‘Their joy knows no bounds’: Nigerian farmers welcome first harvest of disease-resistant genetically modified potatoes as a possible end to the ‘nightmare’ of late-blight potato disease
‘Their joy knows no bounds’: Nigerian farmers welcome first harvest of disease-resistant genetically modified potatoes as a possible end to the ‘nightmare’ of late-blight potato disease
Elder Isaiah Buwah is an aged potato farmer in the Bokos Local Government Area of Plateau State, North Central Nigeria. He has grown potatoes for the last 40 years. During this time, most of his fellow potato farmers have given up on the crop due to the ravaging effects of late potato blight disease.
His joy knows no bounds, being counted among those to witness the harvest of the first batch of biotech potatoes, following Confined Field Trials by researchers from NRCRI at their outstation of Kuru, near Jos, under the Feed the Future Global Biotech Potato Partnership project.
“What I am seeing is salvation coming to potato farmers on the Plateau. I am happy it is happening in my lifetime. We have seriously suffered from the impact of late blight […] because of the massive destruction and losses we have encounter yearly. Those of us still growing potatoes have done so as a labour of love,” he says.
The harvest from the first round of confined field trials planting shows that the biotech potatoes have a yield advantage of 300 percent, when compared to the conventional varieties which have severely suffered from blight infestation. The Feed the Future Global Biotech Potato Partnership project is implemented in four countries – Kenya, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Nigeria.
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