Cowpea is one of the most important indigenous African legumes in Nigeria due to its ability to grow in drought-prone areas. Nevertheless, many biotic and abiotic factors significantly reduce cowpea productivity in the traditional African farming system. Among these constraints is the pod-borer; maruca vitrata which is the major lepidopteran pest that inflicts severe damage to the cowpea plant. It damages the cowpea pods in the field and in severe infestations amount to yield losses of about 80 per cent.

Nigeria is the largest producer and consumer of cowpea in the world with a national average around 750Kg/ha. It consumes around 3.6 million tons annually, leaving the nation to grapple with a national deficit over 500,000 tons made up through imports up to N20 billion per year.

To checkmate this deficit, Nigerian scientists in public institutions used genetic modification, a modern science technique by ingressing the Bt gene into cowpea which results in 100 per cent protection against the insect in the field.

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After going through the relevant trials, the Federal Government through the nation’s biotechnology regulatory agency, the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) recently gave its approval for the environmental release of the nation’s first genetically modified (GM) food crop, pod borer resistant cowpea (popularly called beans), which has been genetically modified to resist the insect pest – Maruca Vitrata.

This move by the government pitches Nigeria as the first African country to genetically modify the food crop which is currently going through the final process for its commericalisation. The success of commercialisation of Bt Cowpea will make Nigeria the leader in the deployment of the revolutionary technology in addressing the challenge affecting the nation’s nutritional food chain, and will no doubt, be used as a model for other West African nations in the deployment of the technology.

Unfortunately, despite these laudable achievements by the nation, opponents of this technology are trying to rally Nigerians to speak out against it and on the government to be circumspect about profit-driven technologies citing issues of health, environment, hijack of conventional farming systems and multinational seed companies’ control.

Wrong Facts

Contrary to speculations by opponents of this technology, the pod-bearer resistant cowpea (beans) project initiative, whose aim is to develop and disseminate to farmers preferred and locally adapted maruca- resistant cowpea varieties in sub-Saharan Africa was developed in Africa by African scientists in public institutions and not by biotech companies.

Speaking exclusively to our correspondent, the coordinator of the pod borer resistant (PBR) cowpea project in Nigeria at the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR), Zaria, Prof. Mahammad Ishiyaku, said the home-grown initiative after nine years of intensive trials had successfully conferred 100 per cent protection against maruca on cowpea by introducing the Bacillus thuringiences (Bt) gene through genetic modification, pointing out that it went through all the necessary procedures and processes of trials to validate the safety of the gene of insert

“The Bt. cowpea has gone through the necessary, relevant, vigorous experimental confined field trials since 2009. It has undergone multiplication trial for gene stability in other ecological zones, demonstration fields for farmers to appreciate its performance, and multilocational trials,” he said.

The plant breeder discredited claims by opponents of the technology which claimed Cry1Ab gene has toxic effects on human liver cells, saying research findings revealed that Cry Proteins are produced by Bacillus thuringiences, bacteria that dwell freely in the soil and are found harmless in the guts of man and livestock. Members of this genus are widely used as sources of industrial enzymes, fine biochemical, antibiotics and insecticides including application in agricultural and industrial activities.

Economic Benefits

Speaking on the potential benefits of the food crop, Ishiyaku emphasized that apart from optimising cowpea productivity and utilization and providing farmers with an alternative to costly and hazardous insecticide spraying, the Bt cowpea would save the nation large chunks of money spent on keeping pests away from the farm by spraying heavy doses of pesticides on the farm.

“In trying to deal with the Maruca infestation farmers are forced to use heavy doses of insecticides which is expensive and comes with myriads of disadvantages such as being unaffordable to resource poor farmers; uses up precious foreign reserve and is unsafe to health; causes death; sickness; disability; unsafe to environment; kills beneficial organisms; residual etc.

“But Bt cowpea trials have shown reduction of insecticide spray requirement from 6-8 liter per hectare to 2-3 liter per hectare @ N1200.0 per liter = N5400.0 reduction in production cost per hectare planted with PBR cowpea, if of the 3 million hectares 1 million is planted to PBR cowpea the savings from cost of insecticide is sixteen billion and two hundred million naira (N16,200, 000,000.0) annually while economic benefits yield a 20 per cent yield increase per hectare translates to forty-eight billion naira (N48,000, 000,000.0) annually @ N120,000.0 per tonne.

“Also, the reduction of insecticide spray requirement from eight to two or three times at most is huge, it invariably means reduction in the use of insecticide, making it more environmentally friendly; reduce human health problems, because the fumes can also affect those spraying,” he stated.

NBMA’s Reassurances

Speaking on the processes undergone by the biotech regulatory agency before granting its approval, Ebegba said the agency had a public presentation of the Bt cowpea to get input from scientists, farmers, policy makers, civil society organisations, experts, faith-based organisations and the media.

The NBMA boss also said the agency further placed a 21-day public notice in the national dailies and on its website at the end of the presentation to enable members of the public to review the application and present their views to the agency, adding the agency went further to constitute a national biosafety committee and national biosafety technical sub-committee of eminent experts and scientists to carry out detailed review of the risk assessment and risk management and make recommendations to guide the NBMA’s final decision.

Ebegba added that once the food crop gets the final nod from the National Varietal Release Committee then it would be finally released to the Nigerian market, even as he assured of the agency’s commitment to safe biotechnology application in Nigeria. He urged Nigerians to trust the agency’s judgement as it would not allow any harmful biotech application to see the light of day in the nation.

Farmers Opinion

Speaking to our correspondent, Nigerian farmers also expressed their willingness to embrace the technology that would turn around their fortunes and help them exert less energy and get more produce from their farms.

The farmers who spoke under the aegis of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) said the introduction of the Bt Cowpea would help to reduce labour input in farming through modernization.

Speaking through the association’s vice president, Chief Daniel Okafor, the farmers expressed joy at the development, stressing that their willingness and readiness to adopt developmental technologies that would reduce losses, increase yields and invariably affect their livelihood positively.