Former Head of State General Abdulsalami Abubakar has said that bio-safety bill will bridge the gap between the rich and poor farmers in Nigeria.

He spoke at the Agricultural Biotechnology Net mapping in Maizube farm in Minna, Niger State. He said that agricultural biotechnology has changed the lives of the rural cotton farmers in nearby Burkina Faso, adding that it has also changed lives for the better for poor farmers in Brazil and Argentina.

"Failure in practicing this technology will continue to widen the gap between farmers from the rich developed countries who have adopted it and those of us from the developing world who are having lame excuses to avoid its adoption," he said.

The Director General of National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), Professor Bamidele Ogbe Solomon said for Nigeria to fit into the global trench of the cutting edge technology, bio-safety bill is crucial in the management of biotechnology in the country.

He said the bill would provide a legal framework to check activities of modern biotechnology both locally and imported GM crops into the country.