Researchers target senior high students with biotech education

Ghanaian researchers are focused on increasing knowledge on the application of biotechnology in agriculture and other economic activities.

The scientists believe the high opposition to the introduction of genetically modified (GM) products into the country could be a result of limited information on the subject.

“Biotechnology is an emerging area of science; it’s progressing faster than computer science and even those of us in this part of the world, it’s difficult to even catch up with the pace and that is what has brought about all the myth fear about the GM technology,” said Dr. Marian Quain, Head of Biotechnology Research Programme at the Crops Research Institute (CRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

She is coordinating a project to introduce biotechnology education in high schools across sub-Saharan Africa.

Some Senior High Schools in Kumasi were engaged in a debate on biotechnology as part of the project – it was won by T.I. Ahmadiyya Senior High School, Kumasi.

“The information on biotech even in the syllabus is scanty, so we don’t have much facility in the laboratory even to help teach it,” stated Henry Edem Denteh, a teacher at T.I. Amass.

He describes the programmes as education as his school also receives training kits to facilitate teaching and learning of the subject.

Dr. Quain observed Ghana is yet to optimize use of biotechnologies in agricultural production and is hopeful the project will enhance critical thinking among students in the areas of biotech and GMOs.

“We need to get them educated so that they can make informed decisions and communicate effectively about the technology,” she stated.

The project is supported by Inqaba Biotechnical Industries Limited, a company that assists researchers in testing for GMOs to detect and isolate wrong materials. It is also creating a network in sub-Saharan African to promote biotechnology.

Ghana Area Director of Inqaba Biotec, Christian Adabor Badu, acknowledged there are “bad” GM products in the system but stated that the country should not neglect the importance of having “good” GMOs in place.

He is worried a high court injunction halting production and commercialization of GM products will impede efforts at applying science and technology to increase Ghana’s food security.

Campaigners against GMOs, Food Sovereignty Ghana, is in court contesting the process of testing and production of crops like rice and cowpea using GM technology without an established Biosafety Authority to legally regulate such activities.

According to the group, Ghana’s food security is endangered if it has to depend on multinational companies to produce seeds for local farmers and also contends that GM products will hurt the ability of farmers to use natural seeds for production.

The Court has ordered government to stop GM activities until the case brought by Food Sovereignty Ghana is determined.

But Mr. Adabor Badu says this development will not be in the interest of research for higher productivity.

“If we are able to embrace GMOs in the right way, the country will be able to go far in terms of increasing yield and crop and animal production,” he stated.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh 

Eating to live: debate on growing GM crops rife in Ghana

The first-ever genetically modified (GM) crop to be planted in Ghana is the Nitrogen Use Efficient (NUE) rice.

The Crops Research Institute (CRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is presently conducting the field trails in the Ashanti region.

Other crops like sweet potato, cotton and cowpea have also been approved to undergo confined field trials.

There are no commercial GM crops grown in the country presently, though advocates of GM technologies believe adoption has significant benefits for farmers, consumers and the environment.

Director-General of CSIR, Dr. Abdulai Salifu, is one of those who support the full deployment of biotechnology in Ghana. For him, biotech in agriculture will ensure access to appropriate improved crop varieties in production to achieve food security.

“I prefer to eat a product that is going to kill me in 30 years times [and I’m not even sure it will kill me], than to stay hungry and die today”, he told a group of journalists, alluding to starvation faced by populations in Africa.

The wellbeing of human societies largely depends on the food consumed by its population, hence the subject of GMOs – to grow or not to grow; to eat or not to eat – continues to engage the interest to people the world over, Ghana not an exception.

Biotechnology in agriculture involves the use of scientific methods to produce genetically modified food crops that are more pest, disease and drought resistant and with short maturity periods.

The Biosafety Law in Ghana was passed in 2011, to allow the application of biotechnology in food crop production involving GM Organisms (GMOs) to enter food production.

The law also ensures an adequate level of production in the field for safe development, transfer, handling and use of GMOs.

However skepticism is still rife in the adoption of GMOs in Ghana.

Food Sovereignty Ghana, an advocacy movement, has called on the Ghanaian government to urgently place a moratorium on the cultivation and consumption of GM foods.

Chairperson of the organization, Ali Masmadi Jehu-Appiah, argues that “GMO’s have not contributed to major yield increases, nor drought resistance, and has generated superweeds and superbugs that require increased use of even more dangerous herbicides and pesticides”.

The group has therefore called for a broad consensus regarding the negative effects of consuming genetically modified foods before allowing Ghanaians to patronize them.

But Dr. Claude Fauquet, Director of the Global Cassava Partnership for the 21^st Century (GCP21), is of the view that Ghana is over two decades late in growing GM foods.

“Cumulatively, two billion people in the world have eaten GMO food and there is not a single report of a single person being sick – having a disease or cancer or anything – coming from GMO”, he said.

Modern biotechnology is a safe scientific method with enormous benefits to improve agriculture yields, stated Professor Richard Akromah, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

He however says biotechnology use in Ghana must be approached with precautionary measures.

“We must do in-country testing under confined field trials to avoid escape and take data by our scientists for analysis to convince ourselves that it is safe and appropriate to deploy it in our agriculture”, cautioned Prof. Akromah who is also a Senior Lecturer in Plant Breeding and Genetics.

His concerns have been addressed by a member of the Ghana National Bio-safety Committee, Professor Walter Alhassan, who says there are adequate and thorough safety measures in the country to manage environmental and health risks associated with biotechnology.

Already, the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) in Ghana has been engaging stakeholders, especially farmers, consumers, students, researchers and journalists to discuss issues related to modern agriculture.

Dr. Margaret Ottah Atikpo, Focal Person of OFAB-Ghana Chapter, says stakeholders should be aware of the developments surrounding the vital technology to be well informed.

“Modern Biotechnology is relatively recent scientific innovation that requires deliberate and sustained communication efforts to create awareness and understanding to consumers, legislators and policy makers”, she said.

For now, accessing GM seeds for agricultural production is a choice farmers would have to make when Ghana goes commercial in production, whilst Ghanaian consumers also make similar choice to purchase and consume GM foods.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh