Dan Gumm
2 January 2009
THE Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has warned that the Federal Government's decision to pander to the dictates of local or foreign modern biotechnology promoters of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) is tantamount to surrendering Nigeria's food sovereignty to colonialists whose only interest is profit
The body also added that such action would be turning the country into dumping ground for unproven technologies from other parts of the world.
ERA/FoENs admonition is based on government's decision to embrace the "gene revolution,"which informed a resolution to sign a memorandum of understanding with the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) in Kenya to introduce biotechnology products Nigerian farmers.
Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, Abba Ruma had told a recent workshop on biotechnology and food security organised by the United States Agency for InternationalDevelopment (USAID) in Plateau State, that Nigeria still spent US$3 billion annually on food importation.
To reverse the trend, the minister had said there was need to embrace genetic engineering,which he claimed, has the potential to increase production in agriculture and higher yields in marginal lands in countries that cannot grow enough food to feed their people.But ERA/FoEN, in a statement, debunked claims that genetic engineering produced better results, saying it is "contentious," and warned that allowing unverified technologies in the country "is a licence to biotech agencies to colonise us, take over our food chain and use Nigeria as a route to penetrate and perpetuate the use of Africa as dumping ground for
unproven technology in the service of big agri-business." "It is a national tragedy that at a time Nigeria is yet to have a bio-safety law that would permit introduction of GMOs or genetically engineered products the minister is engaging in this illegality simply to satisfy the USAID whose avowed strategy is to flood the world with GMOs and place our collective bio-diversity and heritage at risk," said ERA/FoEN Executive Director, Nnimmo Bassey.
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