Genetically modified foods: need to avoid policy rush - THE CITIZEN
The minister of agriculture, Dr. Akin Adesina has an admittedly good intension of getting Nigeria to escape the looming problem of food insecurity. The man has done commendable work in the agricultural sector and we share his desire to transform the sector and therefore secure the food basket of the nation. The process of doing so has to necessarily involve increasing crop yield, in pursuit of which the minister has announced the readiness of his ministry to introduce genetically modified seeds and crops into the Nigerian agricultural sector.
A number of issues are however generated by the proposed introduction of genetically modified food products into Nigeria that appear to be larger than the issue of food insecurity. Nigerians have been made to taste the bitter condiments of fast baked and rapidly served policies in the past and so we have to express deep concerns about what the minister of agriculture is proposing here.
In recent past, we experimented with reforms in the banking sector, started and suspended a similar exercise in the capital market and the pain of recapitalization controversy in the insurance sector is still lingering till today. The worst that happened was the severe economic devastation during the financial crisis. Nigerians lost money and jobs but remained alive. We cannot however try such experimentation with human lives, which cannot be replaced.
A genetically modified seed or crop means that the natural content of that seed or crop has been altered; something that was not a natural part of it has been added or some natural contents have been removed. It may be an apple to which an element of corn has been added or an orange that has a content of pawpaw.
The global research on the implications of such crops on human health is still ongoing. The United States' Food and Drugs Administration has yet no independent tests to validate claims and counter claims by scientists and a balanced inquiry into the health effects and risks of these products of scientific advancement is yet to be commissioned.
There is yet no conclusion about the long-term effects on the human system of genetically modified foods, whether some people will react negatively or develop health complications from consuming them. There are claims by independent researchers that there are links to cancers and diseases associated with genetically modified foods. We therefore cannot see the need for Nigeria to hurry into a venture that is yet on the experimentation stage at global level.
Ify Aniebo, a molecular geneticist from Oxford University, in a recent article, agrees with a number of independent researchers that the risks of genetically modified foods are enormous. The risks are considered serious enough to complicate the functioning of the human body system and create new forms of diseases yet unknown to modern science.
Moreover, such risks are yet at their discovery stages and a number of years will be required to study them. If we should rush into the production and consumption of these products now without understanding the risk implications, what explanation shall we have for this policy when such risks are eventually discovered?
While we support every step possible to ensure food security for the nation, it should not be at the expense of our lives and health. It is rather better that we starve than to eat and die. If eventually, it is proved that these foods have no health hazards; very well, the opportunity will still be there for us to embrace them. If on the other hand the harmful effects are established while we have begun to consume them, how will the policymakers reverse the damage and remedy the loss of life and health?
Rather than venture into such a high-risk solution to the problem of food insecurity, we can accomplish so much in terms of food production with increased use of improved seeds. Since the target is to raise the output per crop, we can accomplish the same objective by increasing awareness for the use of improved seeds. The use of hybrid seeds in the country is still quite low at about 30%. We can go a long way towards meeting the challenge of food insecurity in Nigeria by getting more farmers to embrace the use of hybrid crops.
The decision by the minister of agriculture to go hi-tech in food production also appears to lack a good appreciation of our internal infrastructural challenges and the needed responses. The absence of adequate storage infrastructure is where the ministry of agriculture should have started tackling the problem of food insecurity. Because of this problem, we usually have food surpluses during harvest seasons and shortages at off seasons. Let the minister begin at home, provide adequate food storage infrastructures for farmers and let us see what remaining food supply gap we will need to meet.
The resort to genetically modified foods also has serious implications for our foreign exchange resources. The God-given competitive advantage we have in agriculture is about to be sacrificed for import dependent genetically modified seeds. With this policy, agriculture, our major export revenue earner, will soon go the way that most other economic activities in Nigeria have gone: import dependence. What is going to happen with this policy is that unless foreign owned genetically modified crop vendors import seeds into the country, our farmers will no longer be able to plant.
This is not a policy that one ministry can wake up and introduce for a whole nation. It is not a policy that can be baked overnight and served to Nigerians in the morning. It is a policy that calls for several studies to understand its implications on the health of Nigerians and of the economy.