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Why GM cotton will benefit sector, by textile makers

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Why GM cotton will benefit sector, by textile makers

The Nigerian Textile Manufacturers Association (NTMA) has expressed its support for ‎the environmental release and commercialisation of genetically modified Bt Cotton for Nigerian farmers. The GM cotton is said to be resistant to pests’ invasion.

GM Cotton
GM Cotton

A position paper signed by the NTMA Acting Director-General, Hamma Kwajaffa, noted that while the Nigerian textile industry is a strategic non-oil sector and the largest after oil and agriculture, it is also the largest in sub-Saharan Africa.

The association attributed the nation’s cotton potential to abundant raw materials such as cotton and polyester chips (petrochemical), adding that the industry has a high potential for added value generation from raw material to finished goods, and is a major employer of urban and rural populations.

“It is estimated that about 30,000 Nigerians are employed in the textile industry and an additional one million small farmers and labourers are both in direct cotton production and within the value chain, probably supporting five million more people. This is a sharp contrast from over 400,000 people employed across over 250 textile mills in the country in the 80s,” the statement reads.

The group commended the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogonnaya Onu, who recently underlined government’s interest in utilising the potentials of Bt Cotton to revive the industry.

Applauding government’s establishment of the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) to address issues of human health as well as environmental safety concerns, the NTMA advised NBMA “to engage the farmers in high level education as the whole GMO farming emanates from educated farmers like in the US, India, Brazil, Greece and Argentina”.

It added that the recent application by Monsanto for the environmental release and commercialisation of GM Bt Cotton could play an immense role in making cotton farming attractive “as well as reviving and repositioning the textile sector.”

It further added that the science-based review process by regulatory agencies and independent experts that the application was currently undergoing would ascertain the safety to human and animal health as well as the environment, of the proposed product.

“Lack of confidence by participants across the value chain over the years is restricting much-needed investment and one of the root causes of this is tied to the most important input in the industry, the cotton crop,” the statement continued, adding, “Seed quality remains a problem affecting yield and by implication, farmers’ income and motivation to cultivate. The prevalence of pests which leads to increased expenses in pesticides (thereby unnecessarily hiking cost of inputs upwards) is also another contributing factor.”

By Abdallah el-Kurebe

China to triple solar capacity by 2020

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China to triple solar capacity by 2020

Under its 13th Five Year Plan, China will nearly triple solar capacity by 2020, adding 15 to 20 gigawatts of solar capacity each year for the next five years, according to Nur Bekri, director of the National Energy Administration. That will bring the country’s installed solar power to more than 140 gigawatts.

Solar energy
Solar energy

To put that in context, world solar capacity topped 200 gigawatts last year and is expected to reach 321 gigawatts by the end of 2016.

In 2015, the country added more than 15 gigawatts of new solar capacity, surpassing Germany as the world’s largest solar power market. China now has 43.2 gigawatts of solar capacity, compared with38.4 gigawatts in Germany and 27.8 in the United States.

China is also the world’s largest carbon emitter. It burns more coal than any other nation, and its solar capacity is only a small fraction of its total energy portfolio. The National Energy Administration estimates that nearly one-third of solar capacity in Gansu province, and more than one-quarter in Xinjiang, was idle last year.

China’s stated goal in adding such gargantuan amounts of solar is that it wants to meet its targets for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases under the Paris climate accord. Also, China’s leaders are desperate to reduce the coal-fired air pollution that renders the air in big cities like Shanghai and Beijing virtually unbreathable.

And China’s massive solar panel manufacturing sector needs new markets for its products. Patrick Jobin, an analyst at Credit Suisse, said that a solar panel glut could hit the sector this year as China’s top three producers, JA Solar, JinkoSolar and Trina Solar, continue to ramp up production despite flattening international demand.

“We believe solar manufactures face an exacerbated, oversupplied environment in 2016,” he wrote.

So the central government’s bold plans could be a strategy for soaking up the excess supply.

China opens national grid to renewable energy sources

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China opens national grid to renewable energy sources

China has ordered power transmission companies to provide grid connectivity for all renewable power generation sources and end a bottleneck that has left a large amount of clean power idle, the country’s energy regulator has said.

electricity
A power grid

The grid companies have been ordered to plug in all renewable power sources that comply with their technical standards, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said.

China’s power is primarily delivered by the State Grid Corp of China (STGRD.UL) and the China Southern Power Grid Co (CNPOW.UL), with the latter responsible for delivering electricity in five southern provinces and regions.

China has become the world’s biggest wind and solar power user, but a large amount of renewable power has not been able to reach the grid because transmission capabilities are lagging generating capacity by around three to five years.

The State Grid is banking on building new ultra-high voltage (UHV) long-distance transmission lines to fill the gap.

“The construction of UHV lines are to help with cross-regional power delivery,” said Wang Yanfang, a State Grid spokeswoman, referring to the need to deliver power from remoter regions to energy-hungry eastern China.

Northern and western provinces, where energy resources are plentiful, are far from the industrial hubs in the nation’s eastern coastal regions. To transport surplus power from the north and west, China currently has 17 UHV transmission lines in operation or under construction.

Suppliers generating power with wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and wave energy will benefit from the full integration plan, the NEA said.

Integration will also encourage wind and solar power suppliers to participate in the country’s pilot power trading program, although grid companies will also be forced to make guaranteed purchases of a portion of the power generated.

“The authorities and provincial grid companies should promote cross-regional trading of renewable power to scale up its acceptance,” the NEA said.

The regulator said the volume of electricity the grid is forced to buy will be determined by technical criteria such as transmission capacity and end-user demand in regions where capacity has been idled.

The mandatory contracts mean that renewable power companies will still be compensated if they are squeezed out by other suppliers, said the NEA.

Other renewable sources, such as biomass, geothermal, wave and small-scale solar power, will be integrated with the grid without the need to trade on the market.

By Kathy Chen and David Stanway

‘World wastes $1 trillion on needless new coal plants’

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‘World wastes $1 trillion on needless new coal plants’

Nearly $1 trillion (£700 billion) is being invested in new coal-fired power plants worldwide despite the fact that the demand for electricity generated from coal has declined for two years in a row, shows a new report released this week.

The report, by Greenpeace, the Sierra Club and CoalSwarm, warns that this problem of overbuilding is creating an “increasingly severe capacity bubble”.

coal-power-station_1861404bLast year the global power sector added at least 84 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power capacity. This is a 25 percent increase from 2014.

As the report explains, across the world a generating capacity equal to 1,500 coal plants is either in construction or in various stages of planning. The amount of capital potentially wasted on these plants comes to $981 billion.

Yet, the average coal plant is running fewer and fewer hours each year.

In China for example, the consumption of coal for electricity generation dropped 3.6 percent last year. Currently, the average Chinese coal plant runs less than half the time – the lowest level since 1969 – and the government recently announced plans to halt new coal plant approvals.

And in India, 11GW of thermal capacity is lying idle. Last year saw the first drop in India’s annual coal power installations since 2006 and the report expects this the drop “to be even more pronounced” in 2016.

“The era of Big Coal is clearly coming to an end,” said Nicole Ghio, senior campaigner for the Sierra Club’s International Climate and Energy campaign. “Coal use keeps falling off a cliff and plants are sitting idle, yet more money is being wasted on misguided attempts at locking in this dirty, dangerous fuel.”

Lauri Myllyvirta, senior global campaigner on Coal and Air Pollution at Greenpeace, described the situation as a “last-ditch push” by an industry which is becoming “rapidly uncompetitive”.

But while coal plant retirements may be growing globally, led by efforts in Europe and the US, this is not happening fast enough to balance out the overbuilding.

As the report warns, the danger of all this potential capacity sitting idle is that, in the end, it might be used but with significant impact on the world’s ability to meet its climate targets under the Paris Agreement.

“Even with no further building of coal plants, emissions from current coal plants will still be 150 percent higher than what is consistent with scenarios limiting warming to 2°C,” it explains, “meaning that most operating and new coal-fired plants will have to be phased out well before the end of their planned lifetime.”

Even building “high efficiency” coal plants is not a viable solution the report states, since this would lock in “large, long-lived carbon emitters, interfering with the need to fully decarbonise the power sector by 2040 in order to limit warming to 2°C”.

Instead, the report argues that the amount wasted on the coal capacity bubble should be direct towards alleviating energy poverty and investing in clean energy such as wind and solar power.

It notes that the nearly $1 trillion wasted is equivalent to the total level of investment needed to provide electricity to the 1.2 billion people currently lacking access to energy according to the International Energy Agency.

This would also be enough money to increase the amount of solar and wind power installed globally by 39 percent, the report finds.

“The hundreds of billions being thrown at coal could instead go toward the booming clean energy sector, helping more than a billion people get access to the clean, reliable electricity that fossil fuels have failed to deliver,” explained Ghio.

In addition to its significant climate impact, the report finds that the additional new proposed coal capacity would result in over 130,000 more premature deaths worldwide each year due to air pollution.

“The clock is ticking on the transition to clean energy,” said Ted Nace, director of CoalSwarm. “Although this research has revealed hundreds of billions being squandered on unneeded coal plants, there’s more at stake here than money.”

By Kyla Mandel (Desmog)

Ghana: Experts root for water, land, ecosystems researches

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Ghana: Experts root for water, land, ecosystems researches

Ghana’s savannah ecology zone is well endowed with a large expanse of land, which under normal circumstances should have better served the people. But the harsh environmental conditions including the dryness of some areas, threats of desertification, water scarcity, land degradation, soil erosion and climate change impacts, have hampered development in the area and entrenched poverty among majority of the people. The area covers Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions.

Women in Ghana engaged in dry season rice farming through irrigation
Women in Ghana engaged in dry season rice farming through irrigation

Research institutions and development organisations working within the savannah zone, are seeking evidence-based solutions built on actual understanding of these issues to create awareness among local stakeholders and implement appropriate development projects in the zone. The Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Research Programme on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) is spearheading the process.

CGIAR WLE in collaboration with the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), as well as USAID’s sponsored projects in the zone, among other organisations, have begun discussing ways of tailoring research to meet the needs of the people. They want to ensure that agriculture and natural resources oriented research provide sustainable solutions to poverty and underdevelopment in the area.

Under the auspices of the SADA, the concerned bodies as well as others have held a two-day Knowledge Sharing Fair in Tamale, Ghana. The Fair provided a platform for discussing issues pertaining to how research can inform policy, planning and practice. It was also an occasion for exhibiting over 10 research for development projects on-going in the SADA zone.

It was the right timing for development organizations and donors to deliberate on research for development related issues. It enabled the WLE program to show case its research contributions to the SADA objective of ensuring accelerated, integrated and comprehensive development of the Northern Savannah Ecological Zone.

The Fair facilitated the sharing of experiences and learning on current research and development projects across locations and subjects; and set the pace for better coordination and networking of actors across projects.

The main discussions focused on the means of promoting the expansion of improved land and water management technologies and practices in the SADA zone; positioning SADA to effectively monitor all development efforts to ensure synergy and desired impacts; and how to strengthen the alignment between research, policy and practice within the SADA zone.

The Chief Executive Officer of SADA, Charles Abugre, said the research on water, land and ecosystems was very timely and paramount to the aspirations of SADA. He acknowledged that unique opportunities exist in harnessing the water in the Volta basin, its values and ecological goods and services to provide livelihoods and transform the economy of the SADA zone.

The Upper East Region Commissioner of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Ambassador Donald Adabre called for the pooling of efforts to narrow the poverty gap between the SADA zone and the rest of the country. He said, “This can be done by translating research and incorporating it into policy, planning and implementation of activities within the zone.”

The representative of the Vice-Chancellor of the University for Development Studies (UDS) and board member of the Northern Rural Growth Programme (NRGP), Professor George Nyarko, told the participants that UDS has the potential to assist in accelerating the development of the SADA zone with quality research. He therefore urged SADA to support the university’s research activities.

The Chief of Party for the USAID/ATT project, Dr. Micheal Dockery said in the SADA zone, his organisation was implementing projects such as “Secure Water” aimed at ensuring water availability for dry season farming and increase yields. He said most of the USAID related projects were geared towards nutritional outcomes, improved seed development and water for irrigation.

The Head of Office of IWMI West Africa, Dr. Olufunke Cofie said in order to deliver its core mandate of providing a Water Secure World, IWMI works with several partners from academia, research institutions, NGOs and Development Partners. She noted that Research by the CGIAR centres such as IWMI, “aims to achieve the four strategic outcomes of reducing rural poverty, increasing food security, improving nutrition and health, and ensuring enhanced sustainable management of natural resources.”

In a presentation on “Informing the Development of Innovative Agricultural and Water Management Solutions,” Dr. Cofie highlighted the priority WLE projects in the SADA zone. “These projects,” she said “are focused on intensifying sustainable agricultural production through: improving smallholder irrigation, flood recession farming and enhancing rain fed production systems and related ecosystems services.”

Additionally, there is another set of projects focused on “managing water variability &climate change at catchment scale through enhancing adaptation to climate variability; enhancing public and private investment in agricultural water infrastructure.” A third category of projects are aimed at recovering useful resources from waste materials; while the last group of projects are centred on integrating ecosystems solutions into policy processes.

All of these projects as well as the others are geared to improving agricultural production through integrated water and land management. The ultimate goal is to make farming in the SADA zone attractive, viable and sustainable. According to Dr. Cofie, within the sub-region, IWMI is working as a think tank that drives innovative research and solutions.

By Ama Kudom-Agyemang

Papua New Guinea submits first NDCs

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Papua New Guinea submits first NDCs

Papua New Guinea has emerged the first nation to submit its nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Peter O'Neill, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea
Peter O’Neill, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea

The UNFCCC secretariat has thus created a new page on its website to capture the NDCs, which are countries’ formal climate action plans under the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

According to the UN body, NDCs set out publicly the climate actions that each country will take under the Paris Agreement to contribute to the global community’s determined effort to secure a sustainable future for all nations by keeping the global temperature rise since pre-industrial times well below two degrees Celsius.

Head of UNFCCC, Christiana Figueres, said: “I congratulate Papua New Guinea on this first NDC. Before the UN climate change conference in Paris, the international community had already envisioned an unprecedented response with almost every nation on Earth setting out their preliminary action plans to address climate change. These provide the foundation upon which the world will over time strengthen their ability to keep a global temperature rise well under 2 degrees C if not 1.5 degrees C, and build resilient societies. Much more remains to be done but NDCs under the Paris Agreement represent one of the next key steps alongside the opening for signature of the Agreement in New York on April 22 en-route to it swiftly coming into force.”

The Agreement has also encompassed the ways and means to provide increasingly robust financial, and technology support to developing countries to achieve their nationally determined climate objectives, she added.

A total of 195 countries under the UNFCCC set a clear path towards this goal at the UN climate change conference in Paris, last December.

This, stressed the UNFCCC, means peaking global emissions soon – stopping their current annual rise – and then reversing them very rapidly to a point as soon as possible later this century when remaining greenhouse gas emissions are absorbed back from the atmosphere by nature or technology.

Before Paris, almost all these countries had submitted what were called intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs). The Paris Agreement now provides a legal foundation for these previously communicated INDCs, in the form of NDCs.

The UNFCCC believes that the impact of the INDCS, fully implemented, would already keep the world within around a 3 degree rise – not yet near enough but a huge advance from the 4 or 5 degrees or more we would otherwise be headed towards, with each extra degree adding exponentially larger losses to life, livelihoods and investments.

The UNFCCC secretariat is preparing to launch a new and formal registry of NDCs in about one month.

Senegal ratifies Nagoya Protocol, SA issues compliance certificate

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Senegal ratifies Nagoya Protocol, SA issues compliance certificate

Senegal has ratified the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilisation, making it the 32nd African nation to do so, and the 73rd country in the world.

President Macky Sall of Senegal
President Macky Sall of Senegal

The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilisation to the Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted at the 10th meeting
of the Conference of the Parties (COP10) in 2010, in Nagoya, Japan, and entered into force on 12 October 2014.

The Government of Senegal deposited its instrument of ratification with the Secretary-General of the United Nations on 3 March 2016.

Though she signed it in February 2012, Nigeria is yet to ratify the Protocol.

Besides Senegal, African nations that have ratified the Protocol include: Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire, Congo, DR Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia and Madagascar.

Others are: Malawi, Mauritiius, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namabia, Niger, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Africa, Sudan, Togo and Uganda.

Ratification by September 2016 will enable countries to participate in decision-making at the second meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol to be held in December 2016, and to further advance the treaty’s global implementation.

Similarly, South Africa issued the second internationally recognised certificate of compliance on 23 March 2016, following a permit made available to the Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS) Clearing-House.

“With the ratification by Senegal, 32 African countries have now ratified the Nagoya Protocol, sending a strong and clear signal of the region’s commitment to the implementation of the Protocol,” said Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity. “The issuance of the second certificate by South Africa is also an excellent advance towards making the Nagoya Protocol operational. I congratulate the Government of South Africa, and look forward to seeing others follow this example.”

Following the issuance of a permit by South Africa, the second internationally recognised certificate of compliance (IRCC) was constituted through the ABS Clearing-House. The permit was made available by South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs, the competent national authority under the Nagoya Protocol, and grants access to Sceletium tortuosum (Kanna plant) and associated traditional knowledge for commercial use.

Under the Nagoya Protocol, issuance at the time of access of a permit or its equivalent serve as evidence that access to genetic resources was based on prior informed consent and that mutually agreed terms were established. Parties are required by the Nagoya Protocol to make information on issuance of permits, or their equivalent, available to the ABS Clearing-House. Once the information on the permit is published by the country in the ABS Clearing-House, it automatically becomes the IRCC. The first IRCC was constituted in October 2015 following a permit made available by the Government of India.

Shell intensifies gas production in Niger Delta

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Shell intensifies gas production in Niger Delta

The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC) Joint Venture is producing more gas from Agbada field in the Eastern Niger Delta in support of government’s aspiration of increasing domestic gas production for manufacturing and power generation, the firm has disclosed.

ShellIt said in a statement released on Sunday and endorsed by spokesperson Precious Okolobo that some 10 million standard cubic feet of non-associated gas per day (MMscf/d) was produced from the Agbada Early Gas Production Facility (EGPF), into the eastern domestic gas network on March 8, 2016 and has already ramped up to 20MMscf/d of gas, with 1,500 barrels per day of oil.

A peak production of 40MMscf/d is expected to be achieved, in addition to oil production of about 2,500 barrels per day. The milestone comes as SPDC JV’s Afam VI – with 650MW capacity – continues to deliver power to the national grid.

“We’re pleased to support efforts towards increasing gas supply for manufacturers and power plants,” said Toyin Olagunju, General Manager Projects, SPDC. “We’re also pleased that the project was delivered in record time – 14 months from initiation to first gas – within budget and, most importantly, safely. We acknowledge the support of NAPIMS and other JV partners, without which the milestone would not have been possible.”

The additional gas will further boost gas availability on the eastern domestic gas network and will be available to enhance power generation by over 150MW. The early gas project was initiated in January 2015 pending the completion of the main Agbada non-associated gas plant.

SPDC pioneered the production and delivery of gas to domestic consumers and export markets. Early this year, SPDC signed a gas sale agreement with the Bayelsa State Government under which it will sell gas to the Bayelsa Development and Investment Corporation (BDIC) for the purpose of power supply to the Kolo Creek Gas Turbine.

According to Okolobo, Shell is the only international oil and gas company to have set up a gas distribution business in the country, Shell Nigeria Gas (SNG).

New intersection design may eliminate traffic signals

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New intersection design may eliminate traffic signals

A group of researchers has developed a conceptual traffic system that would enable driverless vehicles to whizz through intersections without colliding, eliminating the need for signals

Each car enters a designated slot
Each car enters a designated slot

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA, the Swiss Institute of Technology and the Italian National Research Council have come up with the idea for a new type of intersection called Light Traffic.

Their system would use sensors to keep driverless cars at a safe distance from each other and allocate each car with a crossing slot as it arrives at a junction.

Vehicles go to an intersection when there is a slot available for them
Vehicles go to an intersection when there is a slot available for them

Speeds would be automatically adjusted on approach to ensure the vehicles take it in turns to pass across without having to stop.

“Traffic intersections are particularly complex spaces, because you have two flows of traffic competing for the same piece of real estate,” said Italian architect Carlo Ratti, director of the MIT Senseable City Lab.

“But a slot-based system moves the focus from the traffic flow level to the vehicle level,” he continued. “Ultimately, it’s a much more efficient system, because vehicles will get to an intersection exactly when there is a slot available to them.”

The team believes that this system could dramatically reduce the amount of pollution emitted by waiting vehicles, which would be burning fuel unnecessarily.

It also claims that twice as many cars would be able to pass through crossings in the same amount of time as at intersections controlled by traffic lights.

MIT claims that twice as many cars would be able to pass through crossings in the same amount of time as at intersections controlled by traffic lights
MIT claims that twice as many cars would be able to pass through crossings in the same amount of time as at intersections controlled by traffic lights

This would help alleviate congestion, extend the lifespan of current infrastructure and reduce the need for new roads.

“It is important that we start looking into the impact of self-driving vehicles at the city level as soon as possible,” Ratti said. “The lifetime of today’s road infrastructure is many decades and it will certainly be impacted by the mobility disruptions brought in by new technologies.”

MIT described the project as heralding the “death of the traffic light”.

Companies ranging from Bentley to Google are working on plans for driverless cars. Goodyear recently unveiled a design for a spherical tyremade for smart vehicles.

At this year’s Geneva Motor Show, Nissan and Foster + Partners unveiled a vision for a connected network that would enable autonomous vehicles to power homes.

Courtesy: Dezeen Magazine

Groups oppose Monsanto’s GM maize, cotton proposal

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Groups oppose Monsanto’s GM maize, cotton proposal

About 100 groups representing some five million Nigerians, comprising farmers, faith-based organisations, civil society groups, students and local community groups, have lodged an opposition to Monsanto’s attempts to introduce genetically modified (GM) cotton and maize into Nigeria’s food and farming systems. In written objections submitted to the biosafety regulators, the groups have cited numerous health and environmental concerns and alleged failure of these crops, especially GM cotton, in Africa.

Nnimmo Bassey, Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF)
Nnimmo Bassey, Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF)

Monsanto Agricultural Nigeria Limited has applied to the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) for the environmental release and placing in the market in Zaria and surrounding towns of GM cotton (Bt cotton, event MON 15985). A further application is for the confined field trial (CFT) of two GM maize varieties (NK603 and stacked event MON 89034 x NK603) in multiple locations in Nigeria.

In their objection to the commercial release of Bt cotton into Nigeria, the groups are particularly alarmed that the application has come so close after reported failures of Bt cotton in Burkina Faso.

Nnimmo Bassey, Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) – one of the groups in the frontline of the resistance – stated: “We are totally shocked that it should come so soon after peer reviewed studies have showed thatthe technology has failed dismally in Burkina Faso. It has brought nothing but economic misery to the cotton sector there and is being phased out in that country where compensation is being sought from Monsanto.”

Then he demanded: “Since our Biosafety Act has only recently entered into force, what biosafety legislation was used to authorise and regulate the field trials in the past in accordance with international law and best biosafety practice?”

Director-General of the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Mr. Rufus Ebegba
Director-General of the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Mr. Rufus Ebegba

According to the groups, former president, Goodluck Jonathan, “hastily” signed the National Biosafety Management Bill into law, in the twilight days of his tenure in office. Further worrying, they added, is the apparent conflict of interests displayed by the Nigerian regulatory agencies, “who are publically supporting the introduction of GMOs into Nigeria whereas these regulators (the NMBA) are legally bound to remain impartial and regulate in the public interest.”

Bassey stresses that Monsanto’s GM maize application is in respect of a stacked event, including the herbicide tolerant trait intended to confer tolerance to the use of the herbicide, glyphosate. In 20 March 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the specialised cancer agency of the World Health Organization (WHO), assessed the carcinogenicity of glysophate and concluded that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans.” There is also increasing scientific evidence that glyphosate poses serious risks to the environment, added the activist.

According to Mariann Orovwuje, Friends of the Earth International’s Food Sovereignty co-coordinator, “Should commercialisation of Monsanto’s GM maize be allowed pursuant to field trials, this will result in increased use of glyphosate in Nigeria, a chemical that is linked to causing cancer in humans. Recent studies have linked glyphosate to health effects such as degeneration of the liver and kidney, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. That NBMA is even considering this application is indeed unfortunate and deeply regrettable, knowing full well about the uncontrolled exposure that our rural farmers and communities living close to farms will be exposed to.

“Monsanto’s application deceitfully provides no discussion on the potential risks of glysophate use to human and animal health and the environment. Apart from the potential of contaminating local varieties, the health risk of the introduction of genetically modified maize into Nigeria is enormous considering the fact that maize is a staple that all of 170 million Nigerians depend on.”

The groups are urging the Nigerian government to reject Monsanto’s applications out of hand. They note with disquiet that there is a serious lack of capacity within Nigeria to adequately control and monitor the human and environmental risks of GM crops and glyphosate. Further, they added, there is virtually no testing of any food material and products in Nigeria for glyphosate or other pesticide residues, or the monitoring of their impact on the environment including water resources.

Groups endorsing the objection to Monsanto’s applications include:

  1. All Nigeria Consumers Movement Union (ANCOMU)
  2. Committee on Vital Environmental Resources (COVER)
  3. Community Research and Development Centre (CRDC)
  4. Ijaw Mothers of Warri
  5. Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN)
  6. Host Communities Network of Nigeria (HoCoN)
  7. Oilwatch Nigeria
  8. Green Alliance, Nigeria
  9. African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development
  10. Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (IHRHL)
  11. Women Environmental Programme (WEP)
  12. Persons with Disabilities Action Network (PEDANET)
  13. Students Environmental Assembly of Nigeria (SEAN)
  14. Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD)
  15. Ogoni Solidarity Forum (OSF)
  16. KebetKache Women Development and Resource Centre
  17. Federation of Urban Poor (FEDUP)
  18. Community Forest Watch (CFW)
  19. The Young Environmentalist Network (TYEN)
  20. Women’s Rights to Education Program (WREP)
  21. Community Action for Public Action (CAPA)
  22. Peoples Advancement Centre (ADC) Bori
  23. Social Action
  24. SPEAK Nigeria
  25. Host Communities Network
  26. Urban Rural Environmental Defenders (U-RED)
  27. Gender and Environmental Risk Reduction Initiative (GERI)
  28. Women’s Right to Education Programme (WREP)
  29. Foundation for Rural/Urban Integration (FRUIT)
  30. Community Action for Popular Participation
  31. Torjir-Agber Foundation (TAF)
  32. Civil Society on Poverty Eradication (CISCOPE),
  33. Jireh Doo foundation
  34. Advocate for Community Vision and Development (ACOVID)
  35. Initiative for empowerment for vulnerable(IEV)
  36. Kwaswdoo Foundation Initiative (KFI)
  37. Environment and Climate Change Amelioration Initiative) ECCAI
  38. Manna Love and care Foundation (MLC)
  39. Okaha Women and children development Organisation(OWCDO)
  40. JODEF-F
  41. Glorious things ministry(GTM)
  42. Daughters of Love Foundation
  43. Medical Women Association of Nigeria (MWAN)
  44. Community Links and Empowerment Initiative(CLHEI)
  45. Nigerian Women in Agriculture (NAWIA)
  46. Osa foundation
  47. Initiative for Improved Health and Wealth Creation (IIHWC)
  48. Peace Health Care Initiative (PHCI)
  49. Ochilla Daughters Foundation (ODF)
  50. African Health Project (AHP)
  51. Artists in Development
  52. Ramberg Child Survival Initiative (RACSI)
  53. Global Health and Development initiative
  54. First Step Initiative (FIP)
  55. Ruhujukan Environment Development  Initiative (REDI)
  56. The Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD), Nigeria
  57. Center for Children’s Health Education, Orientation Protection (CEE Hope) and CEEHOPE Nigeria
  58. Next Generation Youth Initiative (NGI)
  59. Akwa Ibom Information and Research Organisation (AIORG)
  60. Rural Action for Green Environment (RAGE)
  61. United Action for Democracy
  62. Campaign for Democracy
  63. Yasuni Association
  64. Egi Joint Action Congress
  65. Green Concern for Development (Greencode)
  66. Kebetkache Ahoada Women Farmers Cooperative
  67. Ahoada Uzutam Women Farmers Cooperative
  68. Ogboaku Ahoada Farmers Cooperative
  69. Gbobia Feefeelo women
  70. Ovelle Nyakovia Women Cooperative
  71. Rumuekpe Women Prayer Warriors
  72. League of Queens
  73. Emem Iban Oku Iboku
  74. Uchio Mpani Ibeno
  75. Rural Health and Women Development
  76. Women Initiative on Climate Change
  77. Peoples’ Centre
  78. Citizens Trust Advocacy and Development Centre (CITADEC)
  79. Centre for Environment Media and Development Communications
  80. Centre for Dignity
  81. Peace and Development Project
  82. Triumphant Foundation
  83. Earthcare Foundation
  84. Lokiakia Centre
  85. Community Development and Advocacy Foundation (CODAF)
  86. Citizens Centre
  87. Development Strategies
  88. Rainforest Research and Development Center
  89. Center for Environmental Education and Development (CEED)
  90. Initiative for the Elimination of Violence Against Women & Children (IEVAWC)
  91. Charles and Doosurgh Abaagu Foundation
  92. Community Emergency Response Initiative
  93. Society for Water and Sanitation (NEWSAN)
  94. Shacks and Slum Dwellers Association of Nigeria
  95. Atan Justice, Development and Peace Centre
  96. Sisters of Saint Louis Nigeria
  97. Life Lift Nigeria
  98. Community Research and Development Foundation (CDLF)
  99. Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/ FoEN)
  100. Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF)
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