Nigerian lobby group led by scientists reject genetically modified potatoes

NIGERIA – Senior scientists have joined a coalition of 100 civil societies, farmers and academics to oppose plans of the Nigerian government to introduce genetically modified (GM) potatoes and wants a ban to all other related crops.

The revolution follows the announcement that the Federal Government will soon release a report on clinical trials on genetically modified (GM) potatoes. Similar reports indicate that GM Potatoes will be commercially released in 2025.

The International Potato Center (CIP) had announced that the biotech potatoes had a uniform yield advantage of over 300 percent when compared to the best performing variety in the country when no fungicide was applied.

This was a preliminary results from the three locations namely Kuru and Bokkos in Plateau State and Kusuku in Taraba State.

However, the lobby group wants the Nigerian Government to discontinue and out-rightly ban GMOs in the country.

Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), has noted that any further release of GMOs in Nigeria would be confirmed as a deliberate effort to destroy the Nigerian food system, jeopardise consumers’ health and degrade our environment.

“The House of Representatives in May 2024 announced a halt on introducing new GMOs and mandated an investigation on GMOs and the approval processes,” he added.

“To date, four months later, there is no information on the findings or results of this investigation, yet the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) is warming up to release new GM potatoes.”

On the GM Potatoes, Bassey stated that it is a narrow and short-sighted technological fix that is inappropriate for smallholder farmers in Nigeria and that could lead to an irreversible contamination of indigenous potato varieties.

“GM potatoes are banned in Peru and elsewhere and have been continuously spurned in developed countries. It is a wonder that Nigerian farmers are already been painted to clamour for the Potatoes. This was the same strategy used in Uganda and Rwanda,” he said.

Dr Ifeanyi Casmir, a Molecular Biologist, noted that, just like Bt Cotton, Bt Beans, and TELA Maize, the GM Potatoes represents a gradual yet sure erosion of the original germ plasm of Nigerian crops.

He noted that the country is being misled by half-baked parochial ‘scientists’ toward adopting a technology, whose products are mostly used as biofuels and feed for animals in other countries, not for human consumption.

Food Sovereignty Activist and Deputy Director of Environmental Rights Action, Mariann Bassey-Orovwuje, emphasised the regulatory lapses regarding GMOs.

She explained that there is no information on the application for the field/clinical trials on the GM Potatoes on the website of the NBMA whose mandate it is to regulate the use of GMOs and ensure adequate public participation in the decision-making process. 

“The secrecy and urgency with which GMO applications and approvals are handled is cause of serious concern,” Mariann noted.

According to Joyce Brown, Public Health Scientist and Director of Programmes at HOMEF, the GM potato in Nigeria is the same which is being pushed on East Africa; a “cisgenic” variant of the Victoria variety that was originally from South America but selected for use in Africa.

She revealed that the GM Victoria was developed by the International Potato Centre (CIP) and is genetically engineered with three genes that were taken from Latin American relatives of the potato plant.

Brown expressed her concerns that the Cisgenesis modification is still a new and unproven technique, and it is not yet clear how the stack of three genes will interact with each other or with the genetic material of the host plant.

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