‘How health delivery, genetics can revive economy’

Governor Simon Bako Lalong of Plateau State has said that the wealth of a nation resides in the healthcare delivery to its citizenry which both the state and federal governments place high premium with relevant application to School Feeding Programme (SFP).

Lalong added that innovation in health delivery would guarantee nourishment of the brains, bodies and minds of the young school children who are at the critical development stages of their lives and boost their capabilities and performances.

The governor stated this on Monday at the opening ceremony of the 40th annual conference of this Genetics Society of Nigeria (GSN) holding at the University of Jos.

Lalong, who was represented by the Director-General of Research, Planning and Documentation in the state, Prof. John Wade, stressed that if the aspect is properly addressed, it will go a long way towards addressing the issue of food security and poverty alleviation in the country.

“This is because food security will stimulate growing enough food to feed the family, and/or having enough money to feed the family and meet other domestic and social requirements.”

On the other hand, poverty that exists when the Resources of families and individuals are inadequate to provide a socially acceptable standard of living has become a matter of concern. It is hoped that poverty alleviation, which is usually a safety net with strategic targeting of First, ensuring Horizontal Efficiency through identifying those desperately in need of assistance that is living below poverty line and second, reducing cost through vertical efficiency by ensuring benefits go to only those who need them due to limited resources, example among the very poor, widows, orphans and physically challenged.

“In Plateau State considering the above scenario on the state economy, we evolved the new normal and areas of discriminating competencies. This is simply related to our priority areas of alternative sources of income for sustainable abandoning our key policy thrusts peace, security and good governance, human resource development and social welfare, entrepreneurship, industrialization and physical infrastructure and environment, we are strategically focusing on a new normal in the following priority areas, agriculture, mineral resources development, and tourism.

“Road maps and strategies have been designed towards achieving goals in those critical areas, especially in the face of recession and dwindling revenue from oil. In essence, we have placed in the front burner the issue of diversification of the economy.

“By coincidence of your conference theme, agriculture as a policy thrust is of great priority to this government. In this regard, we are proud to say that our state is indeed a wealth of resources and a wealth of opportunities endowed with fertile arable land, favourable weather or climatic conditions for present and future research and development. You are therefore invited to explore our areas of comparative advantage for production of tropical and other exotic temperate crops and livestock. As a state, we also have the geo – strategic positioning for unique agricultural research, production and value chain development.”

The governor further stated: “The value chains are great stimulants for the development of agro – allied industries. To further demonstrate our commitment in promoting research, development and community service, my government has been giving tremendous attention and support to our tertiary institutions in relevant areas of scientific and agricultural training. This includes our Plateau State University, Bokkos that has undergone radical governance restructuring. It has in the past one year since assuming office, enjoyed funding for accreditation of all the Science and Arts courses offered and other support services to the tune of over N1.6 billion; while our College of Agriculture Garkawa has so far enjoyed funding support of over N100 million towards accreditation exercise and offering of Higher National Diploma (HND). We also hope that these efforts will attract institutional linkages nationally and internationally.”

In his keynote address, Dr. Abdullahi Adamu, Chairman Senate Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the GSN is very relevant to the generality of Nigerians especially at this time when the government of the day is looking inwards towards agriculture for food security and the diversification of the nation’s economy.

According to Adamu, “Your role as major custodians of this all – encompassing field which specialises in improving crop and animal production is very crucial to us today as a nation as you are saddled with the task of meeting the ever – increasing demand of food production and food security in the country.”

The senator stressed that plant genetics are a key component to global food security, peace and prosperity for any nation, adding that with good and improved seed yields and food, there is guaranteed health.

Quoting an expert, Adamu, stated that most conventional breeding can be reduced to two fundamental steps. “The first step is to generate a breeding population that is highly variable for traits that are agriculturally interesting.

“This is accomplished by identifying parents having traits that complement each other, the strengths of one parent having the capacity to augment the short comings of the other and then cross – pollinating the parents to initiate sexual recombination.”

As legislators, the senator submitted that they have passed some laws that would guarantee credit to both commercial and individual farmers.

“Once these bills are signed into law, it will provide the enabling environment that would finance the agricultural sector to the benefit of the generality of Nigerian farmers. In addition to these laws, the National Assembly has also passed into law some other agriculture bills. With these in place, there is the expectation that more people will be involved in agriculture,” Adamu added.
In his welcome speech, the President of GSN, Prof. Iwo Akpan, said that convening the conference at this critical time is appropriate considering the federal government’s economic diversification programme.

Akpan pointed out that the conference will provide an opportunity for a critical appraisal of the challenges in the agricultural sector and deliberate on research findings from experts from different institutions.
He argued that the current economic recession in Nigeria can be seen in another way as a God – designed opportunity to revitalise the neglected agricultural sector. “We as a nation can only be said to achieve much when local production of improved crop and animal breeds are enough for local consumption and for export.”

“At 40 years of its existence, the society can proudly associate itself with the successes achieved by her members in existing Research Institutions and Universities in the country. They have recorded giant breakthrough in the genetic improvement of the various value chains of different crop and animal commodities.

“At this juncture, permit me to mention the magnanimous support given to the local organising committee of this society by the Vice Chancellor of this great university, Professor Sebastine Maimako, bearing in mind the prevailing tight financial situation in the country. His generous assistance to our society demonstrates his conviction about the relevance of genetics to our economic recovery,” Akpan stated.