Contec Global Agro, NABDA Partner for Food Security

Crusoe Osagie

The Federal Government of Nigeria, through the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), has announced plans to collaborate with Contec Global Agro Limited (CGAL), a private agriculture solution provider, to make the country a hub of improved agro inputs for enhanced agricultural productivity.

The alliance was announced when the Director General/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NABDA, Prof. Lucy Ogbadu, visited CGAL’s Tissue Culture Laboratories and other facilities of the firm at Maitama, Abuja.

According to the company’s statement, CGAL is looking at exploring the inherent advantages in Tissue Culture (TC) technology for multiplication of quality seeds and plants for food security using best.

During the guided tour of CGAL facilities conducted by Managing Director, Mr. Thomas Chackunkal, the NABDA DG admitted that she was highly impressed with the huge investment the company has made towards production of organic farm products for Nigerians.

Expressing the FG’s readiness to support the efforts of CGAL, Prof. Ogbadu said NABDA is willing to offer sections of its 72-hectare land for CGAL’s research activities. The agency has also offered to evaluate the range of agro-inputs and other products from the stable of CGAL, with a view to building the confidence of users and potential patrons.

Speaking after the tour of the facility, Ogbadu affirmed that: “Our mandate at NABDA is to promote biotechnology in Nigeria. What I have seen here at Contec Global Agro Ltd is highly impressive and it is definitely beyond what I had expected. I congratulate CGAL on this bold project.”

Continuing, the NABDA DG said: “We look forward to partnering with Contec Global Agro Ltd with a view to making great impact on the lives of the citizenry in no distant time from now.”

According to her, the collaboration between NABDA and CGAL is worth going into, adding that government will not hold back from supporting CGAL by providing enabling environments, saying this would encourage other investors to stake their resources into the sector, especially at this time that the government of Nigeria is looking at the non-oil sector to jump-start and sustain the country’s economy.

On CGAL’s choice of investment to set up the micro biology and tissue culture labs as solutions to the preponderance of poor quality agro-inputs for farmers in Nigeria, the NABDA DG said: “This testifies that there are investors who believe in biotechnology as driver of agricultural development.

“There is no going back because for an investment of this magnitude and for CGAL to put their money into agricultural research for food security and economic diversification is indeed encouraging to government.

“Perhaps more should be done for government to come and see the facilities that CGAL has and to equally encouraged government investment in science and technology particularly biotechnology.

Ogbadu said there cannot be economic diversification using agriculture without going through biotechnology, stressing that agricultural biotechnology is key towards stirring the much needed revolution in Nigeria’s agriculture sector.

She said: “It is evident that Contec Global Agro Ltd is all about the production of quality planting materials and seeds materials if given the enabling environment for the farmers to come up with higher yields. Definitely this is where to start from.”

Ogbadu, however, stated that CGAL cannot do it all alone, saying: “they need to partner with our local seed farmers, local seed companies so that they can have good uptake of what they are doing so that their products can be fully utilised by our farmers.”

In his remark, Chackunkal, said the way forward in meeting Nigeria’s food challenge is collaboration, stressing that CGAL has developed 22 biological through micro biological and tissue culture to assist the farmers increase their yields.

The managing director, who said the enormous investment in the sector is for the overall benefit of Nigeria, said: “When we thought of this investment here, our first concern was that how long it will take to break even. We did our calculation by looking at a minimum of 7 years before breaking even.

“We started this as a resource centre and basically the first step was the establishment of a micro-biology laboratory to analyse and find out what bio-fertilizer, organic fertilizer and bio-fungicides solutions that we can bring to the table.

“Today, we have 22 products formulations that we have made from the country and this is being done in collaboration with the Institute of Agriculture Research (IAR), Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, IITA, University of Ibadan, Imo State Polytechnic and the Cocoa Research Institute, Ibadan among others.”