Agric & Biotech

Sir Rufus Ebegba, the director-general and chief executive officer of the National Biosafety Management Agency (NABMA), at a meeting held in Abuja to review two applications submitted for the release of genetically-modified (GM) cotton and maize, said Nigerians should prepare to see more GM products in the market to serve as alternative to consumers’ choice. In this interview with Etta Michael ...

Lake Victoria farmers cite Bidco land-grabbing, environmental destruction and human rights violations in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania The Bugala Farmers Association in Uganda has called on the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to sever its ties with Bidco Africa, a Kenya-based edible oil producer accused of land-grabbing, human rights violations and environmental disasters in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Over 100 farmers ...

In efforts aimed at curbing illegal felling of trees in state-owned forest reserves, the Ogun State Government has impounded three timber lorries and six trailers loaded with round logs and flitches, also known as ‘‘Alamole’’. State Commissioner for Forestry, Chief Kolawole Lawal, who made this known at the weekend in Abeokuta, the state capital, described the menace of illegal loggers in ...

Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) are international legal instruments whose goals include environmental protection, which entails measures to remedy, mitigate or otherwise deal with global and/or regional environmental concerns. These agreements are entered into by a considerable number of states or international organisations as Parties, and embodied in a single instrument or more related instruments. On the other hand, the Cartagena Protocol on ...

“Massive plunder” of the world’s fisheries is “destroying entire fishing communities”, Kofi Annan said on Thursday in Geneva, Switzerland at the launch of a new global initiative aimed at stemming illegal fishing. In a video message to the first International Conference of the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI), Mr Annan, the chair of the Africa Progress Panel, welcomed the initiative and underlined ...

Revenues from cocoa and other prominent farms produce in which Osun State has comparative advantages have great capacities to turn around the economy and fortunes of the state if pursued with renewed vigor. Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who stated thisrecently, assured that his administration would leave no stone unturned to make the state great again, hence the ...

The National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) has approached various security agencies including the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) as well as the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) as part of operational arrangements to enforce its mandate. It will be recalled that the NBMA shortly after its establishment gave a deadline of six months which expired last December to all ...

Many may be wondering what informed the title of this piece particularly the term “genetic modification” or more appropriately “genetic engineering”. The choice is simple: to join the discussion and highlight what an earlier article captioned: “What they do not tell you about genetic modification (II)”, published by Dr. Kabril az-Zubair on page 33 of the Sunday Trust newspaper on 20th December, ...

The Ogun State Forest Landscape Restoration Project was presented on 7th December 2015 to the international community at the UN Climate Change Climate Conference (COP21) that held recently in Paris, following the memorandum of understanding signed in September 2015 by the Ogun State Government (Ogun State), the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and Lafarge Africa Plc. The PPP project will ...

Challenges related to rising temperature and farm labour, changing rainfall in a dominantly rainfed system as well as increased frequency of occurrence of extreme weather events have either been partly addressed or totally neglected in the Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) discourse. This was the submission of Prof Chinedum Nwajiuba of the Imo State University, Owerri in a presentation at the ...