AATF Seeks to Enhance Farmers’ Access to PBR Cowpea James Emejo in Abuja

The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), has inaugurated an 11-member National Stewardship Committee for quality management, production and distribution of the Pod Borer Resistant (PBR) cowpea seed variety.

The move is to ensure that the right quality of the genetically modified beans variety are readily accessed by the farmers in order to boost the federal government’s efforts towards economic diversifcaion and food security.

The Product Stewardship Lead for AATF, Mr. Francis Nwankwo, at the inauguration and training of the committee, said the capacity building will define the roles and responsibilities of every member for the new seed variety to be managed properly to give maximum benefits to farmers.

He said: “We are at the point of going to the farmers. Last year, we did demonstration trials with some farmers around nine states at 28 clusters.

“Farmers are very happy with the test and the demand they are placing is very high. We are upscaling it so that more farmers can plant it this year and we are targeting July planting season around North Central and North West zones.”

According to him: “Farmers, go through a lot trying to produce cowpea, they spray several times, instead of spraying several times, they can now spray pesticides twice.

“This helps the farmers save money that would have gone into production, without the spraying, farmers can lose 80 per cent of their yield – but with this intervention, the farmer would gain 80 per cent per yield and when it is gained, it means more production for the farmer to have more to sale. There will be more beans for the consumers and there will be more beans for the farmer to sell and feed his family”.

Further addressing safety concerns around genetically modified (GM) foods, Nwankwo explained that GM are highly regulated and safe for human and animal consumption.

According to him: “GM foods are highly regulated. Nigeria has an agency that regulates this production, for them to approve it, it goes through a lot, and they have food and feed assessment to know if it is safe as food and feed.

“They also check environmental safety, it does not have adverse effect on the environment. It took a 10 years period of doing this safety assessment and it is very safe”.

The stewardship committee included the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), AATF, Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), ABU Zaria, National Agricultural Seeds Council (NAQS) National Agricultural Extension Research and Liaison Services (NAERLS) and seed companies.

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