Dele Ogbodo
Development experts and Scientists have asserted that Genome Editing: an emerging biotechnology application and tool for food and nutrition production security is a potential pathway for Nigeria and Africa’s food security.
Recall that Nigeria and several other African countries have been confronted with food inadequacy arising mainly from climate change, flooding, soil degradation and the lack of deployment of appropriate deployment of technology to change the narratives over the years.
Speaking recently at the sideline with our reporter in Abuja in workshop organized by the Africa Union-NEPAD, in collaboration with the National Biotechnology Research and Development Agency (NABRDA), Florence Nazare, a Development expert with: AU-NEPAD, said the agency is ramping up efforts through advocacy and sensitization of stakeholders and communicators toward the deployment of Genome Editing for crops and products production to meet the continent’s food needs and for export.
According to her, the AU-NEPAD, which is the implementing agency of the continental body, is responsible to ensuring that it provides the technical expertise to member states and to help support the implementation of their national development plans within the framework of Agenda 2063.
She added that the Africa Agenda is aimed at ensuring that Africa attains rapid socio-economic transformation for its development and sustainability.
On Genome Editing as game changer for food security, she said: “Yes, it can be one of the solutions that we can use in confronting Africa’s food insecurity and so Genome editing has the potentials to solve the challenge of hunger in Africa.
She said: “Basically we are working on quite a number of projects and supporting countries on communications and advocacy on modern biotechnology focusing specifically on Genome Editing technology.
“The idea of the project which started two years ago is to sensitise senior government officials both in research institutions and development agencies like the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABRDA) and also working with regulators for instance the Biosafety and communicators to ensure that the communications comes up more accurately and more impactful and this is even imperative that if Africa has to develop, it has to adopt modern biotechnology.
According to her, food production, now has to be carried out on a larger scale to ensure that it enhances food security, focusing on agriculture productivity for increase yield.
Nazare, added: “This should not only be on production but also on the quality of crops of livestock and ensuring that the quality allows also for longer storage on the shelf.
“There are a number of activitiies ongoing across the 8 member countries that we are working with on different crops, the idea is that we shall be using communications to support the developers so that we have products that can go all the way to commercialization.”
On time line and crop release using Genome Editing, she said: “It is difficult to give a time because I wouldn’t want to be misled because they are different stage and for commercialization to happen.
“We have to begin to build constant linkage between Research and Development (R/D) and also with the private sector because as you know it is the business of the private sector to take the product to the market.
“Once you have R/D and private developers partnering, it becomes easy that product that comes out is responsive in a particular because the private also cares about the profit and so they will not invest in a product that is not marketable.
“So this is the statge that we are to ensure that we can foster that relationship between government and R/D.
“So, the more we look at enhancing those capabilities across so it is looking at a functional ecosystem and this is part of the work which is the part of the building block and putting it together.”
Genome Editing, yes it can be one of the solutions that we can use in ensuring that we can use for transformation…and many of the issues confronting Africa which is food insecurity and so Genome editing has the potentials to solve the challenge of hu nger in Africa which is beyond Nigeria now, she added.
“Whatever products, we are targeting, the technology will be used for crop iss suitable to climate conditions and in that way it holds and it is great promise that we can have ease of production.
“Crops and products that will have a longer shelf life which will alleviate food shortages…developing strategies in terms of having access to food, here we are talking about nutrition and so genome Editing has potentilas to ensure that we can have the quantity of nutrition that are required in specific foods.”
