“They are now looking into the technology and fine tuning everything,” Margaret Ottah Atikpo of the Center for Scientific and Industrial Research told CCTV Africa about GMO food testing.

Although GMO testing is in the trial period, members of civil society organizations have protested saying that the trials are a breach to sovereignty and an attempt to takeover land and the food system. The government, according to CCTV Africa, believes that the introduction of GMO foods will help balance out rising food costs and the effects of climate changes.

“The good thing about it is we are using local crops. So it is not crops which have been genetically modified and brought into the country. We are looking at how we can improve our local crops,” Ottah Atikpo assured.