Assessment of public awareness, attitudes toward and acceptance of genetically modified foods in the city of Kaduna, Kaduna State, Northern Nigeria

N.E Egbe,A.B Bukar,A.A Adebayo

doi:10.4314/njb.v36i1.14

Abstract

Food is an essential component of daily life, and hence an important topic for many consumers. Genetic modification technology involves the alteration of the genetic machinery of an organism and the application of this technology to food production holds a great promise to overcome global food insufficiency. This study investigates public awareness, knowledge and attitude as well as acceptance of genetically modified foods among consumers in Kaduna City, Northern Nigeria. Questionnaire which was structured to cover three main themes: demographic information, attitudes towards Genetically Modified (GM) foods and knowledge of Genetic technology, was administered to 220 participants. Our findings show that 86% of the respondents in our study are aware of GM foods indicating a high level of awareness; however, the level of knowledge for most of the respondents was rated average. The findings also showed that 70.9% and 81.6% of respondents possessing Bachelors and postgraduate degrees respectively accept that GM technology will improve our standard of living and were more likely to accept GM foods. Awareness, level of education and knowledge of Genetic technology was shown to be important for acceptability of GM foods. In addition most respondents expressed their trust on Scientists and Religious leaders to decide on GM foods and also indicated their source of information on GM foods as the public media, social media and lectures. Therefore it is imperative that those responsible for disseminating scientific knowledge on GM foods and technology at public gatherings or through public media sources be properly educated to enable consumers make informed decision on GM foods.Keywords: Genetic technology, Public awareness, Attitude, GM Foods, Kaduna

Highlights

Modified foods are those foods produced from organisms that have had changes introduced into their DNA in order to obtain a desired trait or characteristic, by using the methods of genetic engineering as opposed to traditional breeding
It was observed that mostly the graduates and those with postgraduate certificate were aware of GM Foods (GMF) prior to this survey
We can conclude that the level of awareness of Genetically Modified (GM) foods in our study area is high, ; the level of understanding of GM technology is fair among the respondents

Summary

Introduction

Modified foods are those foods produced from organisms that have had changes introduced into their DNA in order to obtain a desired trait or characteristic, by using the methods of genetic engineering as opposed to traditional breeding. The fear of possible insufficiency in feeding the world's population, attributable to the increasing demand for food products, became less threatening with the introduction of biotechnology into agriculture, which gave birth to the application of genetically modified (GM) technology to produce food (Kagai, 2011; Demon tans Stein, 2013; Tanius and Seng, 2015). The application of this technology is quite promising in reducing production costs, use of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers; enhancing yields, nutritional value, flavour and shelf life; increasing profits of agricultural produce.

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Conclusion