Genetically modified crops good for the future
I am writing to dispel the allegations by Opiyo Oloya in the media recently regarding the potential of biotechnology to improve food production and address farmers’ challenges, such as diseases and pests. Let us give the Ugandan scientists the benefit of the doubt.
Arthur Makara
I am writing to dispel the allegations by Opiyo Oloya in the media recently regarding the potential of biotechnology to improve food production and address farmers’ challenges, such as diseases and pests. Let us give the Ugandan scientists the benefit of the doubt.
Mr President, you remember in August 2003, you opened Uganda’s first-ever National Agricultural Biotechnology Centre (NABC) at Kawanda at the height of polarised debate regarding genetically modified crops. This laboratory was put up as an effort to build home-grown capacity for our scientists to understand genetically modified organisms.
During its commissioning, you said that you had built indigenous capacity for oil exploration. You said it had given you satisfactory results and you wanted the same for genetic engineering.
Since then, a lot has happened and it is time you visited the NABC. More than 100 genetic engineers have been trained locally. The centre is reportedly the best in the region. NEPAD and the AU have identified it as a regional hub for biotechnology training.
Currently, the facility has over 20 young scientists training at the master’s and PhD levels. Through this centre, genetically modified (GM) banana varieties have been developed and are currently undergoing field trials. These include bananas with enhanced Vitamin A and iron that are intended to address the challenge of malnutrition in children and iron deficiency in expectant mothers.
In your manifesto Mr President, maternal health is the number one priority. Secondly, the scientists are doing field trials for banana varieties for resistance to a devastating bacterial disease. On the campaign trail, your voters may ask what medicine you have for this devastating disease that destroys banana plantations. Oloya still holds the old-fashioned view that GM crops will fall from somewhere onto our country and our farms. He is out of touch with reality because; Uganda is currently a regional leader in agricultural biotech research through championing the use of GM technology.
Will the Monsanto he is talking about do research on genes for improvement of bananas, cassava, yams, okra, pumpkins or millet, which are not commercially viable in the US? These are crops of great importance here and it would be unforgivable for our Government to look on as they get wiped off the face of the earth by diseases and pests.
In the face of climate change, a lot of crop diseases and pests have come up against our crops, yet Oloya does not seem to know this. You may also be aware ofthe brown streak disease of cassava that makes roots rot. Again your scientists are using GM technology at Namulonge to develop varieties that are resitant to this disease which you are also likely to hear about from voters during your campaigns in cassava growing areas. What shall we use to counter these challenges if we do not use all available tools, including GM technology?
Opiyo Oloya is out of touch with reality here in Uganda; he is in Canada where no one sleeps hungry and where GM crops have been commercialised since the mid-90s!
The writer is executive director Science Foundation for Livelihoods and Development
I am writing to dispel the allegations by Opiyo Oloya in the media recently regarding the potential of biotechnology to improve food production and address farmers’ challenges, such as diseases and pests. Let us give the Ugandan scientists the benefit of the doubt.
Mr President, you remember in August 2003, you opened Uganda’s first-ever National Agricultural Biotechnology Centre (NABC) at Kawanda at the height of polarised debate regarding genetically modified crops. This laboratory was put up as an effort to build home-grown capacity for our scientists to understand genetically modified organisms.
During its commissioning, you said that you had built indigenous capacity for oil exploration. You said it had given you satisfactory results and you wanted the same for genetic engineering.
Since then, a lot has happened and it is time you visited the NABC. More than 100 genetic engineers have been trained locally. The centre is reportedly the best in the region. NEPAD and the AU have identified it as a regional hub for biotechnology training.
Currently, the facility has over 20 young scientists training at the master’s and PhD levels. Through this centre, genetically modified (GM) banana varieties have been developed and are currently undergoing field trials. These include bananas with enhanced Vitamin A and iron that are intended to address the challenge of malnutrition in children and iron deficiency in expectant mothers.
In your manifesto Mr President, maternal health is the number one priority. Secondly, the scientists are doing field trials for banana varieties for resistance to a devastating bacterial disease. On the campaign trail, your voters may ask what medicine you have for this devastating disease that destroys banana plantations. Oloya still holds the old-fashioned view that GM crops will fall from somewhere onto our country and our farms. He is out of touch with reality because; Uganda is currently a regional leader in agricultural biotech research through championing the use of GM technology.
Will the Monsanto he is talking about do research on genes for improvement of bananas, cassava, yams, okra, pumpkins or millet, which are not commercially viable in the US? These are crops of great importance here and it would be unforgivable for our Government to look on as they get wiped off the face of the earth by diseases and pests.
In the face of climate change, a lot of crop diseases and pests have come up against our crops, yet Oloya does not seem to know this. You may also be aware ofthe brown streak disease of cassava that makes roots rot. Again your scientists are using GM technology at Namulonge to develop varieties that are resitant to this disease which you are also likely to hear about from voters during your campaigns in cassava growing areas. What shall we use to counter these challenges if we do not use all available tools, including GM technology?
Opiyo Oloya is out of touch with reality here in Uganda; he is in Canada where no one sleeps hungry and where GM crops have been commercialised since the mid-90s!
The writer is executive director Science Foundation for Livelihoods and Development