Abuja-Massive importation
of food, especially, rice, wheat, sugar and fish, has continued to bleed the
nation's economy, with the four items accounting for a whopping N1 trillion
loss to the nation annually.
Executive Secretary,
Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria, ARCN, Prof. Baba Abubakar, disclosed
this at a sensitization seminar on Genetically Modified Organisms, GMOs, and
Agricultural Biotechnology, organised for staff of Federal Ministry of Agriculture
and Rural Development by Biotechnology Development Agency, in collaboration
with other OFAB and National Bio-safety Management Agency, in Abuja, yesterday.
Abubakar, who was
represented by the Acting Director, Partnership and Linkages Programme, Yarama
Ndirpaya, noted with dismay that Nigeria had remained a large food importer,
in-spite of massive uncultivated agricultural land across the country.
He said: "Nigeria
spends over N1 trillion on the top four food imports annually. And farmers have
limited capacity and use techniques that adversely affect soil fertility, water
and biodiversity. Human-induced climate change compounds the issue."
According to him,
Nigeria is the largest importer of US hard red and white wheat worth N635
billion annually; world's number 2 importer of rice at N356 billion; N217
billion on sugar and N97 billion on fish.
Abubakar, who described
the development as unacceptable, further noted that Nigerian farmers had
limited capacity and used techniques that adversely affected soil fertility,
water and biodiversity and warned that unless farmers were empowered with
biotechnology, the problem might linger into the future.
Applying the principle
of total productivity factor, TPF, he revealed that of Nigeria's 98 Mha land,
74 Mha, representing 75 per cent was good for farming, but lamented that less
than half was put to use. SOURCE: VANGUARD.