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Mornin- crazy at xkem board! this is the new find-
http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=50861
Nigeria Breaks New Grounds in Biotechnology
By Frances Ovia, 06.18.2006
Nigeria has broken new grounds in biotechnology with the production of a drug which effectively controls the sickle cell anemia.
The drug named NICOSAM would be officially launched on July 8 by the President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.
According to the Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Turner Isoun, the drug would also be exported to other countries of the world.
According to Isoun, this would be the first time that Nigeria would be exporting a drug of such a calibre and in such a field to other nations.
Apart from NICOSAM, Isoun also stated that Nigeria is also using IT to create biodiversity. He disclosed that in Odi, Rivers State, the ministry is overseeing a process whereby 10 local farmers rear grasscutters.
He said he foresees a situation in the near future whereby grasscutter would be produced like fish or chicken.
"We are creating biodiversity," the minister said adding that initiatives such as this would provide Nigerians with more of their food needs.
Isoun, a former university teacher and editor of an international science journal, had estimated that in a matter of 15 years about half of the global economy would be based on bio-economy.
According to him, by the year 2020, any nation, which ignores its biotechnology development, may live to regret it.
"Nigeria is also endowed with enormous bioresources across its six main ecological zones (mangrove/swamp; rainforests; derived savannah; montane/plateau; savannah; and semi-arid). How do we use the new IT domain of Bioinformatics to drive the growth and development of modern Biotechnology in Nigeria? It is estimated that by 2020, 50 percent of the world economy will be bio-economy," he told a conference of IT professionals at the last conference of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS).
Isoun also said that the Neem Tree (known locally as Dongoyaro) is being processed for many uses by researchers in the country.
It had been the view of the minister at a lecture a few years after he assumed office that "The first indication that neem was being used for medical treatment was about 4,500 years ago. All the plant parts of the Neem Tree from the apex to the root are of medical importance. Today, scientific research validates the traditional uses of Neem in both the maintenance of general health and skin care. Neem is clinically proven to be anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-parasitic, analgesic and anti- inflammatory."
Biotechnology is the use of biological processes or living microorganisms in industrial production.
Before the assumption of office of Isoun as the Minister for Science and Technology, very little was known about Biotech in Nigeria. His tenure has witnessed the concentration of efforts in biotech research which had culminated in a number of pilot projects going on in several parts of the country.
Isoun had stated, while delivering a paper on "A Science Agenda from an African Perspective" at the World Summit on Sustainable Development that "Biotechnology provides technological methods for enhancing African history and endowment for improving and sustaining bioresources, including Indigenous plants used for medicinal purposes, for food and for other products of economy and social value. Biotechnology contributes to food security through increased and food crop production (improved seeds, bio-pesticides) and food processing and storage (e.g. gamma irradiation)."
Experts said that Biotechnology has great potential to address the pervasive poverty and food security problems of the developing world.
The main plank for pursuing the biotech agenda for the ministry is the National Biotechnology Policy and the establishment of the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) which the minister established with the approval of the Federal Executive Council to be responsible for achieving the mandates of the policy in the promotion, development and coordination of biotechnology activities in the country.