Bt cotton, a game changer for textile industries – DG NABDA
Kings 3:21, “And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead: but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear.”
A woman slept badly and squashed her child to death. She then cleverly switched her dead child with that of her roommate who had a child of the same age. This other woman recognized that her child had been switched and took the matter to King Solomon for help. Most parents don’t!
You must notice the slightest change in character in your child and when you do, contend for your child in prayer. You must realize that God did not give you a rebellious child. God did not give you a drug addict for a child. That child in the occult is not the one you delivered; he has been switched and you must take the matter to the King of kings and Lord of lords and seek for his intervention.
God did not give you a dead child; yours is alive and any semblance of death should be resisted firmly in prayer.
However, you can prevent your child from being switched or stolen. You can protect the destiny of your child from being bought, stolen or distorted.
You start even before the child is conceived. If you are single and you ever intend to get married, start praying for your would-be spouse and children long before you get married and start to have children. Pray intensely for them before they are born. Pray for them before you will need to pray for them.
If you don’t, both your husband and your children can be switched or stolen.
Your child can end up in the wrong hands.
Your child can end up in the hands of a killer like this woman.
Your child can end up in the hands of a thief like this woman.
Your child can end up in the hands of someone who does not care about the life of the child. The woman who stole the child did not mind the living child being killed and sliced into two.
Your child can end up in the hands of a drug addict and his life will be wrecked.
Your child can even end up marrying his or her enemy who will come disguised as a lover just like this child ended up in the hands of a fake mother. The last thing you want is for a fake mother to raise your children or for your child to marry a fake person. Your child can end up in prison. 5 Things to Pray for Your Kids BEFORE You Need To
Sometimes there are practical steps that can be taken, at other times there is little that can be done as a ‘quick fix’ to make up for years of neglect in parenting and prayer. And yet, prayer is still the best option.
I have seen mothers calling and asking for hot and heavy prayers for their kids in the heat of the moment because of some trouble they were in, or some major decision they had to make.
While no child comes with any guarantees, here are five things to pray regularly for your children no matter their age (but especially while they are young) - things we easily forget to pray fervently about until the time comes that we need to. Pray in advance about: 1. Their Soul In the end, nothing else matters in our prayers for our kids if we don’t pray first and foremost for their salvation. God has called us as parents to be the #1 factor in their lives that lead them to Him and ultimately to Heaven. That is definitely a task that requires the ongoing power of prayer.
Pray: Father, save the souls of all our children; write their names in the book of life and seal their souls with the Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus! Amen. 2. Their Heart Apart from their soul, nothing else is as valuable, or as vulnerable, as their heart. Put a high price on protecting their heart, for out of it are the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23). One of the best ways to protect your child’s heart is by protecting what influences their mind. (What they watch and read, the amount of time they spend online, who their friends are, etc.) We need to pray that God would not only help their hearts to be good, but that He would protect their hearts from evil. Pray that God would give them a humble heart, a servant’s heart and a heart that pursues God, and is passionate about the things that are closest to the heart of God Himself. Because a pure heart is their greatest asset to making wise choices for the rest of their life. Pray: a) Father, protect the hearts of all our children from all negative influences; from peer pressure, TV junk, online junk and from all evil, in the name of Jesus! Amen.
b) Father, give them pure and humble hearts. Give them a servant’s heart and a heart that pursues God. Give them a heart that is passionate about the things that are closest to the heart of God, in the name of Jesus! Amen. 3. Their Life’s Mate Second only to salvation, who your child chooses to marry is the most important decision they will ever make in their life. God has called you, as their parent, to be a big part of that decision. All throughout Scripture, we see examples of parents involvement both practically and through prayer, for God’s will to be performed in the person their child marries. This involves praying for their purity as well. The time to pray and prepare your child for a lifetime of purity and a life’s mate is now.
Pray: Father, guide them in the choice of their life partner. Please choose their soul mate that you have prepared from the foundation of the world. Let them not marry their enemy; let them marry the person you have chosen for them; someone that will complete them and help each other fulfil their divine destinies, in the name of Jesus! Amen.
(To be continued next week…)
Despite the blazing sun, farmers in Benue State were not deterred as they patiently walked through the length and breadth of the large cowpea plantation owned by the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi (FUAM). Guided by researchers in different fields of agriculture, the farmers halted their movement intermittently to examine, deliberate and scrutinise the varieties of the cowpea before them.
The farmers were drawn from various localities in the state to make an informed choice about the kind of cowpea they would like to grow so that the seeds would be improved for commercial production.
The project, known as Accelerated Varita Improvement and Seed System Delivery in Africa (AVISA), is managed at the commercial farm of the FUAM, in collaboration with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).
Sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, AVISA seeks, among other things, to conduct trials of pre-released lines, released varieties and seed production.
AVISA’s cowpea seed systems focal person for Nigeria, Teryima Iorlamen, said the exercise would enable farmers to adapt whatever the breeders had improved upon.
“Whatever breeders are doing, we take it to the farmers to see if they could be adopted. So, this exercise involved us (AVISA) taking the farmers around the field to see for themselves and make their choices of what the breeders are talking about, by confirming whether it is true,’’ he said.
Iorlamen said the project was being carried out in seven countries, including Nigeria, and the FUAM is coordinating the seed system in Nigeria. He added that there were more than 50 varieties of cowpea in Nigeria, out of which the best selected 10 were planted in all agro-ecological zones to find how best the varieties would do on the varied soils.
He further said the best 10 varieties planted at FUAM’s farm in Benue was the reason for the event, which provided farmers the opportunity to compare all the varieties and pick what they know would be best for Benue farmers.
He listed the varieties to include FUMPEA I and II, SAMPEA 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 40 days (Kwankwaso). The seeds of the varieties are big, small and brown, or white in colour, while most of them are high-yielding, with early maturity timeline.
At the end of the outing, the farmers indicated their preference for the 40-day variety, popularly known as ‘Kwankwaso,’ which they had not cultivated. This was followed by the SAMPEA 19 (Samaru-Zaria pea) and the SAMPEA 14, as well as SAMPEA 18, which came bracket third.
Also, on the farmers’ order of consideration, the Federal University of Agriculture Pea I (FUMPEA I) got the sixth position while the FUMPEA II came a distant eight.
The criteria for selection included high yield, maturity, seed size and colour, but the farmers’ decision showed that they valued the yield better. They also considered early maturity rate before looking at the seed colour, while the seed size does not matter much to them; hence the least in their idea of selection.
Speaking at the event, the representative of the programme manager of the IITA, Kano, a senior researcher, Rueben Solomon, said Nigeria was the world capital of producers and consumers of cowpea. He noted that Benue State was gradually gaining ground in the production of the crop.
“From what we see in the field, Benue is now a hot spot for cowpea producers. Benue is displacing many states in terms of production in Nigeria,” he added.
Emphasising the essence of the exercise, Solomon said, “We want to involve farmers from the scratch before releasing the seeds. Farmers will select their favourite seeds and the varieties they want. This will be done through field evaluation and ranking. What they choose as their number one will be used. Researchers want farmers to decide on the seed by informing breeders of what varieties they want.
“I am impressed. The turnout was good and participation active. The essence was to let farmers make their choices. We will be giving advice when we come for another trial. Benue is still a virgin state for cowpea.’’
Earlier, a big-time cowpea farmer who was at the event, Crucial Abua, told our correspondent that he owned 10 hectares of cowpea farm in the Gboko area of the state, which would be due for harvest in few days.
Abua said he planted two dominant varieties of FUMPEA II and SAMPEA II cowpea in his farm, saying that while the later manifested many infestations, the former had comparative advantage in management of pesticide.
“They (workers) have started harvesting the FUMPEA II; and I can tell you that the level of infestation was less than two per cent, meaning that infestation was near zero. But for SAMPEA II, the infestation was much, so I had to introduce IMI-Force, which was quite effective,” he explained.
Abua, who is also a special adviser to the Minister of Special Duties, George Akume, hailed the researchers for their consistency in ensuring the improvement of the cowpea seed for the benefit of food sufficiency.
The director-general/chief executive officer of the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), Prof Alex Akpa, has said that the Bt cotton variety will be a game changer for the nation’s cotton and textile industries.
Akpa, who spoke at the recent 2019 OFAB Media Awards, said the new Bt cotton technology could yield 4.1 to 4.4 tonnes per hectare, compared to the local varieties farmers use, which give only 600 to 900 kilogrammes per hectare.
Speaking against the attitude of those kicking against the technology, he said that apart from its pest-resistance qualities, the new Bt cotton matures early and has a fibre length of 30.0 to 30.5 millimetres, among other qualities the local varieties do not possess.
“Permit me to use this opportunity to appeal to media practitioners to completely shut out the anti-GM crusaders and allocate that space to the provision of more useful information that will help the public make informed decisions on modern biotechnology,” he said.
President of the Genetics Society of Nigeria, Prof Emmanuel Kwon-Ndung, said the technology was not imported, noting, “Our scientists were involved in all the processes of the development of Bt cotton and cowpea.”
The deputy director,
National Biotech Development Agency and OFAB Nigeria chapter coordinator, National Biotechnology Development Agency, Dr Rose M. Gidado said, “The successful environmental/ commercial approval and adoption of two genetically modified crops - cotton and cowpea - are proof that Nigerians want a better country and won’t be distracted by myths that have been proven false, time and again.”
He said science and technology were at the base of solving human’s most pertinent problems, from climate change to food insecurity and health, among others.