Staccato voices against GMOs keep pulsating

Amid the growing controversies trailing the adoption of Genetically Modified Crops (GMOs) in Nigeria, experts, farmers, civil societies and other critical stakeholders in the agricultural sector have emphasised the need for government to, as a matter of urgency, ban the proliferation of these crops in the country.

They are making urgent appeal to the National Assembly to come up with a bill to stop further introduction of GMOs into the country.

The experts who took turn to speak during a press conference organised by the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), posited that the introduction of GMOs in Nigeria has not only distorted the ecosystem, but has also negatively impacted on crop yields.

While the GMOs promoters have presented the technology as a game changer in mitigating hunger, as well as solution to socioeconomic problems plaguing the country, the antagonists say no country has achieved self-sufficiency in food production through the crops.

From research, in Africa, only Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria have reportedly adopted the technology, which most developed countries have rejected and embraced other sustainable means to boost their food production.

Available evidence on the website of the Biosafety Clearing House of the Convention on Biological Diversity, as at June 2024, revealed that Nigeria has within 10 years of assenting to the Nigeria Biosafety Management Act, has approved 25 GM products, comprising of 11 for field trials; four for commercial release; and 10 for food, feed and/or processing.

The four varieties approved for commercial release and market placement are two varieties of cowpea, cotton, and maize. It was reported last September that Nigeria is warming up to approve GM Potatoes for commercial release in 2025.

Other varieties include Cotton for lepidopteran insect pest resistance approved in 2016; Cowpea for lepidopteran insect pest resistance was approved in 2019; Maize for Drought Tolerance, Resistance to Stem Borer and Fall Armyworm was approved in 2022; and in 2024 Cowpea containing Cry2Ab gene conferring Resistance to Maruca Pod Borer in Cowpea (Institute for Agricultural Research, Zaria) was released.

For food, feed  and processing, the varieties approved include Soybeans for herbicide tolerance (Syngenta South Africa (pty) limited); Maize Events-3272 and MZIR093-Pest and disease resistant; Herbicide tolerant; Biofuel Production Syngenta South Africa Pty Ltd) were approved in 2019;  Wheat (Trigall Genetics), processing of edible oil
soybeans (Rom Oil Mills Limited now known as Premium Edible Oil Products Limited (PEOPL).

However, a market shelf survey conducted by HOMEF in 2018, 2019 and 2023 revealed the presence of over 50 imported food products made with genetically modified ingredients. Although these products are labeled to contain GMOs, majority of Nigerians are not aware of their presence or the implications they may have on human health.

The products include cereals, vegetable oil, noodles, food spices, cake mixes, syrups, mayonnaise, and ice-cream, which Nigerians regularly consume, which are made from genetically modified plants, such as corn and soy. The products were also found to be mostly imports from USA, China, India and South Africa.

The question of who is checking the importation of these processed foods with genetically modified ingredients is left unanswered, as there is no evidence of independent, long term risk assessment including feeding trials conducted by the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) before the approval of the varieties. It was also discovered that the approvals did not take into account objections to some of the applications sent in by experts/researchers.

Meanwhile, the NBMA Act enacted at the twilight of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration is said to be fundamentally flawed, particularly with the absence of provisions for strict liability and redress, which would require biotechnology companies to take responsibility for both the immediate and future negative effects of their products.

Other concerns include limited access to information, inadequate public consultation and participation, the lack of provisions for appeals and reviews, and absence of enforceable measures for applying the precautionary principle and decision-making processes.

During the press briefing, Prof Johnson Ekpere, maintained that the previous government ratified GMOs without understanding the basic precepts that guide the crops, which is the Cartegena Protocol on Biosafety.

He stressed that the government must ensure that the basic tenets guiding this protocol is understood by those implementing the law.

Prof Ekpere also called on the government to set up a biosafety research facility that will help them understand what they are doing and take drastic risk assessment the country’s biotechnology.

The Deputy Director, Centre for Food Safety and Agricultural Research, Prof. Qrisstuberg Amua, who stated that NBMA should be a biosafety regulatory agency not a management agency, added that the misapplication of their names has translated them into a promoter of foreign technology that are at the detriment of Nigerians.

He pointed out that recent studies have raised concerns about the unintended ecological consequences of genetically engineered crops, including the development of super weeds and resistance among pests.

Similarly, he said the inappropriate adoption of GMOs, which are tantamount to gain-of-function research, from externally promoted research that is funded by foreign commercial interests, poses a tangible risk to food safety, human health and ecological conservation.

He warned that the unregulated biosafety research can exacerbate biosafety challenges, which is what is currently manifesting in Nigeria as the chemical pesticides used are known disruptors of echo systems.

On her part, the HOMEF’s Programme Manager, Joyce Brown mentioned that NBMA is yet to conduct clinical trials on the GMOs being brought into the country, saying that what is seen on their website is the applications for bringing-in GMOs into the country with no assessments report to actually certify that the crops are safe.

She pointed out that the country does not need GMOs to solve its food insecurity challenge, noting that food insecurity is caused by poverty, insecurity, and inequality among others.

Brown posited that looking at the country’s agricultural landscape, a sustainable approach such as agroecology should be adopted to boost food production and not GMOs.

Agroecology, according to her, emphasise the integration of ecological principles into agricultural practices, offers a pathway to not only ensure food security but also, more fundamentally assuming food sovereignty.

The Deputy Director, Centre for food Safety and Agricultural Research, Dr Segun Adebayo also called on the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Federal Completion and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to rise up to their duty by controlling what is being brought into the country, saying Nigerians are eating poison.

A farmer, Mrs Ejim Lovely Nnena insisted that farmers are saying “No to GMO. Adoption of the technology means poverty, serious nutrition crisis among others.”

She maintained that if they are given GMO seeds and cannot replant it, it is poverty in disguise adding that if they have to spray chemicals to enable the seed germinate properly, it means farmers are being pushed out of the field into slavery.

Ejim said what farmers are demanding is adequate security on the farms, extension workers to guide them, and map out areas for farm activities, and provide seed banks.

The farmer stated that GMOs destroy the ecosystem; due to the accompanying chemicals that is claimed to be the support for the fast growth and bumper harvest, saying the chemicals kills some useful insects and other farmer-friendly livings.

She also stated that the technology gives poor yield, due to high cost of fertiliser and other chemicals needed to boost the seed, which most of the rural farmers can’t afford, adding that it is a tactical method of pushing the rural farmers aside.

Ejim said: “Most rural farmers are not educated to read the label on the chemicals, hence they spread it unprotected with knapsack sprayers and some spread with leaves meaning direct contact with this harmful chemicals causing many unknown diseases and untimely death.”

The farmer emphasised the need to go back to nature by doing farm rotation, early land preparation, mixed cropping, farm mulching, seed propagation, seed banking, farm composting, family farming among others, saying all these were in place before and gave good results.

She said: “We must shun GMOs and embrace Biodiversity, this is the only way to make our country food basket of the world again. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Nigeria was exporting farm products to the whites, remember the whites were here doing the exploits themselves then. Now, they have colonised our brain to agree that we are not getting it right so they continue to enslave us.

“We should think deep to understand this and fight back. This modern slavery is more severe than the former. Reject it with all your powers. Say no to GMO! Say no to modern slavery! Say no to this death, so that our beloved country can be great again.”