The Minister of Science and Technology, Olorunnimbe Mamora, says the ministry has developed diagnostic processes, treatment and drugs for common diseases like sickle cell and hypertension through its agencies.

Mr Mamora disclosed this on Tuesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, while featuring in the State House briefing organised by the presidential communications team.

The minister said his ministry had also made significant achievements in food processing and equipment fabrication to boost food production.

“Nigeria has a very large population of sickle cell disease patients and carriers; to that effect, I can tell that we have developed products from plants that combat or are anti-sickening in nature and therefore reduce the number of attacks that usually result from sickle cell anaemia.”

The minister said anti-hypertensive drugs and Lovastatin, which reduce cholesterol, were also developed.

“I can say that through our molecular diagnostic laboratories, we have been able to develop a mode of identifying or making a diagnosis because the first step in the management of a patient is to make the right diagnosis; if you don’t make the right diagnosis, you cannot treat what you don’t know.’’

On agriculture, he said that a recent document—Nigeria 2050 Agenda– estimated that Nigeria’s population would be about 350 million by 2050, while the current estimate is 200 million.

According to him, food remains critical to eliminating poverty with such a population.

He said that attention was focused on how to improve food output to ensure that there was food security.

“So, that’s what we have called Tacca (false yam) for the production of starch and glucose syrup, which reduces the pressure on yam, cassava and maize for industrial raw materials.

“We have also been able to develop the extraction of glucose syrup and ethanol from sweet sorghum.

“We have been able to boost agricultural programmes through the development of improved seeds and seedlings that are distributed to farmers—these include cowpea, rice, ginger, banana, plantain, cassava, and sugar, among others.’’

The minister said Nigeria had previously recorded post-harvest losses; hence, through its agencies, the ministry developed seeds that were resistant to pests and flooding.

Mr Mamora said that the ministry was able to put in place methods of preserving harvests to avoid rots and boost yields.

He said that the ministry and its agencies had produced equipment for food processing and preservation of raw materials.

(NAN)