Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) said Nigeria occupies 20th position in the global hunger index with about 65 per cent of its citizens not having access to adequate food for a healthy and productive life.

Also, 40 per cent of children under the age of five are suffering from stunted growth. 

This was disclosed by Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sheikh Abdullah, in his key note address at the May 2011 edition of the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology and commissioning of the Biotechnology Research Centre at the National Root Crops Research Centre (NRCRI), Umudike, Abia State. 

To address these challenges, the minister stressed that Nigeria must explore and exploit new bio-technologies that have proved to be successful elsewhere and adapt them to local conditions for the country to attain self sufficiency in food production and food security.  

To this end, he reiterated Federal Government’s resolve to improve capacity for the domestication of biotechnology in Nigeria by constructing additional laboratories and building capacity of personnel to conduct research in genetic engineering. 

This was contained in a statement in Abuja by the Head of Press and Public Relations in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Matthew Haruna.

He quoted the minister as having said the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development was desirous of seeing the National Bio-safety Bill before the National Assembly passed into law to provide policy and regulatory environment for the practice of agricultural biotechnology. 

Earlier, Executive Director of the NRCRI, Kenneth Nwosu, had said the institute has the national mandate to conduct research into genetic improvement, production, processing, storage, utilisation and marketing of roots and tuber crops of economic importance as well as improving the farming systems in the South East agro-ecological zone of Nigeria.

Daily Independent