Genetically Modified Organisms are obtained through the manipulation of their genome by adding or removing certain traits needed to yield desired characteristic(s) in the offsprings.
A gene is the basic unit of heredity.
Genes are made up of DNA and synthesise amino acids that form proteins.
Each gene occupies a specific position (in the chromosome in the nucleus of a cell) and a genome refers to the complete genetic makeup of an individual.
Scientists start by mapping the genome, knowing which genes are responsible for what, as well as their position.
They then add or remove some to genetically modify the organism to obtain the desired characteristics in the offsprings.
This is a quicker and more efficient method than traditionally, breeding the plant or animal.
Heritability is achieved as desired and faster too.
Genes from a good variety or breed can be used to upgrade another variety or breed of that organism and get a hybrid.
Also, genes from a plant, say paw paw, can be introduced into another plant, say mango, to genetically engineer a much bigger mango fruit.
Such traits, like for sweetness etc, can be further introduced that way into the plant to yield a big and sweeter fruit.
Foods have been genetically modified to increase yield, nutrition, taste, early maturity, longer shelf life as well as for disease, drought, and insect resistance.
In few countries, GM male mosquitoes are used to successfully control malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases.
Female mosquitoes suck blood, but male mosquitoes feed on fruit juices. The male mosquitoes are genetically modified to have a deleterious gene that kills only their female offsprings.
Such GM male mosquitoes are engineered and released in the wild to mate and produce offsprings of which the female die and the male offsprings continue the cycle with the deleterious gene they inherited.
This technology has been used in Florida, Brazil and is being used now in Djibouti.
The dependence on pesticides and other chemicals is reduced.
In agriculture, food security is enhanced, and food prices fall.
As a lay person may already have wondered, is public protection paramount. Yes, this technology is not allowed to be used without regulation.
Tests are run to ensure safety and that allergens are not transferred. Some people are allergic to certain foods and products.
In addition, information on the constituents of GM foods are, by law, displayed on the labeling.
This protects the rights of persons who, for say religious reasons, avoid certain foods. Moslems, for instance, do not eat pork, and need to be informed if a swine gene is in the product they are buying. Vegans, who avoid animal products, also have the right to know that their products are completely plant-based.
However, persons opposed to this technology argue that these are not enough.
It is a relatively new technology and the health implications are not fully understood. Some say it may even lead to cancer.
The first GM food in US is a tomato in 1994.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, FDA, by 2020, 94% of soya beans planted in US were GM, cotton: 96% and corn: 92%.
By 2023, US had the largest land area in the world under cultvation for GM crops at 74.4 million hectares. Brazil was second: 66.5 million hectares.
There has not been a health incident associated with GMO.
GM products are used in US and other developed countries, and the insinuation, sometimes, that they are dumped on Africa, is unsubstantiated.
Another point raised by opponents of GMO is with Genetic Use Restriction Technology, GURT, sometimes called the terminator seeds or suicide seeds.
In this technology, the GM seeds are engineered to be sterile. This forces the farmer to go back to the multinational corporation like Monsanto each time to buy seeds for planting. That creates dependency to the disadvantage of small-scale farmers.
The good news is that few GM seeds are engineered this way and they are optional, that is, one can choose not to buy them.
GURT seeds help safeguard the environment from genetic pollution. Big farmers like them as all hybrid seeds when re-planted, yield much less than the original, and commercial farmers like going back to the breeder for new seeds for each planting season.
Brazil and India, with many small-scale farmers, have banned GURT seeds. Nigeria does not use them.
This is why the biotechnology promoter in Nigeria, National Biotechnology Development Agency, NABDA; the regulator National Biosafety Management Agency, NBMA, say critics of this technology are over-reacting. Nigeria also has a food and drug regulator, NAFDAC. They all work to protect life and the environment.
Anti GM campaigners in Nigeria sued NBMA in 2016 over an approval for GM cotton. The case dragged in court until Justice D. U. Okoro of the Federal High Court, Abuja, dismissed it in its entirety for lacking merit on July 22, 2022.
Nigeria approved the sale and public use of the TELA variety of genetically modified maize in 2024.
The approval, on behalf of the Federal Government, was by the National Committee on Naming, Registration and Release of Crop Varieties, Livestock Breeds/Fisheries, NCNRRCVLF, in its 37th meeting at the National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology, NACGRAB, in Ibadan on January 11, 2024.
The four varieties: SAMMAZ 72T, SAMMAZ 73T, SAMMAZ 74T and SAMMAZ 75T, are resistant to stem-borers and fall army worms and also mildly tolerant to drought. None is a GURT seed.
Stem borers, Buseola fusca, are particularly a problem in Nigeria. They bore into stems of maize crops and feed on the crop from the inside. A local way of controlling them is to cut and collect the stems and burn them to kill the insects, but many escape and continue the spread in nearby farms.
The TELA varieties can also increase yields by up to 10 tonnes per hectare.
The environmental release approval was earlier granted by the National Biosafety Management Agency, NBMA, Nigeria’s biotechnology regulator, in October 2021.
The TELA Maize Project is also currently being implemented in Africa in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique and South Africa.
However in Nigeria, public rejection arose in June, 2024, that the seeds are dangerous and can cause cancer. Some called it “Bill Gates-Funded Artificial Maize.”
There are even reports in the social media that such technologies are designed to depopulate Africa, if adopted.
Same propaganda when the disease HIV/AIDS was first discovered in Africa in the 1980s: Some Western countries must have planted it to punish the people of colour.
When Covid-19 disease was first discovered in China, Asians never claimed it targeted Chinese and Indians who are even more populous than Africa and are emerging as world leaders in technology.
If America did not wish Africa well decades ago, is President Barack Obama also privy to a US plot to annihilate people of African descent?
Sentiment against GM foods is not only in Africa. A poll in US shows that 39% of Americans feel non-GM food is safer than GM foods.
While more public engagement is needed, opposition to GM technology must not be taken too far into the domain of sentiments.
Nigeria should wake up and remain guided by scientific knowledge and not let the advantages of this technology pass her, untapped.
