By: Fred Yaw Sarpong
The Convention People’s Party (CPP)
Presidential candidate for 2012 Presidential Election, Dr. Abu Sakara has add
his voice to those calling for National Debate on genetically modified (GM)
crops, in order to help address some of
the challenges associated with the crops, if
there is any.
According to Dr. Sakara, national debate
will clearly give an informed decision about GM crops, as far as anti GM and
those for are concern.
Dr. Sakara said in an interview after a day
lecture on GM crops held in Accra last week. The lecture was organized by Open
Forum on Agriculture Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB) and Centre for Scientific
and Industrial Research (CSIR).
‘I think clearly this is a topic which has now
come to the public domain, because it has been in the news for sometimes,’ he
added.
Dr. Sakara stated that his comment on GM
crops will be from the point of scientists view, so that there will be much concern
about the scientifically prove of GM crops because the scientists can give the
Ghanaians the clear facts on GM crops.
‘So I am not entering it yet, from a
preconceive position, whether am for or being against. Am entering it from a
position of what is provable,’ said Dr. Sakara.
He stated that ‘we all are aware of what
the benefits of GM crops are and like all other things, there are some downsize
associated with it too. If anybody introduces something to you and has no downsized,
you should be very careful.’
Dr. Sakara asked that within the contest of
our local situation, how are Ghanaians been able to explore the positive of GM
crops and minimize the negative, barely in mind that the negative must be
provable and it must be scientific base. ‘Not simple an allegation of something
that you make up,’ he added.
Some experts, especially those fighting for
GM crops have argued that, clearly there are some negative images on GM crops that
are not provable and therefore anybody who claims that they have the facts for
it, should be able to come out in public to present those facts.
‘But what concerns me also is our ability
to weigh situation and decide what is in our best interest first. I shouldn’t
be for or against GMO because somebody from outside is telling me to be for it
or against it. I should be able to be for or against it with my own
understanding. If we weigh both sizes, we don’t need to be paid before speaking
against or for GM crops. We need to use our common sense to determine what is
good or bad,’ he emphasized.
The 2012 CPP Presidential candidate
believes that clearly there are significant advantages, which outweigh the
disadvantages.
However, he indicated that the
disadvantages can be manage within the context of a Bio-regulation framework,
that ensure that (1) it is handling properly, (2) it is not misused, and (3) that
the interest of our farmers and our society are taken care off, so that Ghanaians
are not disadvantaged.
He stressed that there will be danger
associated with it as a result of tendency to misuse it and the important thing
is what regulation can we put in place to ensure that we do not misuse it in a
negative way?
He called on the scientists to get out
there and put the issue out for people to make their minds up. ‘We should not
allow people who know less something than those (scientists) seek the public
domain and provide misinformation.
He urged the scientists in the country to
put their truth out there for the public to make their decision; especially at
a point whereby they believe (scientists) they are saying the truth. ‘Put the
truth out there and defends it,’ he added.
‘But don’t sit back, because if you sit
back, those people who misinformed or do not have the right information but are
motivated by other factors will get it into the public domain, and I believe
that is a very dangerous situation and it is something that we should put
attention on,’ Dr. Sakara reiterated.
He was wondering where those who are either
anti or for GM crops are getting their funding from. ‘What are their motivations?
Are they just jumping on political bag wagon, for their own fame or do they
have monetary gain from it whether they are for or against? And if you are
saying something about GM crops, do you have the evidence to support it? These
are issues we expect our experts to also take into considerations,’ Dr. Sakara
stressed.
He called for collective opinions together
and educates ourselves and also has a thorough interaction on the subject. ‘This
is not a matter of a confrontation. It is more of education rather than
confrontation. Education on this subject is very important, so that it will
bring both anti and those for GM crops together to exchange ideas.’
Given some challenges associated with genetically
modified organisms (GMO’s), Professor Walter Alhassan, a member of National
Biosafety Committee (NBC) said the way people communicate about GMO gives a bad
name for it. However, he explained that the threat people sees about GMO is the
same threat associated with other conversional crops.
‘The fact that they are GMO’s does not make
it any really different in terms of whether it is toxic or allergic or whatever,’
Prof. Alhassan stated.
He explained that ‘we have allergic and toxic
in normal crops, adding that if one does not handling cassava properly it could
be toxic and that does not have anything to do with GMO.
Other challenges he mentioned as related to
GMOs are the fact that we need to create an enabling environment for one to use
anything, especially in areas of technology, marketing, infrastructure,
extension support services, continues training of farmers, and continues
awareness creation on issues of Biotechnology.
He believes this is not one off thing,
which one workshop or an event can address. ‘We need continues creating
awareness about issues of biotechnology and about issue of GMO and also the
fact is we need to understand that GM is just a tool, and biotechnology is not
a GM, adding that there are a lot that associated with biotechnology.
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