Abuja — The Federal Government is collaborating with the Cuban Government to facilitate the transfer of a new aspect of biotechnology as a means of addressing food shortage in the country.

The new technology, Temporary Immersion Bioreactor System (TIB), is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms, and their parts or processes in engineering, medicine and other useful appliances to produce goods and services, especially in agriculture.

Explaining the need for the new partnership between the two countries at the commissioning of the National Centre for Generic Resources and Biotechnology (NACGRAB) laboratory recently in Ibadan, Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Muhammed Ka'oje Abubakar, said "the critical role of biotechnology to national food sufficiency cannot be under-estimated, as countries, especially the developing ones, are today contending with the problem of starvation."

He also disclosed that the growth rate of food production globally had dropped from three percent in the 1970s to one percent a year, adding that worldwide, nearly 40,000 people - half of them children - die every day from hunger- related causes.

"All these constitute serious challenges for which scientists have to develop new technologies to address and thereby boost food production. This is largely responsible for the renewed emphasis on biotechnology.

"This new technology, which will be replicated in other relevant research institutes, will hopefully boost agricultural production in the country. The federal government is also taking appropriate measures to ensure the safety of the products of biotechnology research outcomes," he added.

The professor noted that with subsistence farming engaged in by most local farmers, they cannot produce sufficient agricultural produce to adequately cater for the food needs of their people.

Also the ability to provide enough food for survival is not assured. Even the little food produced is lost to pest, diseases and travails of weather thereby straining the resources further and threatening the well-being of millions of people.", said he.

The Minister however noted that to ensure the success of the new research endeavour, there is the need to develop available human capacity to keep them abreast of technological advancement.