By Admin1
Copyright ghanaiantimes
Ghanaians have been urged to embrace biotech-nology as a tool to address devastating crop diseases and safe-guard the nation’s food security.
They explained that genetic engineering is not only a natural extension of plant breeding but also a safe and necessary response to agricultural challenges that conventional methods have failed to resolve.
The call was made at the New Media Biotechnology Engagement Workshop, organised in Accra yes-terday by the Open Forum on Ag-ricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) Ghana Chapter, in collaboration with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF).
The workshop, which brought together the new media, was designed to explore the role of biotechnology in enhancing food security and supporting smallhold-er farmers.
It also provided a platform to clarify key issues surrounding agricultural biotechnology and to highlight the benefits of the Pod Borer Resistant (PBR) cowpea seed, developed locally by the Council for Scientific and Indus-trial Research (CSIR).
Addressing the participants, the Chief Research Scientist at the School of Nuclear and Allied Sci-ences, Samuel Amiteye, explained that genetic engineering allowed specific genes to be transferred into plants to develop resistance against pests and diseases.
“With this approach, we can introduce a gene of interest into a plant cell, regenerate it into a whole plant, and obtain a trans-genic crop that is more resilient,” he said.
Mr Amiteye warned that with-out such technologies, Ghana risked losing key crops such as cassava, groundnut and coconut to devastating diseases that con-ventional breeding has failed to control.
He cited the Pod Borer Re-sistant (PBR) cowpea as clear evidence that biotechnology could deliver real benefits to farmers.
Approved in 2022, it remains Ghana’s first genetically modified crop authorised for commercial cultivation.
Mr Amiteye revealed that genet-ic engineering was just one tool among many available to plant breeders.
“It is part of a continuum of technologies designed to improve crops for human benefit,” he ex-plained, urging the media to help dispel misinformation and inform the public with facts.
An expert from the National Biosafety Authority (NBA), Kwesi Anderson, assured participants that Ghana’s biosafety framework was robust, with Genetic Modified Organisms (GMOs) products un-dergoing multi-year trials, scien-tific reviews and public consulta-tions before approval.
“Our mandate as an institution is to regulate and oversee all GMO activities in Ghana, ensuring the protection of human health, biodiversity and the environment,” he said.
“No GMO product is approved unless it has passed multi-year tri-als, independent scientific reviews and public consultations. Once approved, the product is as safe as its conventional counterpart,” Mr Anderson emphasised.
He added that both the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the European Union (EU) had concluded, after reviewing hun-dreds of studies, that GM foods on the market are no riskier than traditionally bred crops.
The workshop formed part of the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) Ghana Chapter’s engagements with new media professionals, aimed at closing the information gap on biotechnology and strengthen-ing public understanding of its benefits.
BY STEPHANIE BIRIKORANG
