Following approval from the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) earlier this year (see AgbioNews Jan 29, 2019), Nigeria’s National Varietal Release Committee has approved the world’s first GM cowpea variety, Sampea 20-T, for registration and commercial release in the country. Sampea-T confers resistance to pod borer through the expression of the Bt Cry1Ab gene and was developed through a partnership including Nigeria’s Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) and the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN); Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, and the Danforth Plant Science Center. Bayer CropScience provided the Cry1Ab (Bt) gene on a royalty-free humanitarian basis to ensure the seeds are affordable to smallholder farmers. The partnership was coordinated by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) with sustained funding by USAID. Cowpea is an important protein source in Nigeria and other West African countries and severe insect pest pressure can reportedly reduce the yield of the crop by as much as 90%.

Nigeria commercialised its first GM crop, cotton, in 2018 (AgbioNews Jul 31, 2018).