Ghana to get GM rice

By: Fred Yaw SARPONG
fsarpong@theeventpr.com

Ghana will soon become one of the first countries in the world to have been able to commercialize genetically modified (GM) rice, if the project continues to receive funding.
Ghana, together with Nigeria, Uganda and Columbia are currently conducting trials on GM rice that is able to use about a third nitrogen of the recommended  nitrogen fertilizer and still have good yield.
If Ghana is able to go through this process, the country will be among the first countries in the world to come out with GM rice.
Currently, there is no GM rice under commercial cultivation anywhere in the world, the Crops Research Institute (CRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has started conducting trials in April 2013 and will hopefully, will get GM rice by 2021.
Dr. Maxwell Asante, Project Manager for NEWEST GM rice project in Ghana explained that Ghana will first it has go through a lot of processes before the rice is released  to farmers for commercial.
NERICA 4 rice, which was originally developed by AfricaRice was transformed to make efficient in the use of nitrogen fertilizer. Many lines of these Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) efficient versions of NERICA 4 have been tested under confined field trials (CFT) and the best two have been identified.
The gene was discovered in University of California, Davis in the United of America and it was  used to transform the NERICA 4 which is growing widely in Africa.
He told the Daily Express that currently trial is going on in Fumesua in the Ashanti region of Ghana. It was first trials in Nobewam also in the Ashanti region until it was moved to Fumesua.
He indicated that some farmers in Techiman in the Brong Ahafo region and Nobewam are aware of the new variety of rice. The farmers were happy with it. “There was no farmer who came around and said he didn’t like the new GM rice,” he added.
The Senior Scientist and Rice Breeder at CSIR- Crops Research Institute further stated that the next stage is to go through regulatory trials. Regulatory trial means because the rice is GM, it has to tested for food safety in the lab and compared  to existing varieties conventional non-GM varieties .
Per the regulatory trial, they will grow the GM rice together with other varieties which are already grown in Ghana after which they will take it to the lab to examine the difference between the two in terms of safety of the rice.
“If there are no differences, it means they are all equivalent. The team will now present data to National Biosafety Authority (NBA), the regulatory body for deregulation of the gene to ascertain whether Ghanaian farmers are free to cultivate the GM rice and eat it or not,” he told the Daily Express.
After the regulatory trials the GM rice will evaluated across all the agro-ecological zones of Ghana and the data presented  the National Variety Release and Registration Committee headed by Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) for review.
The committee at MOFA will decide the new rice variety will  useful for Ghanaian famers and consequently release to farmers for commercial use in the country.
“The earliest it can come on the market is 2021. That even depends on the availablilty of  funding which comes from USAID through the  Africa Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) based in Kenya. Funding of the project has been difficult. Funding was coming from United States Agency for International Development (USAID).”
However, USAID had stopped the funding till January 2018. “It is after January that we will know how far we can go with this process. If the USAID decides to stop funding the project entirely, either they we have to stop or search for funding from other sources.”
He mentioned that there is no GM rice on the market in the whole world, not even the developed world. “The only other GM rice which is also on trial is golden rice” he added.
But there are GM maize, soya bean and canola on some markets across the world. 
The Chief Executive Officer of the National Biosafety Authority (NBA), Erick Okoree stated that the CRI of CSIR is expected to do multilocational trial of the GM rice at a number of locations in the country. The purpose is to know the performance in every location.  “Only after that one we can say it is deregulated,” he added,
The Oxford Business School report revealed that only 34% of rice consumed in the country is produced locally, resulting in the importation of 689,000 tonnes annually.

Even though the country’s domestic production has increased by 12% over the 2010-15 periods, states the report, domestic consumption increased by double that rate over the same time frame.
As a result, Ghana imports between US$300 million and US$500 million of rice annually. The report further stated that, between 1999 and 2008, rice consumption grew from 17.5 kg to 38 kg per capita and it is expected to reach 63 kg per capita by 2018.