Genetically modified organism otherwise known as GMO is a scientific mode of enhancing agricultural produce for higher yields, not in terms of quality but quantity.
This is alien to African culture as the continent is blessed with fertile land. An example of this is the Nigerian land texture and that of Kenya.
Kenya for example has the best form of tea and coffee which grows without any aid of fertiliser whatsoever.
Kenya is a very green land such that every household is surrounded by one form of garden and the other. The same goes for Nigeria, my beloved country.
A country where everything grows by mere throwing the seeds on the floor. Then came the introduction of chemically modified agriculture.
My first encounter with GMO dates back to 2004 when one day rather than go buy live chicken from the market as customary, I decided to buy an already made frozen chicken from a supermarket.
On getting home, I realised I had succeeded in wasting money as the chicken was not only tasteless but also had some chemicals “after test”. After that I said “bye bye” to GMO.
This write up now is informed by how GMO has spread across other food items such mangoes, sweet potatoes and so on.
By their size we shall know them! ..GMO produce comes in big sizes..unsuspecting buyers are often attracted to the sizes of such food produce.
For instance, you see mangoes come in very big sizes like goat heads and you rush to buy thinking it is a kind of special species. But by the tasteless taste you are faced with GMO.
Only recently I had an encounter with sweet potatoes. Mallam Musa (not real name) had just come back from perhaps a village market. He was off loading his potatoes. I had just entered the market. Then I came face to face with fresh looking potatoes with some Big sized mixed with other normal sizes.
Then I bought the little I could and off I went. And then a few days later, I realised potatoes have gone bad, rotten. What! Then I quickly suspected the GMO. These potatoes must have been genetically modified.
What manner of agric revolution is this if one may ask? A revolution which focuses on quantity rather than quality is not a good revolution after all.
I recall as young children in the days of our forefathers when we heard “green revolution”. It was indeed green. The revolution then points to “agric revolution”. And it was food surplus. The days when Nigeria not only fed herself but also had food to export. READ ALSO:
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It’s our hope that the present administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu focusing on agriculture as one of its cardinal points will embrace the real GREEN REVOLUTION and not the GMO revolution which is alien to our dear country, Nigeria .
This is so as not to infect the Nigerian vibrant population with cancerous diseases.
Rashidat Yusuf wrote from Abuja. Yusufrashidat12@gmail.com.
