crops’ vulnerability to pesticides and environmental stress as well as the dependence on fertilizers.

Mustapha noted that the convergence of the stakeholders was to enrich the inputs in the national communication strategy before its adoption.

He stated, “The meeting brought together stakeholders with backgrounds in science, technology and innovation, most especially genome editing, to validate the work that has been done on genome editing in Nigeria. It’s a new technology that has cut across the continent, and if harnessed, will transform the continent in terms of science, technology, and innovation.

“So, we partnered with the AUDA-NEPAD to see how we can make a success of this innovation. We also invited journalists, who are the ears and eyes of society, to join in validating the communication strategy and the roadmap.

“This initiative began in Nigeria in October 2022 and once it is validated, we swing into action and start the implementation. So, this workshop is to examine a critical aspect of GEd for the effective communication of the benefits, risks, and ethical considerations to the Nigerian public.”

Also, the Director-General, NBMA, Dr. Agnes Asagbra, said the agency had developed the guidelines, which researchers were expected to follow “and when they do not conform to the guidelines, we will wield the big stick.”

She added, “We have a Memorandum of Understanding with Customs to ensure that unlicensed GEd products do not make it into Nigeria. So, we have the GEd guidelines that will ensure that GEd products do not impact negatively on people’s health and well-being.

“The NBMA Act came into effect in 2015 but was amended in 2019 to include genome editing. With the crop of stakeholders present at this workshop, I have every conviction that at the end, we will come up with a workable action plan on GEd.”

Meanwhile, the Supervisor, Centre of Excellence in Science, Technology and Innovation at AUDA-NEPAD, Prof Olalekan Akinbo, said there had been high-level policy engagements in all the African countries used for the pilot scheme, including Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Eswatini.

Akinbo noted that it had become necessary for Africa to embrace innovation, given current realities.

He added, “For the level of acceptance that we have seen when the products are fully in the market, it will not go the route of other technologies that suffered from bias. We say in our centre that innovation today is tomorrow’s prosperity, and until our policymakers identify the benefits of an initiative, they may not be committed. However, once they see that this innovation improves the livelihood of people, they will fund it.

“The mandate of the centres of excellence is to drive the implementation of Agenda 2063, which has the slogan, ‘The Africa we want’. Africa is tired of policies without implementation.

“The mandate is that by 2063, we should have a policy document that translates to implementation, which is our Chief Executive Officer travelled all over the world to speak about the agenda, and what we are doing now is one of the pillars.”

He noted that many scientists were doing a lot of work in the laboratories, but that their findings and expected outcomes had to be properly communicated to the regulators and final consumers.

He added, “Our mandate is to look for home-grown solutions to our problems, drive innovation to commercialisation and effectively harness innovation and emerging technologies in addressing the problems.”

Akinbo noted that due to the way the competing need for land had limited access to land for farming, it was expedient to embrace innovation in agriculture to make the best use of the available land.

Also, the Director-General, Sheda Science and Technology Complex, Prof Paul Onyenekwe, said all the stakeholders across the value chain should be carried along for the initiative to maximise its success.

“Let the press, traditional rulers, environmentalists and others understand our language. That was one of the bane of genetically modified organic products. I believe it is a very important task to prepare the roadmap for communication, and I believe that in the end, Nigeria will be better for it.”

The anchor of the event and director at NABDA, Dr Shakirat Ajenifujah-Solebo, also warned that Nigeria would be left behind if it failed to innovate and embrace technology.

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By Abdullahi T sanni,

TECHDIGEST – More than 30 Nigerian scientists have received training in the skills needed to effectively communicate with policy makers and the public about the benefits of using genome editing tools in agriculture.

This was at a four-day intensive training workshop themed: “Gene Editing in Agriculture: Science, Policy, and Story”.

The workshop, an initiative of ‘Alliance for Science’, was jointly organized by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) and Open Forum in Agricultural Biotechnology on Africa (OFAB), Nigeria chapter.

The aim of the training was to provide scientists with requisite communication skills needed to discuss the applications of genome editing in food and nutrition security.

Katherine Lopez, Head of Communications at the IITA Headquarters in Ibadan, said the training will help scientists build their skills in developing simplified messages to communicate the purpose of their research and benefits of gene editing to the public.

“It is a strategic training to ensure that scientists are able to communicate this exciting innovation. Currently, few scientists are actively communicating scientific issues, including the use of gene editing in plant breeding, to the public. This results in myths and misconceptions about the scientists’ research, which could hinder scientific innovation. That is why scientists must tell their stories, because they are the real champions of their work,” Lopez said.

One of the participants, Adeboye Seyi Ebun, a scientist and staff of NABDA, confessed to have heard several myths and misconceptions about genetic engineering in Nigeria, saying there is need for scientists to engage the public so as to change their perceptions.

“People are worried because they don’t have the right information about this technology. So, we need to enlighten the public. As scientists, our work does not end in the lab,” Ebun said.

Ebun, who hopes to advocate the benefits of gene editing for tackling agricultural issues in the country, said: “I see myself going back to advocate and promote science-based facts about the technology.”

As for Dr. Ihuoma Okwuonu, a plant biotechnologist and Chief Research Officer at the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), in Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria’s farms are heavily dependent on rain-fed irrigation and face many challenges such as low productivity, post-harvest losses, stubborn pests and diseases.

“Genome editing has the potential to revolutionize agriculture in Nigeria. It can address issues of food allergies and can be used to breed crops’ resistant to diseases and also improve animal welfare,” Dr. Okwuonu said.

According to her, gene editing holds great promise for Nigerian farmers.

Addressing participants at the event, Dr. Rose Gidado, Country Director of OFAB Nigeria, said the need to train scientists on communicating agricultural research cannot be overemphasized. “Science evolves. Hence, the idea for training scientists to communicate new technologies such as gene editing,” Gidado said.

Dr. Rufus Ebegba, the Director General of National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), urged scientists to follow the laws and guidelines already put in place by their Agency to ensure safe application of the technology in Nigeria.

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By Thecla Ayoka and Abdulsalam Mahmud

TECH DIGEST – The idea, concept and rationale behind the birth of genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) foods may be welcoming and visionary to some experts. But not for Nnimmo Bassey.

Bassey, who is not only an architect, and a poet, but also a renowned environmental activist, in an interview, corroborated the fear of many anti-GMO exponents. He said genetically modified (GM) foods pose serious danger to humans, soil organisms and other living creatures.

The acclaimed environmentalist, observed that, “those promoting GMOs are fear mongers screaming that Nigeria cannot feed itself because of ballooning population, whereas the matter of food availability is not addressed by the GMOs they are promoting. In fact, the arguments used in promoting GMOs have always been the same over the years since 1996, when the first GMO was released.”

*GMOs in Nigeria, other countries*

Like in some other nations, Nigeria is where GM foods are also found in the market, though most of them are not actually produced in the country. GMOs are organisms, plants, animals and micro-organisms that have their DNAs altered using genetic engineering techniques.

This, for example, can enable the particular crops or plants to develop some resistance against diseases, insects, pests, harsh weather conditions, as well as to enhance nutrition.

*What GM crops’ farmers earn*

According to a new global report, farmers that grew GM crops earned an extra $225 billion between 1996 and 2018. The report said that for each extra $1 invested in GM crop seeds, farmers gained an average $3.75 as income.

In developing nations, the benefits of using GM crops are even greater, where the average return was $4.41 for each extra $1 invested in GM crop seed. Only South Africa, Swaziland and Sudan are currently growing GM crops commercially in Africa.

Nigeria, having approved GM cotton and cowpea, is now distributing the improved seeds to its farmers, while Kenya and Ethiopia are in the process of deploying BT cotton. A dozen other African countries have GM crop research projects under way, with some of the experiments ongoing for more than a decade now.

*Not against GMOs, not promoting them–NBMA*

In an interview with this reporter, Dr. Rufus Ebegba, Director General of the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), said while NBMA does not promote GMOs, it is also not against their consumption.

On how NBMA makes sure that GM foods and products are safe for human consumption, Ebegba, explained: “What we do basically is to confirm the various risks assessment data and the analysis that has been carried out by the producers of the GMOs. We also do what is called toxicity test and food safety test, together with the socio-economic analysis of any GMO product. The laboratory we have basically is to confirm whether any food product is genetically-modified, and analyze the quantity of the gene of insert. We also look at it to analyze the genum, which is the totality of the morphological composition of any GMO product.”

According to the NBMA helmsman, when there is an application for the certification of any GM product, their agency constitutes what is called a ‘National Biosafety Committee’ made up of ministries and agencies that have relationship with the subject matter.

“Then, we also constitute another ‘National Biosafety Technical Committee’ made up of three or four persons who are highly knowledgeable in any particular crop we are looking at. These various committees submit their reports to the agency and the agency takes a decision. But before even doing that, we normally do a 21-day public notice advert in three media houses, and then deposit the application dossiers, and other relevant documents in our website for members of the public to look at the documents that have been submitted, so that they can guide the agency if they find anything unusual in the application or product that is about to be released,” he said.

*GMOs safer than conventional foods*

Maintaining that the domestication of GMOs is already taken place in Nigeria, Dr. Rose Maxwell Gidado, revealed that the GM cowpea, which is undergoing field demonstration in some selected states, is responding very well.

Gidado, a Deputy Director at the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), argued that GM foods or products are very safe because they have history of safe use in developed countries where the technology is being adopted. She said GM products are highly scrutinized, and even safer than our conventional foods that are not regulated.

Dr. Maxwell Gidado, who is also the Country Coordinator for the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) in Africa, said NABDA’s intensive awareness campaign and media sensitization on the benefits of GMOs helped bridge the information gap on GMOs between scientific and non-scientific community in Nigeria.

*Farmers don’t know GM crops exist–FAN*

While the breakthrough the country recorded by producing the GM cowpea is laudable, Dr. Nwosu Godfrey, the Secretary General of the Farmers Association of Nigeria (FAN), said its application by farmers will be another different thing entirely.

“Until it gets down to the grassroots, and become adopted by farmers, it will be difficult to say that the GM technology can play a great role in ensuring food security. Besides, I have not come across farmers who are talking about the GM cowpea for now. They don’t even know anything about it,” he added.

Godfrey, who is also an animal scientist, while pointing out that FAN does not have any objection to the GM cowpea and other modified crops so long as they help to improve farmers’ yields, however emphasized the need for massive enlightenment of rural farmers on improved crops by extension workers.

*‘Don’t waste resources on failed technology’*

While maintaining that Nigeria does not need GMOs, Mr. Bassey, who was one of Time Magazine’s ‘Heroes of the Environment’ in 2009, stated: “What we need is a farming system where farmers are adequately supported and assured of good farm gate prices for their harvest. We need well-funded research Institutes, where students learn the best techniques of agroecology, local knowledge and technologies. Our researchers can study GMOs in their laboratories and build knowledge in that direction. Government should not waste its time and resources funding propaganda, which only seeks to promote a failed and risky technology that is a potent driver of species contamination and possibly extinction.”

*Why fear of GMOs persists*

On why there is growing apprehension on approving the use of GMOs imported into the country, Thecla Ayoka, said, among several other factors, there is the fear of depending on industrial countries for food production, as the food market will be controlled by them.

Ayoka, a lecturer at the Department of Science Laboratory Technology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), added: “To the best of my knowledge, I am yet to see anybody that was negatively affected from eating GMO foods but that does not remove the negative effects of GMOs. The reason may be that those around me consume less of GMO foods.”

*Varsities should brainstorm on GMOs*

According to Dr. Charles Nnadi, consumers of GM foods, generally, are always afraid of some unfounded deleterious effects such as allergic reactions, harmful genetic changes, less nutritious foods and cancer.

Nnadi, Senior lecturer in the Department of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, at UNN, noted that some GM foods are produced from DNA containing allergens.

According to him, where non-labeled, these allergens can be consumed unknowingly and may trigger anaphylaxis which is a serious allergic reaction that happens very quickly and in some cases may be lethal.

“Some allergic diseases such as allergic rhinitis, eczema, hives, asthma and food allergy can also be deteriorated by allergens in GM foods. While some claimed effects have not been proven, consuming non-labeled GM foods can worsen underlying terminal disease conditions,” he said.

As the hub of experts, Dr. Nnadi, called on Nigerian universities to organize workshops and conferences regularly to brainstorm on the challenges of GM foods in Nigeria.

His words: “All Nigerian universities should be able to establish a separate Department of Biotechnology and Food Safety, and hire experts in GM foods to man the establishment. This will provide the researchers with facilities and manpower to carry out researches on crops’ genetic modification, to boost food security and nutritional health of GM foods consumers.”

*This special report was supported by the African Science Literacy Network (ASLN).*

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