ABUJA – The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has said that Nigeria will soon adopt “BT Cotton’’. Adesina made this known on Friday in Abuja when the Cotton Ginners Association visited him in his office. Bt cotton is a genetically modified variety of cotton that produces insecticide and increases yield. “If you look at China, India, Bukina Faso and Mali, they all have BT cotton. “Nigeria will have BT cotton because it increases yield, it has less infections and as such we do not need to use less pesticides that are dangerous to our farmers health,’’ he said. According to him, Nigeria will not avoid science and technology but regulate it to favour the populace.
[eap_ad_1] He said government had distributed 468,800 units of cotton sacks to more than 40 thousand farmers, adding that improved variety of cotton was being developed. Earlier, Alhaji Salman Abdullahi, the Chairman of the association, had stressed the need for the adoption of BT cotton in Nigeria to combat the effects of climate change. Abdullahi also called for the early distribution of seeds and agro-chemicals, while urging the Federal Government to strengthen security at the national borders to prevent smuggling of the commodity. He appealed for the inclusion cotton in the staple crop processing zone programme of the Federal Government. (NAN)
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