OFAB Nigeria Takes Biotechnology Awareness to Schools

The Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) Nigeria chapter has stepped up its efforts to raise awareness and appreciation on agricultural biotechnology by rolling out a biotechnology awareness program in Nigerian schools.

OFAB inaugurated the first Biotechnology and Biosafety Club (BBClub) in Nigeria where students irrespective of age can be brought together and trained on the current trends in scientific innovations in view of eliminating malnutrition and food insecurity in the country.

OFAB Nigeria Coordinator Dr. Rose Gidado said the main objective of the BBClub is to instill a culture of bioscience in the everyday life of primary and secondary school children for a better understanding and accurate communication of innovative agriculture.

"We aim to train and expose school children to the different scientific techniques by which food security can be enhanced. Food and nutrition security is very vital to the development and cognitive performance of children, so catching them young and teaching them the way out of food insecurity and acute malnutrition in Nigeria could play a very vital and undebatable role in the future," Dr. Gidado explained. She added that children are priority targets since they can be guided on the career choices to make.

Speaking on the global acceptance of GMOs, the representative of the BBClub, Ene Peace, wondered why some quarters of the Nigerian population have not keyed into the global acceptance of genetic modification technology for improved crop production and food security yet farmers elsewhere in the world have accepted it.

For more information, contact Dr. Rose Gidado at roxydado91@gmail.com.