FG Partners Cuba on Biotechnology

Federal Ministry is collaborating with Cuba government to promote the transfer of new agricultural technology called ‘Temporary Immersion Bioreactor System’ (TIB).
Prof. Muhammed Ka’oje Abubakar, Minister of Science and Technology, disclosed this while commissioning National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (NACGRAB) laboratory in Ibadan. He said the critical role of biotechnology to national food sufficiency cannot be underestimated, as countries, especially the developing ones, are contending with the problem of starvation.
The Minister noted that the growth rate of food production globally has dropped from three per cent in the 1970s to one percent per annum, adding that worldwide, nearly 40,000 people- half of them children- die every day from hunger related causes.
“All these constitute serious challenges for which scientists have to develop new technologies to address and thereby boost food production. This is largely responsible for the renewed emphasis on biotechnology,” Abubakar emphasized.
He said: “with this new technology, which will be replicated in other relevant research institutes, will hopefully boost agricultural production in the country. Federal government is also taking appropriate measures to ensure the safety of the products of biotechnology research outcomes.”
The Minister noted that one feature of agricultural practices is subsistence farming whereby farmers eke out a living through small scale farming, and that they cannot produce sufficient agricultural produce to adequately cater for the food needs of their people.
“In addition, even the little food produced is lost to pest, diseases and travails of weather thereby straining the resources further and threatening the well-being of millions of people.”
Abubakar however emphasized that to ensure the success of the new research endeavour, there is the need to develop available human capacity to keep them abreast of technological advancement.