Farmers, Media Schooled on GMOs

Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB)-Ghana Chapter, has sensitized farmers, agricultural extension officers and the media on agricultural biotechnology, safety, and issues on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO).

Dr Richard Ampadu-Ameyaw, National Coordinator, OFAB and a Senior Scientist of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), said it was untrue that GMOs contained chemicals or harmful substances that may be injurious to humans or that may manifest themselves in human genomes.

He said GMOs were not new to humans because there had been modification of organisms to suit needs of humans through deliberate alteration of genes of organisms for ages.

Dr Ampadu-Ameyaw explained that crops were engineered through biotechnology technique to either increase yield, limit pesticides use and insect attack or increase nutritional value among others.

He said biosafety activities were employed to monitor the level of potentially hazardous metabolites and proteins that may be present in the crop before they were released unto the market.

Dr Ampadu-Ameyaw said GMOs provided farmers the opportunity to produce more food for the growing world’s population while reducing the impact of agriculture on the environment by developing crops that required less or no use of chemicals to combat diseases.

Mr Daniel Osei Ofosu, Research Scientist, Biotech and Nuclear Agricultural Research Institute, Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), said there were no GMOs on the Ghanaian market currently and that Ghanaian scientists were still working on some crops.

He said they were working on cowpeas to make it maruca resistant as the insect had made the crop economically unviable.

Mr Ofosu said rice engineering was also being considered for efficient use of nitrogen and water.

He said engineered crops would not replace old one ones but compliment the stock and give farmers the choice to select what to grow.

Source: GNA