FG Launches New Cotton Breed To Boost Textile Industry

The Federal Government has inaugurated the transgenic cotton seed and said the plant would help boost Nigeria’s cotton textile industry.

According to the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, the introduction of new cotton seeds would boost the economy by giving birth to more Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in the production of cotton seedlings and its by-products.

He said the new cotton seedlings would also result in higher yields and better pest-resistant varieties.

The minister, in a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, bemoaned the steady decline in the textile industry in Nigeria over the years and said the Federal Government was determined to achieve a higher cotton yield to feed the nation’s textile mills.

The Federal Government, he added, would apply science and technology to process and apply the yields of cotton to the products needed by Nigerians so as to help fight extreme poverty and increase the earning of the country.

Onu was quoted as saying, “We want all our research institutions to work together to achieve our common goal to deliver special services to our people.”

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, according to the statement, said for Nigeria to make the needed progress among the comity of nations, there should be a synergy among research institutes, the industry and universities.

Ogbeh commended scientists involved in the new endeavour, for developing pest-resistant hybrid cotton from local seeds.

The Permanent Secretary at the science and technology ministry, Bako Nabasu, said Nigeria had reached the stage for sufficiency in the textile industry and had set the stage for global pride in the textile and garment industry.