Dr Nompumelelo H. Obokoh, Project Manager of African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), has called on African leaders to position themselves to embrace biotechnology in solving food insecurity in Africa.
She said the challenges of science technology and innovation held the key for improved food security and poverty reduction as global trends have indicated preference for commercialized biotechnology and genetically modified (GM) crops.
Dr Obokoh disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency in Abuja.
The Project Manager said the United States, China and South Africa have taken full advantage of the system and expressed worry that trends that were fast changing and improving systems elsewhere was rather slow in Africa.
She advocated the mainstreaming of biotechnology into agricultural production, building of capacity for compliance and migrating to commercial high yielding crops.
Dr Obokoh said Nigeria for instance has an annual consumption rate of 2.7 million tons of cowpea and now grapples with a national deficit of about 500,000 tons.
She added that surmounting the constraints of this deficit in view of infertility of land, drought, extreme heat, climate change, disease, pest and parasites were compelling factors towards adopting biotechnological approaches for food sufficiency and not beliefs or traditions.
"Legume pod borer, a major pest was responsible for about 80 percent post harvest losses alone and the scientific approach to finding an antidote was the application of biotechnology," she added.
Professor Karniyus S. Gamaniel, Director-General, Nigeria Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD), called on the media to play a crucial role in educating the masses on research findings in simplest language for easy assimilation.
He said the journey from the laboratory to industry was long and cumbersome and urged the media, as major stakeholders to assist in shortening that distance.
Prof. Gamaniel said NIPRD's priority hinges on strategies imbedded in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the seven-point agenda and National Strategy for Health Development Planning.
He said as an agency responsible for the phytomedicines and pharmaceutical products, it was mandated to utilize research for health and a watchdog for healthcare products.
Prof. Gamaniel said its mandates include HIV research programme, malaria research, sickle cell, diabetes, tuberculosis, cancer researches.
Other roles, he said, were neglected parasites and fungal diseases, E-botanical surveys.
From Maxwell Awumah, a GNA Special Correspondent in Abuja, Nigeria
Source: GNA
