Misreporting of GMOs held responsible for uncertainty in Policy Making

Addis Ababa, Tuesday March 7, 2017: Media coverage of the debate on biotechnology has contributed to confusion and indecisiveness in policy making on Biosafety in the African region.

According to the COMESA Biotechnology and Biosafety Policy Advisor Dr Getachew Belay, messages on biotechnology processes and genetically modified foods reaching policy makers and consumers are “confusing, sensational and inaccurate”.

Scientist explains to one of 30 journalists biotechnology during field visit in Ethiopia. Photo by Christopher Karenzi

Dr Belay was addressing 30 best journalists from COMESA member States attending a Communication Training Workshop for Media Practitioners on Biotechnology and Biosafety in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 7-9 March 2017. The State Minister, Ministry of Environment and Forest Ethiopia HE Kare Chawicha opened the workshop.

Dr Belay observed that in Africa, issues on biotechnology and Biosafety that influence technology adoption are regularly misrepresented due to lack of proper communication with the media and packaging of the right message.

“Lack of improved communication within the member states has contributed to lagging behind on the adoption of agricultural biotechnology, among other things lack of national Biosafety laws and biotechnology policies, low investment in biotechnology research and development,” Dr Belay told the journalists.

In his remarks, Minister,
Chawicha described the media as the bridge to reach out to the public and which should assist the communication officers from public authorities and research institutions to convey the correct messages.

Dr Gebre Dr Margaret Karembu, Director of International Service for at the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) conquers with the Minister saying that application of biotechnology GMO is one of the ways into food security, eradication of hunger and defeating chronic malnutrition and starvation in Africa.

She explained that GMO is the result of a laboratory process where genes from the DNA of one species are extracted and artificially forced into the genes of an unrelated plant or animal. The foreign genes may come from bacteria, viruses, insects, or animals

Farmers’ Hesitation in Rwanda

Among the reasons farmers would be hesitant to take up GMOs is the lack of knowledge about them and the misperceptions which have left them in fear.
Alphonsine Umutoni, a farmer who uses green houses for vegetable production, said there has been a lot of negative talk and suspicion about GMOs that would make many farmers hesitant to take them up even if the law allowed it.

“Many farmers do not fall solely under commercial farming, they are both subsistent and commercial and they might be hesitant to consume the GMOs. There is also the issue of the market perception, where farmers have to weigh the needs of the consumers,” she said.

Rwanda has expressed concern that it could face an influx of genetically modified crops from Kenya and Uganda, which are in the process of legalizing genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources Dr. Geraldine Mukeshimana has warned that GMOs crop imports, particularly maize and bananas will flood Rwanda as it has no regulatory mechanisms to check such imports.

"We need to fast track our biosafety standards to enable us deal with GMOs once they are in the country. They [EAC members] are ahead in setting biosafety standards, while we are still defining ours," she said.

Dr Mukeshimana was speaking at the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa general assembly (FARA), hosted in Rwanda last Monday, where scientists provided differing opinions on the use of genetically modified seeds. GMOs and general scientific research in agriculture were extensively discussed.

Rwanda is resolute it will not lift a ban on GMOs despite a sharp decline in its crop yields in the face of erratic weather patterns and diseases like MLN, which affects maize crop.

However, environmentalists and several agricultural groups have issued warnings that the use of GMO seeds has devastating consequences to the environment and health of the people.

"We have to be cautious before adopting GMOs. There are many things the country must do for safety reasons before authorizing GMO seeds, but we carry out scientific research to improve crop yields," said Dr Patrick Karangwa, the head of research at the Rwanda Agriculture Board, adding that, "although biotechnology is very important in improving agriculture yields, we have to be careful to avoid the adverse negative consequences that come with suing GMOs."

Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have hinted that they could in the near future open up to the use of GMO seeds to increase their crop yields.

The World Health Organization standards says GMO products that are currently on the international market have all passed risk assessments conducted by national authorities.

According to World Health Organization, there is no research yet found showing bad consequences of using GMOs, but GMOs is described by many researchers as solution of eradicating malnutrition globally and and fighting forever starvation used to take place in many countries of Africa,Latin America and Asia

Bad assumptions of using GMOs sometimes disseminated  by beliefs, diversity cultures, religious and edited photos with Photoshop still challenge to adapt GMOs in many countries as the key solution for  security food  globally.

The assessments follow the same basic principles, including an assessment of environmental and human health risk. These assessments are thorough; they have not indicated any risk to human health. (Source, Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources of Rwanda, The East African and Radio SALUS )

Story by @HABIMANA Jean Claude