October 16 every year is the date set aside by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations to commemorate the World Food Day. NURUDEEN ALIMI, in this piece writes on this year’s celebration as it relates to Nigeria:
THIS year’s World Food Day was celebrated on Monday, October 16 globally as stipulated by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.
This year’s theme is “Water is Life, Water Is Food: Leave No One Behind”. The theme aims to highlight the critical role of water for life on earth and water as the foundation of the food. It also seeks to raise global awareness about the importance of managing water wisely as rapid population growth, economic development, urbanisation, and climate change threaten water availability.
According to the FAO, water is essential to life on earth. It covers the majority of the earth’s surface, makes up over 50 percent of our bodies, produces our food, and supports livelihoods.
The FAO further noted that: “This precious resource is not infinite and there is the need to stop taking it for granted. What we eat, and how that food is produced all affect water.
Together, we can take water action for food and be the change.”
According to the World Bank, water is a critical input for agricultural production and plays an important role in food security. Irrigated agriculture represents 20 percent of the total cultivated land and contributes 40 percent of the total food produced worldwide. Irrigated agriculture is, on average, at least twice as productive per unit of land as rainfed agriculture, thereby allowing for more production intensification and crop diversification.
The World Bank further stated that due to population growth, urbanisation and climate change, competition for water resources is expected to increase, with a particular impact on agriculture. Population is expected to increase to over 10 billion by 2050, and whether urban or rural, this population will need food and fibre to meet its basic needs. Combined with the increased consumption of calories and more complex foods, which accompanies income growth in the developing world, it is estimated that agricultural production will need to expand by approximately 70 percent by 2050.
It listed practical challenges for water in agriculture to include the ability to improve water management in agriculture as typically constrained by inadequate policies, major institutional under-performance, and financing limitations. Critical public and private institutions (encompassing agricultural and water ministries, basin authorities, irrigation agencies, water users and farmer organisations) generally lack the enabling environment and necessary capacities to effectively carry out their functions.
Over the years, Nigeria has been putting efforts amed at sensuring food security, part of it was the establishment of the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in line with its developmental functions as enshrined in Section 31 of the CBN Act 2007.
The ABP was established to create economic linkages between smallholder farmers (SHFs) and reputable companies (anchors) involved in the production and processing of key agricultural commodities.
The core of the programme is to provide loans (in kind and cash) to smallholder farmers to boost agricultural production, create jobs, reduce food import bill towards conservation of foreign reserve.
However, stakeholders and farmers alike have argued that despite the huge investment in the programme, Nigeria is yet to boast of food sufficiency because majority of targetted audience of the programme who are farmers have not really benefitted from it.
Speaking on the theme of this year’s celebration, a professor of food technology at the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T), Obafemi Awolowo University, Ibadan, Subuola Fasoyiro, noted that this year’s World Food Day’s theme is creating awareness in preventing water wastage by letting people know that every drop of water matters.
“In the world today, over two billion people are water-stressed due to climate change, urbanisation, and rapid growth of the world’s population.
“Water is a resource that is essential to life and constitutes 50 percent of human body and no one can do without water for a long time. It is also important for food production, processing and safe water is needed for good health.”
She further stated that:”Agricultural research is important to the development of the agricultural sector and models and strategies to enhance impact should be adopted. Multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder holistic participatory approaches to agricultural development that consider all actors along the value chain; farmers, scientists, processors, government, NGOs, distributors and marketers should be used in decision making processes to implementation for more effective results.
“Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) should also be considered. It is a method of FARA that integrate research into development. It is a set of good fit practices that synergistically add value to the R&D processes. It improves the quality of the processes with focus on behavioral processes as an outcome and not just on the produce and products. Political will in governance is also critical in ensuring food sufficiency,” She said.
Suggesting pathway to attaining food security in Nigeria, a major stakeholder in the Nigerian agricultural value chain and chairman, Folhope Nigeria Limited, an agricultural firm with headquarters in Ibadan the Oyo State capital, Chief Emmanuel Folorunsho Ogunnaike, said:”A better World Food Day celebration shall come when our country is self sufficient in food production and availability.
“Nigeria is highly blessed to be self-sufficient in food production considering the available human resources and large scale land suitable for agricultural development. The government needs to do more in making agribusiness more viable, lucrative and profitable in the country.
“The government should see to technogical development of the country, so that it can be in a position to manufacture farm tools and equipment to aid mechanised farming.
“Also, complete eradication of terrorists hindering smooth farming business in the country must be critically considered, so that farmers who have deserted the farms due to insecurity will return,” he said.
Biotechnology as pathway to food sufficiency
For Nigeria to attain food sufficiency to feed its current population of over 212 million people and reduce its overreliance on import which worth about $10 billion annually, it must adopt new technologies, such as agricultural biotechnology, to meet its food and agricultural needs, experts have said.
The experts are of the view that with the current state of emergency declared in the food and agricultural sector of Nigeria, the integration of biotechnology tools into the Nigerian agriculture space becomes a necessity.
The experts stated this while featuring during a one-day interactive session on Navigating Biotech Frontiers for Accurate Science Communication for selected journalists, organised by the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) in Africa, Nigeria chapter, an initiative of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) under the auspices of the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA).
They posited that it is expedient to note that agricultural biotechnology alone is not going to be an all-sufficient approach, but for sure; it will definitely revolutionalise national food production.
They asserted that Biotechnology provides farmers with tools that can make production cheaper and manageable.
Director, Agricultural Biotechnology Department, NABDA, Dr. Rose Gidado, said Nigerian agriculture is vulnerable to climate change and its associated occurrences of higher temperatures, extended droughts, floods, and other circumstances, reducing agricultural production across the country, particularly in the northern states.
She said the use of biotechnology tools in Nigerian agriculture is now necessary due to the current state of emergency in the country’s food and agricultural sector, adding that to date, no evidence of health risks has been linked to the two commercial biotech crops, Cotton and PBR Cowpea, which are already available on the market.
Biotechnology offers new tools for increasing agricultural productivity and protecting food crops from climate changes such as heat, floods, and drought,” she said.
Gidado, noted that over the decades, successive governments had initiated policies to grow Nigeria’s agricultural sector, but the country remains a net importer of food and agricultural products.
According to her, lack of infrastructure, absence of effective policy formulation and implementation, insecurity, as well as the negative impacts of climate change, continue to impede Nigeria’s agricultural growth.
She explained that in 2001, Nigeria established NABDA to promote, commercialise, and regulate biotechnology products, adding that the country also signed the biosafety bill into law, establishing the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), which assumes biotech regulatory authority from the NABDA in 2015.
The NBMA is Nigeria’s focal point and National Authority on biosafety, providing oversight for the use of biotechnology and regulating the commercialization of biotechnology products.
She explained that currently, the government is advancing agricultural biotechnology as a tool to achieve food security in the country.
Nigeria officially approved its first biotechnology crop, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton for commercialisation in 2018. Next, Nigeria approved the commercial release of Pod-Borer Resistant Cowpea (PBR cowpea; AAT709A) in January 2019 and towards the end of 2020, the NBMA authorised guidelines on gene editing.
She added that in December 2020, Nigeria became the first African country to issue gene editing guidelines and that Nigeria continues to deliver notable achievements in biotechnology research and development spurred by strong support of the government of Nigeria.
Director General/CEO, NABDA, professor Abdullahi Mustapha, during the interactive session, said biotechnology is a transformative field that has the potential to address some of the most pressing challenges facing the nation and the world at large.
From agriculture to healthcare, from environmental conservation to industrial innovation, biotechnology is at the forefront of driving positive change.
He said agricultural biotechnology must be understood, accepted, and embraced by the general public, stressing that it is a collective responsibility to guarantee that all Nigerians have access to accurate and fair information concerning agricultural biotechnology, which will enable them to make informed decisions about its applications.
It is our shared responsibility to ensure that accurate and balanced information about agricultural biotechnology is readily available to all Nigerians. This will empower them to make informed decisions about its applications and impacts on our society.
The media plays a crucial role in informing the public about these advancements and their implications. It is the bridge that connects complex scientific discoveries with broader society, translating technical jargon into understandable language, and fostering informed discussions.
“Therefore, it is imperative that we engage in a constructive dialogue on how the media can better cover agricultural biotechnology, biosafety and related topics, “ he said.
Head, Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology and Biotech Awareness, (OFABBA), NABDA, Iweajunwa Sarah, said the objectives of the workshop, among others were to enlighten and keep the participants up-to-date with the developments in agricultural biotech as well as addressing the misconception about the safety of the technology and to build the capacity of the participants for improved editorial decision-making on issues related to agric biotech.
She said the aim of the workshop was to properly enlighten editors on biotechnology and biosafety matters so that suitable decisions about Genetically Modified crops are made based on evidence-based science and policymakers decisions are clearly understood and disseminated to the public.
DG/CEO of the NBMA, Dr. Agnes Asagbra, stressed that modern biotechnology has advanced quickly; creating new regulatory requirements that must be met in order to protect human health and the environment while also utilising the potential that biotechnology presents to the country.
According to her, in order to address the various global and national concerns/challenges in the fields of human health, agriculture, environment, and industry, modern biotechnology application inside a legal framework can be a beneficial instrument.
Asagbra also noted that Nigeria is always been looked upon to provide leadership on Biosafety issues to African Countries.
She stated further that Nigeria’s Biosafety regulatory system opens a door for the achievement of a wide range of crops with potentials for economic and national development.
The National Biosafety Management Agency is well positioned to, amongst others, ensure safety in the use of modern biotechnology by providing a holistic approach in the regulation of genetically modified organisms as well as ensure biosecurity.
Speaking further she said NBMA had accredited eight institutions for modern biotechnology practice; approved 14 GMOs for confined field trials in Nigeria; approved three GM crops for commercial/general release and granted permit for Importation of 13 GM crops for feed and food processing.
She noted that NBMA conducts periodic monitoring of dealings with any GM product.
Alex Abutu, Communication Officer, African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) in his presentation said that agricultural biotechnology is more than just a buzzword, adding that it is a crucial tool in helping feed the world’s growing population.
According to him, with the global population expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, the world needs all the help it can get to ensure that everyone has enough to eat.
That is where agricultural biotechnology comes in. By using genetic engineering techniques, scientists can develop crops that are more resistant to pests and disease, have a longer shelf life, and are more nutritious.
For example, a genetically modified strain of rice called Golden Rice has been developed to combat vitamin A deficiency in developing countries. This rice contains beta-carotene, which the body converts into vitamin A, and could potentially save millions of lives” he said.
Speaking further he said agricultural biotechnology has the potential to revolutionise crop yields by making plants more resistant to pests and disease.
Through genetic modification, scientists can develop crops that are naturally resistant to certain types of insects and diseases, reducing the need for harmful pesticides and herbicides. This not only benefits the environment but also improves the health and safety of the food we eat, h” he added.
Abutu also noted that agricultural biotechnology can enhance the nutritional value of crops, making them more nutrient-dense and able to withstand harsh growing conditions, adding that agric biotechnology is one of the sure ways of addressing climate change challenges.
