BIOTECHNOLOGY

BIOTECHNOLOGY: A VERITABLE TOOL FOR AGRICULTURE IN NIGERIA

By: Nuhu Abdullahi Tsanni

In line with the change agenda of the current political dispensation led by President Muhammadu Buhari to diversify the economy through agriculture, modern technologies such as plant biotechnology and plant tissue culture have to be employed in this political drive. These technologies hold a great promise to improving agricultural practices through the production of improved quality food products with added nutrient value to meet the food and nutrient demands of the teeming and growing population of the country, there by ensuring food security and improving the quality of life of Nigerians.
Current knowledge and understanding in plant biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology have lead to the development of modern technologies such as plant biotechnology and plant tissue culture. In simple terms, biotechnology can be defined as technology using biology, biotechnology involves the use of living systems or part of a living system to produce useful products and provide services. For example if you have consumed bread made using flour and yeast then, you have consumed a biotechnology product or beer which is brewed using Sacchromyces cereviceae ( a microorganism) or even yogurt which is produced using Lactobacillus species, all these are products from biotechnology and other biotechnology applications including medicine (vaccine production, insulin production). Plant biotechnology simply involves the introduction of desirable traits or characteristics (such as size, color, sweetness, resistance to pest and diseases) into plants using genetic engineering techniques (biotechnology). to produce crops with desired traits or characters, usually a gene (DNA sequences) that encodes for a particular trait or character say height is isolated from a specie and then inserted into the plant genome (genetic make up) through a process known as transformation and the plant is able to express (produce) the desired trait or character. Transformation of plants can be achieved through physical means using gold particle bombardment (micro projectile shotgun) to shoot the gene of interest into the plant genome or by using a particle delivery system such as the helium derived biolistic delivery system. Plant genetic transformation can also be achieved through biological means, using Agrobacterium tumefaciens a natural genetic engineer and soil phytopathogen that causes crown gall disease in plants by using its tumor-inducing plasmid (Ti-plasmid) to insert a portion of it`s genes into the plant genome which induces tumor formation. Scientist however, have been able to exploit this biology of A. tumefaciens a genetic engineering tool by nature to insert genes of desired interest by disarming the bacterial Ti-plasmid and use the bacterium to transform plant cells and produce plants with desired characteristics. With the advent of powerful genome editing tools today such as the CRISPR-CAS 9 system (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) due to recent progresses made in molecular biology, crop breeders can now genetically modify plant genome without transfer of any foreign gene. Recently in 2014 CRISPR system has been used to genetically engineer the sterile Aedes aegypti mosquito in Brazil so that it doesn`t transmit malaria and other diseases such as dengue fever, yellow fever and chikugunya which are endemic in sub-saharan Africa.
Also, advances made in the understanding of the molecular biology, genetics and biochemistry of plants has given birth to another agricultural tool known as plant tissue culture. Plant tissue culture is a process where by plant parts (cells, tissue or organ) known as explants are grown under aseptic conditions in a selective medium that contains the appropriate ratio of plant growth regulators (hormones) and nutrients that are required for the growth of the plant. The major advantage of plant tissue culture is that, the technique allows the propagation of plants in large scale that are uniform with high quality, yield and free from diseases. For example using 30 explants, 25,000 rooted plants will be generated after 100 days in culture.
It is important to note that here that, genetic modification of plant genome is nothing new because we are all genetically modified organisms (our DNA represents a historical document, records of the long journey from earliest cells to modern organisms) and for thousands of years back our ancestors, farmers and crop breeders have always selected the best seeds and fruits (with big size or sweetness) from the wild and domesticated them into the crops that we have today. Also crop breeders have bred crops from different species in other to have different varieties of crops, which have lead to several mutations that accumulated and gave rise to different plant species. For example modern corn today was actually derived from the ancient plant teosinte, therefore modern plant biotechnology is actually a continuation of ancient crop breeding. However, ancient crop breeding takes a long period of time and only crops of the same specie can be crossbred, plant biotechnology in contrast ensures that genes of desired interest are inserted into plants in a shorter time and specific genes from different species can be isolated and inserted into plants without the introduction of unwanted genes. Plant biotechnology has and will continue to revolutionize agriculture today and holds a great promise in the near future through the development of crops with improved quality, nutrition, taste and free from pest and diseases which require less resources such as water and land. It is therefore paramount for Nigeria to key into these modern technologies and agricultural tools to boost agricultural productivity in the country. Agricultural practices in Nigeria has been faced with many challenges such as pest and insect diseases which can eventually lead to a lingering food security crisis, hence the urgent need to employ and implement the use of these techniques to secure the country`s agricultural production. The production of crops that are resistance to drought, pest and diseases through plant biotechnology and tissue culture will also cut down the millions of dollars spent yearly in the importation of pesticides and herbicides into the country, which will help to decrease the rate of importation and hence boost the country`s foreign reserve and prevent damage to the environment caused by certain pesticides.
Nigeria should learn lessons from countries such as Brazil whose huge investment in science, research and agriculture for decades has today placed the country to be among the world major producers and exporters of food crops such as maize, soybean, cotton and coffee. With a vibrant economy of $ 1.77 trillion Brazil is ranked 9th largest economy by nominal GDP in the world according to IMF`s world economic outlook database October 2016. Therefore, Nigeria through the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) should partner with relevant agencies such as Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), The Brazilian Agricultural Research Cooperation (EMBRAPA) in other to boost agricultural research in the country, strategize and formulate policies that will foster agribusinesses and agricultural production in Nigeria.
Even though there are a lot of arguments against the use of genetic engineering techniques (biotechnology) to produce genetically modified crops, these arguments are often exaggerated by social media and other media platforms and lack scientific basis hence, these arguments are baseless and lack any merit. In Nigeria for example, due to high level of illiteracy, pseudoscience and rumor mongering some people drank and took their bath with salt water an act which they believe will prevent the ebola disease during the ebola virus outbreak. However, in the debate against GM crops and genetic engineering techniques due to certain ethical concerns, critical thinking and honest analysis of facts with scientific basis need to be employed, all stakeholders should get involved, risks need to be thoroughly assessed (we now have the National Biosafety Management Agency) before GM crops are released into the fields for commercial purposes.
Food is what drives the world and the primary concern of most humans on earth, which makes agriculture the largest and the most significant industry in the world today. Therefore, as Nigeria “the giant of Africa” strives to take it`s position among the leading and developing countries of the world by diversifying the economy through agriculture, modern agricultural tools such as plant biotechnology remains a powerful and veritable tool for harnessing the benefits of agriculture in Nigeria.

By Nuhu Abdullahi Tsanni
 A 400 level student
 Department of Biochemistry,
 Ahmadu Bello University Zaria-Nigeria.

This article was written out of motivation and guidance from Abdulrazak Ibrahim (PhD Molecular Biology) with the aim that it will propel the Nigerian government to key into Biotechnology and also to sensitize the Nigerian populace on the prospects of Biotechnology for national growth and development.