Dr Rose Gidado, Country Coordinator of Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB), has recommended cotton hybrids incorporated with the BGII technology as a revolutionary solution to to improve productivity.
Gidado, also Deputy Director at the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), made the recommendation in an interview in Abuja on Thursday.
She said the hybrids with the BGII technology could help Nigerian cotton farmers, not only by boosting cotton productivity, but also to repel the devastating pest of cotton known as lepidopteran.
Gidado said that Bollgard II®(BGII) cotton hybrids produce two Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), proteins and that Bacillus thuringiensis is a specie of bacteria that lives in soil proteins.
”Together they manage the key lepidopteran pests of cotton namely African Bollworm, Spotted Bollworm, Pink Bollworm and Tobacco Caterpillar.”
The OFAB coordinator said that the BGII cotton hybrids could also help Nigerian farmers control a wider range of lepidopteran insect pests.
According to her, the hybrids are extremely effective in places where the pests have developed resistance to conventional chemicals.
”With the technology, there would be no more adverse effects on beneficial insects and non-target organisms including humans.
“Less labour requirement for spraying of insecticides and ensures good lint quality by reducing damage to the cotton bolls by Bollworms.
“The quality of lint which would be better in Bollgard II Cotton compared to conventional cotton varieties,” Gidado said.
Gidado said the hybrids would reduce worker-exposure to pesticides and provide an ideal fit with Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and sustainable agriculture programmes.
The deputy director listed the target insects of the technology to include Cotton Bollworm, Pink Bollworm, Spotted Bollworm and leaf eating caterpillar.
Attesting to the efficacy of the technology, Gidado said that in 2016, the National Biosafety Management Agency(NBMA), approved the Bollgard II technology in Nigeria.
She added: “Between 2016 and 2018, the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), Zaria, Kaduna, evaluated the Mahyco Bollgard II Cotton hybrids across different agro climatic zones.
“The National Variety Release Committee (NVRC) approved Mahyco C567 and C571 BG II for commercial release.’’
Gidado said that in 2019, Mahyco conducted large-scale demonstrations to showcase the superior performance of the two hybrids across cotton zones.
She stated that between 2020 and 2021, the Mahyco seed company made commercially available Bollgard II cotton hybrids to Nigerian farmers.
The expert said that various stakeholders across the cotton value chain were involved in demonstrating the value of Mahyco Cotton Hybrids in Bollgard II, during the wet season of 2019.
Gidado also said ”there were other large scale value demonstrations on the technology in 2019 and 2020.”
