77Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has debunked the presence of Genetically Modified Organism (GMO), food in Nigeria.
Adesina made the declaration recently during a visit by delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), led by the Deputy Director-General, Dr. Kwaku Aning, at the ministry.
Adesina said Nigeria was ready to partner with IAEA to boost food production with technology that will add value to the nation’s agricultural sector, and therefore allayed the fears of positive effects of using atomic energy to ensure food security and availability.
Adesina said: “We must never be afraid of atomic technology in food production. We want to raise productivity, good health and environmental sustainability.
“We must not listen to those who want to create fear in the minds of people on things they should not be scared about with half-baked knowledge.
“We must not be afraid of science. We can use science to make our food safe and for the issue of food security.
“We must be aware that technology is the only way we can open up opportunities and we have to understand the risks and put good regulations in place to reduce those risks.
“The fact remains that we have nothing in this country called GMO. People confuse modern day science to GMOs. People say hybrid maize is from GMO, but is from conventional maize.
““We speed up the evolution of the crop maybe which would have taken 50 years we produce other specie of the crop that will be drought and pest resistant.
“We have developed specie that are cold water resistant. In Vietnam and Bangladesh they are using rice that is developed in our laboratory and is thriving in salt water”. And the potential of this technology is very large”, Aning added.
Aning further stated that the technology helps to increase the shelf life of perishable crops, and generally address the challenge associated with post-harvest loses, which has been a major problem farmers have to grapple with, and it had addressed such in other countries.
He also clarified that IAEA was not in the country to neither impose the technology on Nigerians nor change what has been done in the country.
