Viewpoint: Nigeria may be running out of farmable land. Is there a biotech-based solution?

Land scarcity and degradation is a huge issue in the West African region. Credit: IFPRI and Milo Mitchell via CC-BY-NC-ND-2.0
Land scarcity and degradation is a huge issue in the West African region. Credit: IFPRI and Milo Mitchell via CC-BY-NC-ND-2.0

It is probable that Nigeria would experience a scarcity of cultivable land and a notable reduction in the nitrogen levels in the soil. As a result, food shortages may occur if sufficient food cannot be grown to satisfy the country’s anticipated population growth in the near future. Agricultural productivity must be increased using contemporary technologies, such as biotechnology, in order to achieve this.

Biotechnological advantages can extend to a range of agricultural uses. Managing livestock, storing agricultural products, and maintaining current crop yields while utilizing fewer pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers are a few of these.

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Although there is a lot of promise for the agricultural sector in south-eastern Nigeria, it needs greater technological assistance from public and private organizations in order to grow.

The agricultural sector in the area has potential, but it also faces a number of obstacles, including limited access to modern farming equipment, a lack of professional expertise, and subpar storage and distribution networks. Due to these difficulties, farmers have seen low yields and low productivity, which has resulted in nationwide food scarcity.

Investing in agricultural biotechnology is the only viable solution to the nation’s hunger crisis. Agricultural output can undergo a substantial scale shift from small to large with the investment of biotech advances.

This is an excerpt. Read the original post here

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