Dr Rose Gidado, Country Coordinator, Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) says accurate and precision agricultural practices are necessary to solve food crisis.
Gidado, also Deputy Director, National Biotechnology Development Agency, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday that farmers would need to exploit technologies to boost yields.
She said adoption of precision agriculture would help to manage costs and also help in setting the citizenry free from hunger.
“Apart from making better use of our existing farmlands, precision agriculture also ensures that farmers are enabled with technologies that facilitate the collection and aggregation of data,’’ she said.
Gidado said precision agriculture had become imperative as Nigeria’s population was projected to hit 400 million by 2050.
She explained that a precision farming approach recognised site-specific differences within fields and adjusts management actions accordingly.
The OFAB coordinator opined that for agriculture to meet food demand of Nigeria’s fast growing population there must be a total overhaul.
The overhaul, she noted, “may include but not limited to genetic modification technology and gene editing technology’’, Gidado said. (NAN)
