Plant breeders have given the assurance that Ghana will not lose its nontraditional crop export market should it, in the future, decide to introduce Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in crops meant for export.
They said Ghana presently had no capacity and the funding to grow GM crops and, instead, asked the government to provide funding for research into GMOs to help boost the country?s agriculture produce, while farmers also benefitted from their toil.
According to them, the whole idea about GM crops is being misconstrued for lack of education, and asked the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) to solicit information from experts on the ground before expressing their views on an area they are not well informed.
Some of the plant breeders, Dr Kofi Dartey of the Crop Research Institute (CRI) in the Ashanti Region and Dr Martin Agyei Yeboah of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement, University of Ghana, Legon, told the Graphic Business in separate interviews that Ghana had not started the production of GM crops for lack of capacity.
They were reacting to the GEPA?s statement on GMOs and Ghana?s export of nontraditional crops to Europe and the United States of America (USA).
According to Dr Agyei Yeboah, ?there is a lot to gain from introducing GMOs in the country because of the numerous benefits.?
He said it would serve the country well, especially farmers and the state, should it be able to invest huge sums into the study and research into GMOs because it will help increase yield and reduce the cost of production.
Dr Yeboah said the scientific processes involved in the production of GM foods is one done under careful and strict regulations, and scientists from Ghana ?really understand what it takes so that when we are supported to produce it, we will produce what is right for consumption.
He said there was so much Ghana could learn from biotechnology in plant breeding, and urged the public to push governments to invest to enable the country to explore the benefits and not condemn it.
?How can we as plant breeders introduce something that will have adverse effects on our own people and? the state by making it affect our exports,? he asked, adding that ?what is at stake is more positive than perceived.?
Dr Dartey, who is a rice breeder, said none of Ghana?s traditional and nontraditional export crops were being considered for genetical modification for now.
He said before any such thing would be done, there would be strict regulations that would be followed to ensure that the right things were done scientifically to produce what would fulfill the essence of the introduction of GM foods.
Dr Dartey, who presently has GM rice under study in a strictly confined area at Noboem in the Ashanti Region, said ?what GMOs can do is to ensure that what comes out is better than the conventional ones.?
He debunked the notion that crop scientists in the country had been bribed by some powerful foreign groups who were advocates for the introduction of the GMOs, saying, ?we understand it because it is our field, and we urge those who do not understand it to stop polluting the public and allow the scientists to do their work.?
GEPA concerns
The GEPA had, in a statement, warned of detrimental consequences on Ghana?s nontraditional exports (NTEs) should the country adopt genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into crops grown locally.
The authority said there were concerns over the health and risk concerns about GMOs across `Europe where the bulk of the country?s NTEs went and the United States, which was affecting its sales and pushing consumer preference to non-GMO foods.
It said the potential economic harm would be incalculable if Ghana were to be labelled a GMO-haven exporting GM crops to the world,? the chief executive officer of the GEPA said.
The GEPA has been at the forefront of promoting and developing the country?s nontraditional exports, including processed and semi-processed agricultural products, handicrafts and services.
The case against Ghana
In 2012, 44.55 per cent of Ghana?s nontraditional products was exported to the European Union and other developed countries, and the GEPA hopes to increase this percentage in order to achieve the US$5 billion target set by the government for 2017.
In view of the overwhelming evidence of the EU and Western world?s attitude to GM foods, it would be detrimental for Ghana to introduce the organism into its crops, as all products stand the risk of being rejected and, thereby, reducing the percentage of exports to the region.
Debate on GMOs
A Senior Rural Development Specialist? in the World Bank Mongolia Office, Dr Charles Annor-Frempong,? in his piece titled, Genetically Modified Seeds and Ghana ? The Debate, brought to the fore various arguments against GMOs and cautioned Ghanaians not to conduct the current debate on emotions or ideological inclinations but with available empirical and science-based evidence.
?From what I have heard on the radio and read in the newspapers, it appears that there is lack of information about GM crops and the proponents have failed to put up convincing arguments for the introduction of the GM crops in Ghana,? he wrote.
To him, the scale seems to be tilting in favour of those who oppose the introduction, in spite of the fact that the premise for their opposition, although it may seem sound, is not based on available facts and evidence.
The debate has heightened in Ghana at a time of the introduction of the Plant Breeders Bill which is meant to protect plant breeders rather than endorse GMOs.
But there are again forces which are misconstruing the move as an endorsement of the introduction of GMOs in crops in Ghana and are speaking on authority against it without facts but conjecture.
Source Graphic Business
