Dr Francis Nwankwo, a scientist and the programme officer of the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) in Nigeria, says Genetically Modified (GM) cowpeas (beans) are very safe for consumption.
Nwankwo, who disclosed this on Thursday in Jos, in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria(NAN), said that the genetically modified grains and beans in particular contained no killer gene as alleged by most people.
“The GM beans have no killer gene in it and it isn’t harmful or poisonous, to humans and animals,” he said.
According to him, the genetically modified beans are safer and contained no toxicity as compared to the conventional beans due to the number of times the conventional beans are spread with pesticides.
The scientist said that farmers normally applied pesticides to the conventional beans five to 10 times within a planting season to avoid the pod borer insect from destroying their crops.
He said that the act increased the residues of pesticides in the beans and increased the chances of toxicity in the beans.
According to him, with the GM beans the farmers just apply the pesticide only twice within the farming season.
Nwankwo said that decrease in the use of pesticides on the beans within the farming season was beneficial to consumers as the beans had less toxicity in it from the pesticides.
He said during the application of the pesticides farmers and farm workers get exposed to the pesticides which are also detrimental to their health and the ecosystem .
The programme officer revealed that asides the less use of pesticides, the GM beans had five times more yield than the conventional beans.
According to him, it takes about 36 hours to germinate compared to the conventional beans which take a period of five days to germinate.
“The more yield gotten from the GM beans translates to Nigerians relying less on imported beans and it also increases food security.’’
Nwankwo revealed that scientists ventured into the genetic modification of beans production because of pest infestations that made the planting of beans difficult, unprofitable and even hazardous as farmers were exposed to pesticide sprays.
He said that the GM beans were not different from the conventional beans in terms of taste.
He said its only difference was it’s in-built resistance to the pod borer which decreased the number of times in which pesticides were applied to the plant.
Nwankwo, therefore, called on farmers to grow the GM beans as it had been discovered to have better yield, less use of pesticides, making it healthy for both the farmers and the end-users and it is more profitable.
