BIOTECH IN THE NEWS

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has found that Monsanto’s MON810 genetically modified maize poses no risk to human health or the environment, based on data from the 2010 growing season.

Using biotechnology to boost food productivity is one side of the story. Food security and food safety demands that Members of the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries are adequately informed about biotechnological developments in agriculture, but they should also listen to those who oppose this technology. That’s what the Committee Chairperson, Mr Lulu Johnson told agricultural biotechnologists in Parliament this week.

The number of South African farmers using biotechnology has drastically increased over the last decade, Parliament heard on Tuesday. In 2001, less than one percent of farmers made use of the genetically engineered farming method.

Nine years later, 75 percent have adopted the practice. According to AfricaBio’s Nompumelelo Obokoh, South Africa is leading the way on the continent.She told Parliamentarians that farmers from other countries visited South Africa to see how it was being implemented.

AfricaBio is a non-governmental organisation. 

The farming community has urged the government to approve the genetically modified corn, which is being planted successfully across the globe, for commercial plantation in Pakistan. The farmers of corn growing areas made this demand during a meeting with the senior officials of Monsanto Pakistan, a leading agricultural company. Media representatives were also present on the occasion. A farmer from Arifwala Sabir Hussain said, “We (farmers) fail to understand the delay in giving approval to genetically modified crops.

The Biosafety Act has received Presidential Assent, thus becoming a complete law. The Law, from the Biosafety Act, 831, 2011 will enable Ghana to allow the application of biotechnology in food crop production involving Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) to enter food production. It will also ensure an adequate level of production in the field of safe development transfer, handling and use of GMOs that are pharmaceuticals for human use, and which are the subject of any other enactment.