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Foundation ready to sustain gains of PBR cowpea

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The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) said it had concluded arrangements to sustain the gain of Nigeria’s first genetically modified crop variety, the Pod Borer Resistant cowpea with a second gene.

Mr Alex Abutu, Communication Officer of AATF, announced this on Sunday in a statement issued in Abuja.

Abutu said AATF facilitated the environmental release of the first generation of PBR Cowpea in 2019 after one decade of confined and on-farm trials by the Institute of Agricultural Research, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

He said Dr Jean Bapsite, AATF Regional Representative for West Africa, during a courtesy call to the Director General, National Biosafety Management Agency, said unprecedented testimonies from farmers on the importance of the PBR cowpea had compelled the team to quickly work on the stacking of the gene.

Bapsite said this would help to protect the cowpea against any possible breakdown, saying “we continue to improve on our successes and leave no gap for any breakdown.

The Second gene will strengthen, reinforce, and increase the resistance level of the PBR Cowpea against any attack.

” The PBR Cowpea was commercially released to farmers in 2021 and it is currently being planted all over the country with farmers counting the gains of yield increase.

He said it had less use of chemical sprays and prolific fodder production, when compared to the conventional cowpea varieties.

The Director General of the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Dr Rufus Ebegba, commended AATF and its partners for developing and releasing a crop variety that benefitted and enhanced the livelihood of farmers.

Ebegba informed the delegation that NBMA had continued to improve its application processes to conform with current scientific realities.

Science is not democracy. Our regulation is purely scientifically based and we shall not be moved by blackmail or emotions. The safety of Nigerians and the environment is our utmost interest.”

He, however, challenged African scientists to take advantage of the numerous opportunities that biotechnology offered to research more into the technology.

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Nigeria moves to address weak link in cowpea value chain

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By Anthony Areh

The Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS) has called on stakeholders to synergise and address the weak link in cowpea value chain in order to establish continuity of international market access.

Dr Vincent Isgebe, NAQS Director-General made the call in a statement jointly issued by the service and the President, Cowpea Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Shitu Mohammed on Monday in Abuja,

Isegbe said that the pattern of boom and bust in cowpea export as result of the ingrained issue of high pesticide residue, largely introduced during the storage phase.

“The residue levels in the cowpea tend to rise above the maximum threshold set by certain customs union and this makes the product unacceptable in crucial destinations.

“We need to make a clean break from imprudent application of storage pesticides and consolidate a reputation for producing and delivering cowpea that satisfy relevant quality criteria,” he said.

The NAQS boss said that the country losses foreign exchange and thousands of jobs when export of cowpea or any other agricultural commodity was suspended on account of a steady trend of intolerable quality defects.

He, however, advised cowpea value chain actors to form a network of cooperatives and embrace the principle of scrupulous self-regulation.

According to him, as the people who benefit most when business is brisk, it behooves all value chain players to take the initiative to ensure that good agricultural practices suffuse the entire process of producing export-destined cowpea.

Similarly, Mohammed, identified lack of awareness as the root cause of high pesticide residue at the storage endpoint.

He noted that stakeholders commonly regarded the liberal application of pesticides as a way to protect their produce from weevils and preserve the material value of their produce.

“They did not know that they were effectively demarketing the produce and setting up themselves not to make profit.

”The intervening period in which cowpea export has been at a low ebb has given stakeholders light-bulb moment. They are now ready to adapt. “Everyone is eager to go organic so that stability, momentum and growth can return to the value chain,” Mohammed said.