ANTI-GMO TAG PRESENTING 'MISSED OPPORTUNITY' FOR ZAMBIA

ANTI-GMO TAG  PRESENTING 'MISSED OPPORTUNITY' FOR ZAMBIA 

...as the perception continues to hinder  local research on GMOs,laments NBA

By Alfonso Kasongo 

Zambia’s biotechnology and biosafety regulator has regretted the labelling of the country as an anti-GMOs state,saying the notion has presented a 'missed opportunity' for the Southern African nation to diversify its agricultural technologies.

The National Biosafety Authority (NBA) has also reviewed that once some  documents on the regulation of GMOs in the  country are finalized and validated, the Authority will be able to roll out commercialisation of biotechnology products.

"Much as we seem not to have done anything on aspiring commercialisation, we have documents that are available which only require validation and these are documents within our control because they don't require a minister to approve but just a board of the NBA. The only documents that may require a minister is just Statutory Instruments (SI), as we  implement the Act and the policy. From where we are standing, we need your assistance in the finalization of these documents to an extent of once the policy is passed and the Act  comes into being, we will be ready to roll," NBA  Chief Executive Officer, Luckson Tonga disclosed.

Arguably,  some scientific papers have shown that biotechnology techniques like genome-editing can increase agricultural productivity and nutrition as they (techniques) have the potential to develop crops that are able to withstand effects of climate change; disease and pest resistant as well as enhancing nutrition by making specific changes to the DNA of a cell or organism. It can be used to add, remove or alter DNA in the genome without bringing any foreign gene to the targeted DNA.


Addressing this year's African Biosafety Coordination Partners Meeting in Lusaka, Zambia,recently, Mr. Tonga stressed the need to change the perception,hence imploring research institutes in the country to wake up and start working on issues surrounding GMOs in agriculture.

Mr. Tonga laments  that the perception  that Zambia is anti-GMOs continues to hinder research institutes and universities  from participating in GMOs.

Mr. Tonga announced that the  Authority wants to expose local scientists to 'seeing is believing'.

The biosafety Agency is also targeting Members of Parliament and government officials in issues that are relevant to its mandate.

"we want leverage on acceptance of GM products which are already on the market to the extent that they can build confidence.We want to build confidence as we go out with awareness," Mr. Tonga said. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ZAAB QUESTIONS GOVERNMENT'S SILENCE ON PBR BILL

Image
  ZAAB QUESTIONS  GOVERNMENT'S SILENCE ON PBR BILL  By Alfonso Kasongo  A collaborative network of concerned citizens, civil society groups, faith and farmer-based organisations, working together to strengthen the growing movement for agroecology and food sovereignty has questioned government's failure to avail the proposed new Plant Breeders Rights (PBR) Bill.  Zambia Alliance for Agroecology and Biodiversity (ZAAB) maintains that controversial Bill is inappropriate for the country and must not be enacted as it aligns the country to the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) 1991 standards. The Consortium fears that once proposed PBR Bill is enacted in its current form, the new seed law may trigger price increase and corporate capture of seeds, as well as  country's food system.  The Alliance argues that government through the Seed Control  Certification Institute SCCI  has never presented the actual changes and amendments in the draft PBR
Read more

ZAMBIA LISTED AMONG 34 COUNTRIES WORLDWIDE THAT EXPERIENCED DIGITAL AUTHORITATIVE RULE

Image
  By Alfonso Kasongo  The shutdown of internet to block access to social media during the 2021 general election has earned Zambia a slot among 34 countries worldwide that experienced digital authoritative rule last year. According to a research conducted by Keep It On ,182 internet shutdowns from 34 countries were last year recorded and are documented. Sadly 19 of the 34 countries are African countries, an indication of the return of the digital authoritatism. The report  discloses that the Zambian authorities shutdown the Internet during the the tight 2021 general election to block access to social media platforms which  include among others WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.   The report however ,suggests that the country experienced digital authoritative rule which undermined the democracy of the country.    It further notes with pleasure that the shut down was fought swiftly by Chapter One Foundation through the court of law and that the High  Court ruling remains a precede
Read more

ZAMBIA'S CLIMATE FINANCING UTILISATION LACKS TRANSPARENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY

Image
ZAMBIA'S CLIMATE FINANCING UTILISATION LACKS TRANSPARENCY,  ACCOUNTABILITY ...hence prone to corruption risks,posing threats against building climate change resilience, TIZ report reviews. By Alfonso Kasongo Zambia's quest to remain climate change resilient might veer off course, if gaps such as weak climate regulatory frameworks, corruption risks and lack of transparency in the management of climate financing remain unaddressed. Ànd tackling of how the country supports mitigation and adaptation to climate change remain critical to building resilience to the worst effects. Climate resilient is generally defined as successfully copying with and managing the impacts of climate change while preventing those impacts from growing worse. This year's unprecedented global temperatures and stark devastating of climate change stress the urgency requirement for Zambia and many other countries to build climate resilience, hence the need for strong regulatory framework and transparency
Read more