The Nigerian Textile Manufacturers Association (NTMA) has expressed its support for ‎the environmental release and commercialization of genetically modified Bt Cotton, which is known to be resistant against pests for Nigerian farmers.

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

According to the Association, the cotton potential in Nigeria was because of the country’s blessed abundant raw materials, specially cotton and polyester chips (petrochemical), adding that the industry had 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 read.

The Association commended the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogonnaya Onu who recently said, when he received the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa – Nigeria Chapter, that the government had interest in utilizing 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 Association adviced the regulating Agency “to engage the farmers in high level education as the whole GMO farming emanates from educated farmers like in the US, India, Brazil, Greece, Argentina, etc.”

It added that the recent application by Monsanto for the environmental release and commercialization of  genetically modified 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.”