Will MPs choose facts over fictions in Biotech debate?

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By Isaac Ongu

The Biotechnology and bio-safety Bill is back on the order paper to be debated, and the focus is on MPs whether they will go with proven facts or fancy fiction in making their decisions on the Bio-safety Bill.

This comes after a series of consultations and repeated consultations of various groups that included herbalists, pseudo-scientists, natural-scientists, socio-scientists, and activists who comment on any issue that can give them mileage in coverage.

By this time, MPs must be armed with knowledge and facts regarding the science of biotechnology to be able to make informed decisions.

Facts

The fact is that the cabinet approved biotechnology and bio-safety policy as early as 2008 and up to now there is no legal framework in place to implement it despite several ongoing biotech trials in the country. The fact is that Uganda’s major staples; Banana, cassava and sweet potato continue to suffer from serious pests and diseases which are causing billions in losses annually and scientists cannot sit by when there is a proven method in biotechnology to address such challenges like banana bacterial wilt, cassava brown streak disease, and sweet potato weevils.

The fact is that biotechnology offers globally recognized and proven opportunity in improving crop breeding in a way never could be possible through conventional breeding that even bees can do. The fact is that biotechnology is not new and Uganda would not be the first African Country to adopt it. Sudan, Burkina Faso, South Africa are all growing biotech crops. Neighboring countries like Kenya and Tanzania, including Ethiopia all have the laws in place.

The fact is we are having GM foods on our super market stalls and we have been consuming them for years in cornflakes, soy and oil which are imported from South Africa.

Another fact is that with or without the law in Uganda, the number of acreages under GM crops will continue to increase globally and soon or later Uganda will be a part of that community growing biotech crops given that we already have them here in our backyard.

Fiction

There are several fictions which are glaring and deliberate. It is fiction that Uganda has abundant food that even the prevailing pests and diseases if not controlled will not cause any threat. It is fiction that GMOs will stop Uganda from exporting “Organic foods” to Europe even when Europe is exporting lots of GM foods from USA.

It is fiction that GM crops whether sprayed on not cannot be organic. It is fiction that farmers will continue to depend on multinationals even when the crops being researched on are local staples like banana, cassava, sweet potato that propagate vegetatively.

It is fiction that farmers should and will continue to plant low yielding home-saved seeds and leave high yielding hybrids alone even when the Government policy is commercializing Agriculture and discouraging subsistence, and it is absolute fiction that GM maize bears babies not cobs.

It is very clear that those who are fighting for no regulations giving various reasons which are not factual and oblivious of the trade propaganda, are giving lies about GMOs to scare policy makers through rehearsed emotional statements coined at persuading and coercing the honorable Members to fall for fictions.

MPs should show trust in Government institutions like NARO that have been at the center of Agricultural research with tangible outputs and drop ideas from the hurriedly formed organizations that talk about any subject so long they are paid to talk for or against it.

The writer is an agriculturist and consultant on agricultural information and dissemination