Why Uganda should consider genetic engineering tools

Jun 09, 2015

Over a hundred years ago Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill coined Uganda the pearl of Africa which assertion makes every Ugandan share a belonging.


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By Expedito Olimi

Over a hundred years ago Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill coined Uganda the pearl of Africa which assertion makes every Ugandan share a belonging.

However, in face of drastic global climate change, trends of our traditional farming systems and other associated factors, the Pearl of Africa is turning also a desirable hot spot for the emergence and reemergence of pests, viruses and diseases.

This explains why some diseases and viruses such as the Ugandan Cassava Brown Streak Virus the causative agent of cassava brown streak disease was coined such a name by the scientific community.

Such an upsurge trend makes one wonder about how to we could contain such a challenge/s when proven remedies such as GM technology is facing strong resistance at the expense of a farmer whose yield loss is tending to almost 100% in severely affected areas. Do we want to empower our farmers to remain competitive or to remain stuck in the subsistence trap?

How are we supposed to feed a burgeoning population with less than 10% engaged in agriculture and also face up to the emerging effects of global climate change with inefficient and outmoded farming practices?

We must take an earnest and critical look at what we want the future to look like for us and it starts with a unison of ideas in regard to available solutions. It is disastrous advising a pedestrian to walk bare on a rocky surface when he/she has a chance to put on shoes.

In this analogy the farmer is the pedestrian and the rocky surface includes climate change, banana bacterial wilt, fungal wilts, cassava mosaic, cassava brown streak disease the list is endless.

The farmers have been deprived of their choice through electronic hearsay and photo shops of impossible pictorial presentations and this has taken lead at the expense of mountains of agro biotechnology research evidence presented by scientists. Let us think twice before we misguide our parliamentarians and lose on reaping the fruits presented by biotechnology for agricultural development.

Today global agriculture finds itself engrossed in a heated debate over genetically modified (GM) crops.

This debate, which features science, economics, politics, and even religion, is taking place almost everywhere. It is going on in research labs, corporate boardrooms, legislative chambers, newspaper editorial offices, religious institutions, schools, supermarkets, coffee shops, and even in private homes.

What is all the fusses about and why do people feel so strongly about this issue even when they/don’t exactly understand the intention of why scientists use it. In my lay context, GM crops are crops which are developed using a shortened process of breeding (precision breeding) using biotechnology tools.

Traditionally, a plant breeder tries to exchange genes between two parent plants to produce offspring that have desired traits. This is done by transferring the male (pollen) of one plant to the female organ of another.

This cross breeding, however, is limited to exchanges between the same or very closely related species. It can also take a long time to achieve desired results and frequently, characteristics of interest do not exist in any related species.

GM technology enables plant breeders to bring together in one plant useful genes from a wide range of living sources, not just from within the crop species or from closely related plants but following the ethical norms of society.

The resulting plant is said to be “genetically modified” although in reality all crops have been “genetically modified” from their original wild state by domestication, selection, and controlled breeding over long periods of time.

This powerful tool allows plant breeders to do faster what they have been doing for years, generates superior plant varieties as well as expands the possibilities beyond the limits imposed by conventional plant breeding.

While attending the NRM ideology club session on the biotechnology Bill a few weeks ago, a participant asked about whether GM crops are important for the developing world and Uganda in Particular.

While most of the debate over transgenic crops has taken place mainly in the developed nations in the north, the South also stands to benefit from any technology that can increase food production, lower food prices, and improve food quality. In countries where there is often not enough food to go around and where food prices directly affect the incomes of majority of the population, the potential benefits of GM crops cannot be ignored.

Nutritionally enhanced foods may not be a necessity in developed countries but they could play a key role in helping to alleviate malnutrition in developing countries by using the biotechnology tool of biofortification which has already been used to develop a pro-vitamin A banana at one of Uganda’s research laboratory.

There is nothing inherently bad about any particular technology including biotechnology beyond the context in which it is applied and it is therefore unfortunate that the dialogue on GM technology has been very polarized and driven by fear and myths rather than by reason and facts.

We must not forget that every new technology has concerns and adoption does not imply zero risk. If we want to be assured of absolute safety in life, we would be doing nothing including riding in motor vehicles or walking on the streets.

The important thing is to minimize the risks through improving technology and put in place the necessary safety mechanisms in the way of regulatory systems, good monitoring and evaluation systems, which, in the case of GM technology is the focus of the biotechnology and biosafety bill currently under review by the Ugandan Parliament.

In a nutshell, this technology, with its potential to improve some of our economically important crop varieties, is simply too valuable to ignore and if there are any plausible risks that science can identify, it is important that we approach these from a scientific premise rather than an emotive one.

The writer is a scientist at Centre for Life sciences-Uganda

 

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