Implement the biosafety law

To guarantee food security

Government has been asked to implement the new biosafety law in order to improve the country’s agricultural yield and guarantee food security.

An executive of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), Professor Walter Alsatian, said this at a media briefing in Accra that the passage of the biosafety law would provide an opportunity for the country to replicate the good practices that other countries were using to improve the agricola sectors.

The Ghana Biosafety Law, Act 831, was passed in June 2011 but is yet to be implemented into the country’s agricultural sector.

According to him, the introduction of modern biotechnology into the agricultural sector would complement traditional technologies to effectively address the problems of food security while increasing the incomes of farmers.

Professor Alsatian said the implementation of the biosafety law would help address the challenges associated with the new threat of climate change on farming.

 Biotechnology is any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives to make or modify products for specific use. The technology has tools that apply to the various sub-sectors of agriculture such as crops, livestock, fisheries, aquaculture, forestry and agree-processing.

 Apart from the Biosafety Law, Prof. Alsatian said Ghana had goodwill to realise the use of biotechnology from various international agencies such as the World Bank and UNION.

“Now Ghana needs to support research and development in biotechnology, promote public-private partnership in exploitation of modified and non-modified biotechnology for agriculture and consider modern bitches as one of the tools for agricultural development.”

Professor Alsatian debunked the risk perceptions associated with biotechnology such as dependence on multinationals for seedlings, toxicity, allergic reactions and gene flow, saying “ these are just not true”.

According to him, the lack of understanding on the issues was due to little awareness on the proper use of biotechnology.

 He said increased consumption of GM foods was safer because they were scrutinised.

“There is a scientific backing and there is a law governing it. They are subjected to test and risk assessment,” he added.

He called on the media to help educate the public on issues of biotechnology.

FARA is the technical arm of the Africa Union in matters of agricultural research and has been mandated to assist in the implementation of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme Pillar IV, which deals with agricultural research, technology dissemination and adoption.