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14 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2022<br />
How we are deploying<br />
biotechnology for<br />
national development<br />
—NABDA DG, Prof<br />
Mustapha<br />
Professor Abdullahi Mustapha is an expert in the real sense of the<br />
word. He is a renowned professor of chemistry and also understands the<br />
role science and technology can play in the development of a nation. He<br />
has been writing and researching on that until he was appointed as the<br />
Director General of the National Biotechnology Development Agency,<br />
NABDA, by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2020. Since his<br />
appointment, which he sees as an opportunity for him to contribute his<br />
quota to national development, Prof. Mustapha has brought to bear<br />
several biotechnology-based initiatives in order to solve Nigeria’s<br />
challenges.<br />
In this interview with Soni Daniel and Emman Elebeke, Prof. Mustapha<br />
speaks on effort by the agency to address critical challenges facing the<br />
country using biotechnology. Excerpts:<br />
••Prof. Abdullahi Mustapha...deploying biotechnology in cow breeding<br />
WITH the mandate given<br />
to you as the director<br />
general of the National<br />
Biotechnology Development<br />
Agency, what have you been<br />
able to do to ensure that<br />
biotechnology takes shape in<br />
Nigeria?<br />
As I came into office I came<br />
with my own agenda and plans<br />
on how to prosper and move<br />
NABDA forward. First of all,<br />
before you do anything in a<br />
research institution, you have to<br />
have some basic things, and<br />
those basic things include water<br />
and electricity.<br />
Water is needed in laboratory;<br />
light is needed in laboratories<br />
for equipment running and for<br />
all the experiment that are going<br />
on. So that is the first priority<br />
that I make sure that there is<br />
light and water. Secondly, I also<br />
reckoned that we need to have<br />
training of staff and that is why I<br />
keep on emphasizing on staff<br />
welfare and training. Without a<br />
trained staff you cannot achieve<br />
what you want to achieve.<br />
Legal<br />
framework<br />
This is a research institute and<br />
knowledge is being renewed day<br />
in day out and if this knowledge<br />
is not being renewed it means<br />
that we are just stagnant in one<br />
place and that is why we have<br />
sent large of number of people<br />
for PhD studies and we are also<br />
working hard to see that we bring<br />
more knowledge into what we<br />
are doing. Above all, as an<br />
institution, we needed to have a<br />
legal framework approved by the<br />
National Assembly. And, that<br />
was done within six months after<br />
I started pursuing it and this is<br />
something that I am really<br />
happy about and it remains a<br />
milestone to this agency.<br />
This is memorable because<br />
NABDA has been in existence for<br />
over 20 years but there was no<br />
law backing its existence until it<br />
was done a few months after my<br />
appointment. With the legal<br />
framework, NABDA is now<br />
backed by law as an institution<br />
to conduct researches that will<br />
foster economic development of<br />
the nation and all these areas of<br />
development are covered by<br />
biotechnology.<br />
What would you say is<br />
Nigeria’s level of appreciation<br />
of biotechnology at the<br />
moment?<br />
Well, to be honest with you, I<br />
will say Nigerians have accepted<br />
it very well in the sense that<br />
before now, there were many<br />
people who were opposed to the<br />
idea applying biotechnology to<br />
anything in the country. But<br />
today, we don’t have many of<br />
such people. It is good for the<br />
country.<br />
Opposition to biotechnology is<br />
dying down because when we<br />
were called for a public hearing<br />
on a bill on biotechnology some<br />
of the fiercest critics of the law<br />
refused to show up and present<br />
their criticism against the<br />
technology during a public<br />
hearing organized by the<br />
National Assembly. Another<br />
reason is that we have developed<br />
crops that are going to be used<br />
for the development of the<br />
nation and people have accepted<br />
them wholeheartedly and they<br />
are now looking for this<br />
technology to be applied in their<br />
farms.<br />
In which specific areas are<br />
you deploying biotechnology in<br />
Nigeria?<br />
Biotechnology covers<br />
everything but here we have<br />
streamlined it into four major<br />
categories. In the environment<br />
area, we have focused on<br />
achieving biotechnology<br />
research towards bringing<br />
cleaner energy, two, cleaning the<br />
environment and even the<br />
fingerprint of our crude oil. In<br />
the area of agriculture, we are<br />
working on fisheries, animal<br />
biotechnology and crops<br />
production. In the area of<br />
fisheries we have a research for<br />
producing Tilapia; we have<br />
increased that and the target is<br />
to bring to the table bigger size<br />
Tilapia fish and all other fish but<br />
we concentrate on the Tilapia for<br />
now.<br />
We are also producing<br />
fingerlings and fish feeds also.<br />
In the area of animal<br />
biotechnology, we are working<br />
to improve milk production.<br />
Instead of what we are observing<br />
now 1-3 litres maximum per day<br />
per cow, we are improving it to<br />
15-20 litres per cow and we have<br />
started the breeding programme<br />
and it is going to cover the whole<br />
nation. We have started with<br />
some few selected states and with<br />
some few farms and we have<br />
inseminated these cows. For this<br />
year, we earmarked about 250<br />
cows and we have inseminated<br />
over 152 cows as at now and we<br />
are expecting in the next nine<br />
months to a<br />
year we are<br />
going to have<br />
the first<br />
generation of<br />
t h e s e<br />
crossbreed<br />
animals that<br />
can produce<br />
more milk<br />
and more<br />
meat. We have<br />
earmarked<br />
about 250<br />
cows for next<br />
yielding variety that will<br />
improve the textile industry and<br />
make Nigeria self-sufficient in<br />
that area of business as it was<br />
before. We are collaborating<br />
with the Cotton Farmers<br />
Association in bringing the type<br />
of cotton that is resistant to any<br />
form of attack and to improve<br />
the quality and quantity of the<br />
produce and give farmers more<br />
money. Last year the cotton<br />
farmers association celebrated<br />
6,000 hectares that they<br />
collectively farmed.<br />
In the area of industry also, we<br />
are having researches that we<br />
can produce microbes that can<br />
fast track the development of the<br />
production processes in industry<br />
and we have identified some<br />
m i c r o<br />
organisms<br />
f o r<br />
Instead of what we are<br />
observing now 1-3 litres<br />
maximum per day per cow,<br />
we are improving it to 15-<br />
20 litres per cow and we<br />
have started the breeding<br />
programme and it is going<br />
to cover the whole nation<br />
example,<br />
that use<br />
starter<br />
culture in<br />
yoghurt<br />
which we<br />
depend on<br />
o t h e r<br />
countries<br />
to feed out<br />
industries.<br />
Unfortunately<br />
year and we<br />
believe that with gradual work,<br />
we will cover the entire country.<br />
This research is a national<br />
programme and this is what<br />
other countries have taken time<br />
to do to transform their livestock.<br />
So we are collaborating with<br />
other countries, some other<br />
institutions to transform the<br />
sector in Nigeria.<br />
In the area of crop production,<br />
we are working to see that we<br />
have enough climate smart<br />
crops, drought-resistant crops<br />
and pest-resistant crops for<br />
farmers across the country. We<br />
have already brought in a<br />
special type of cowpea that will<br />
resist drought and pests and<br />
bring prosperity to farmers in the<br />
country. In the area of cotton, we<br />
have collaborated with other<br />
agencies to bring in high-<br />
that starter<br />
culture for yoghurt production<br />
gulps millions of Naira every<br />
year to import into the country<br />
and also require special<br />
temperature to keep it for use.<br />
This is not sustainable and we<br />
had to identify local micro<br />
organism that can do the same<br />
work here in Nigeria.<br />
We have varieties now and they<br />
can produce without that<br />
cooling system and it can<br />
produce faster in the country. We<br />
are working for the production<br />
of bio-ethanol which is a big<br />
industry in the country because<br />
we have to spend millions of<br />
dollars to import bio-ethanol. In<br />
the petroleum processes, we need<br />
bio-ethanol, in the<br />
pharmaceutical industry and in<br />
some other aspects but we have<br />
the technology for the<br />
production of bio-ethanol using<br />
cassava and sugar cane.<br />
But now we are even partnering<br />
with other people from other<br />
countries. Recently we just talked<br />
with people from Paraguay for<br />
the improvement of livestock.<br />
We also discussed with people<br />
from China for this bio-ethanol<br />
production and they are coming<br />
to team up with us and what we<br />
are going to use is the sweet<br />
sorghum in the production of this<br />
bio-ethanol of which we have in<br />
abundance in the country. We<br />
can produce it and then the biogas<br />
can be used for the<br />
production of animal feed. So we<br />
have this combination where you<br />
have your animal, you can feed<br />
it with your bio-gas and then you<br />
produce bio-ethanol that you can<br />
use to power your generator and<br />
then you sell the remaining. It is<br />
a value chain and this is what<br />
we are bringing.<br />
We have the concept and we<br />
will soon go into deploying it to<br />
the country. In the area of<br />
medical biotechnology, we have<br />
already started the production<br />
vaccines. The vaccine<br />
technology is very important in<br />
the country because we have<br />
some peculiar diseases that we<br />
need to provide the drugs and<br />
give vaccines and that is what we<br />
are working on and we have just<br />
kick-started it. We wanted the<br />
technology, it is not that<br />
somebody will come and just<br />
give us the drugs or to give us<br />
the vaccines to start producing.<br />
We wanted to have the<br />
technology and that is what we<br />
are aiming at.<br />
Do you have the technology<br />
now?<br />
No, we are working on it.<br />
Nobody can give you technology<br />
just like that.<br />
So what level have you<br />
reached?<br />
To be honest we have started.<br />
This research can take you years<br />
because it is something that has<br />
to do with humans. What we are<br />
trying to do is to have a<br />
technology to be able to respond<br />
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