NAN-AE-103
Cotton
Dutse, Oct. 26, 2016 (NAN) The Vice-Chancellor, Federal University Dutse (FUD), Prof. Fatima Mukhtar, on Wednesday, urged the Federal Government to promote the use of Genetic Modification Organism (GMO) for non- consumable products as cotton for export.
Mukhtar gave this advice at a Special Lecture Series in a paper presented on ‘Agricultural Biotechnology: Opportunities and Challenges for Nigeria’ in Dutse.
She noted that there had been controversies on the use of GMO in engineering some crop production for consumption.
The Vice-Chancellor, who is also an agriculturalist, advised the government to key into biotechnology, especially in the area of cotton production for export.
She explained that a country as India was doing well on cotton production with the use of GMO.
Mukhtar opined that one method of farming would not guarantee Nigeria food security, hence the need to embrace all the available techniques to get the desired results.
The Vice Chancellor, who recalled some past government programmes as Green Revolution and Operation Feed the Nation, said the introduction of biotechnology would help the country to achieve food security.
She, therefore, tasked the nation’s scientists to further research into Genetic Engineering and enlighten the public about their findings, so as to clear the air on the controversies so far generated. (NAN)
MS/MOL/YEMI
Edited by Mustapha Lamidi
Controlled by Yemi Idris-Aduloju