STAKEHOLDERS in the agriculture and research business have resolved not to relent in their resolve to explore biotechnology to improve farm and animal yields in the country.But to do this, they need a biosafety bill to provide the national regulatory framework to guide research and to enable them move their genetically modified products from confined trial to the market.National biosafety bills provide a framework to ensure that the development and use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and products derived from them do not negatively affect plant, animal and human health, agricultural systems, or the environment.They have, therefore, intensified pressure through various means to get President Goodluck Jonathan to assent to the biosafety bill.The bill entitled: 'A bill for an act to provide for the management of biosafety and for other related matters 2007' was passed by both chambers of the National Assembly and has been pending the president's signature to become law since then.A ministry source confirmed that stakeholders have also reached out to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who himself is a successful farmer,to throw his weight behind the national and international pressure on the president to sign the bill. The delegation to Obasanjo, The Guardian gathered, was led by the promoters of the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB),who took advantage of the visit to highlight the various advantages of biotechnology and how the nation's agriculture would be transformed with greater yields if the bill is signed.The Guardian learnt that the ministers of Agriculture, Environment, and Science and Technology are topping the list of members of the Jonathan cabinet that are pushing for the bill to be signed. The concerns of stakeholders on the bill were reechoed yesterday at a special seed council edition of the Nigerian chapter of the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) held in Abuja recently.At the forum convened by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) was convened to chart the course for genetically modified seeds management in anticipation of the signing of the biosafety bill.Director General of the NABDA, Prof. Bamidele Solomon confirmed that there were subtly advocacy to Mr. President to sign the bill.He told The Guardian,'what give us the confidence that he will sign it is that Mr. President has promised Nigerians better life and when you promise people better life, you have to give them the wherewithal. I am sure that the President is sensitive to what Nigerians need. We have been able to demonstrate that the stakeholders want it, and that the President has no issues with it.
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