Genetically modified organism otherwise known as GMO is a scientific mode of enhancing agric produce for Higher yields, not in terms of quality but quantity .
This is alien to the African culture as the Continent is blessed with fertile land.
An example of this is the Nigerian land texture and that of Kenya.
Kenya for example has the best form of tea and coffee which grows without any aid of fertiliser, whatso ever .
Kenya is a very green land such that every house hold is surrounded by one form of garden and the other .
Same goes for Nigeria ,my beloved country .
A country where every thing grows by mere throwing the seeds on the floor.
Then came the introduction of chemically modified agriculture .
My first encounter with GMO dates back to 2004 when one day rather than go buy live chicken from the market as customary ,I decided to buy an already made frozen chicken from a super market.
On getting home I realised I have succeeded in wasting money as the chichen not only tasteless but also have some chemical ” after taste” . After then I did a “bye bye” to GMO .
This write up now is informed by how GMO has spread across other food items such mangoes ,sweet potatoes and co .
By their size we shall know them ! ..GMO produce comes in big sizes..unsuspecting buyers are often attracted to the sizes of such food produce.
For instance ,you see mangoes come in very Big sizes like goat head and you rush to buy thinking is a kind of special species. But by the tastelessness you are faced with GMO .
Only recently I had an encounter with sweet potatoes .
Mallam Musa ( not real name ) had just come back from perhaps ,a village market ,he is off loading his potatoes, I had just entered the market .then came face to face with fresh looking potatoes with some Big sized mixed with other normal sizes .
Then bought the little I could and off I went .
And then few days later ,I realised potatoes have gone bad, rotten .What !
Then I quickly suspected the GMO .This potatoes must have been genetically modified.
What manner of agric revolution is this .if one may ask .
A revolution which focuses on quantity rather than quality is not a good revolution afteall .
I recall as young children in the days of our fore fathers when we hear
” green revolution ” .
It was indeed Green .
The revolution then points to ” agric revolution ” .
And it was food surplus ,the days when Nigeria not only fed her self but also had food to export.
Its our hope that the pressent administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu focusing on agriculture as one of its cardinal points will embrace the real GREEN REVOLUTION and not the GMO revolution which is alien to our dear country ,Nigeria .
This is so as not to infect the Nigerian vibrant population with cancareous diseases.
Rashidat Yusuf wrote from Abuja.
Yusufrashidat12@gmail.com.
