Buhari’s agric policy working well for Nigeria – Biosafety DG

The Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Dr. Rufus Ebegba, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s agricultural policy aimed at diversifying Nigeria’s economy was working well for the country.

The NBMA boss who made the remarks in an interview, called on Nigerians to continue to give Buhari the needed support in his determined effort to improve nation’s economy through agricultural innovations.

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“The agricultural policy we have in this country is evolving. It is not something that you can just see the result at a time. Part of the agricultural policy is what has led to the increase in rice production. You will agree with me that a lot of farmers are going into rice production right now. And also the issue of smuggling of food, government is also working on it.

“The issue of removing subsidy or removing support to the importation of food is to enable us have sustainable agriculture, have food security in our country. Any nation that keeps importing foods such a nation is bound to run into problem, especially if in future it has diplomatic issues with that country from where it is importing.

“But when we have sustainable agriculture within the country, we will be able to produce enough for domestic consumption and for exports which also leads to foreign earnings. I can also tell you that with the progammes that the Federal Government has, I think over time, Nigeria will be better for it. The Federal Government is looking beyond conventional agriculture. It is also looking at modern agriculture.

“The creation of the National Biosafety Management Agency is also geared towards ensuring safety of agricultural products that are derived from modern biotechnology,” Ebegba explained.

According to the DG, the Biosafety agency, which was established in 2015 to provide regulatory framework to adequately safeguard human health and the environment from the potential adverse effects of modern biotechnology and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), has made significant strides in the actualisation of its mandate.

Hear him: “In the past four years, we have made major strides in our mandate in ensuring that there is a holistic biosafety system in the country. Within these four years, we have been able to review the policy that was adopted in 2006 to be in tandem with the Act of 2015.

“No doubt, there must be some lacuna in a policy of 2006 and a law coming in 2015 that was debated in the National Assembly – that is about ten years difference. There was therefore the need to align the earlier policy with the new law.

“So, there was a new policy which the agency proposed to the Federal Executive Council through the Ministry of Environment and we now have a new (biosafety policy). That was in 2017. We have also developed various guidelines, biosafety guidelines and sectoral guidelines. We have been able to equally recruit staff and subject them to various trainings within and outside the country, increase their proficiency for them to be able to get both national and international best standards of biosafety regulations,” he said.