| Call to embrace,commercialise biotechnology | Send to a friend |
| Saturday, 03 July 2010 08:17 |
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Tanzanians have been urged to embrace and commercialise biotechnology and allow the genetically modified organisms (GMO) in order to give a push to the economy. The advice was given yesterday by the director of the Africa office of International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Application (ISAAA), Dr Margaret Karembu when presenting her paper at a forum for Agricultural Biotechnology in Dar es Salaam. “Biotechnology has a great potential of revamping agriculture, the mainstay of the national economy, and address poverty, improve food security and achieve economic development,” said Dr Karembu. She said that crop biotechnology was one among several agricultural strategies which have the potential of addressing problems on food, energy, poverty and environmental degradation in the world. She insisted that adaptation of modern farming methods could be one of the best solutions available for the rampant food production issues regarding climate change. “In order to achieve that, the government should create an environment that will enable farmers to share information and experience with other farmers about the technology rather than banning it,” Dr Karembu said. She said many farmers have negative perception on the technology because they were not availed to all information on the merits and demerits of biotech. “Experience in countries have shown that national political support and the enactment of guidelines and laws favouring biotechnology contribute to speeding up commercialisation of biotechnology products and that Kenya was currently in trial of that technology,” she explained. She added that biotechnology agriculture has been lauded as playing a significant and contributory role in improving agricultural productivity particularly in developing countries. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
