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| Country Advisory Group on Bio-safety inaugurated |
11/7/2005 |
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Country Advisory Group on Bio-safety inaugurated
Accra, Nov. 7, GNA - A 13-member Country Advisory Group (CAG) on Bio-safety has been inaugurated in Accra to assist in the implementation of the Programme for Bio-safety Systems (PBS) to ensure the judicious use of modern agricultural biotechnology in Ghana.
This is also to enhance agricultural productivity, leading to market development and higher rural incomes.
Inaugurating the group, Professor Walter Alhassan, PBS Coordinator for West and Central Africa said, with the coming into force of the Cartagena Protocol on Bio-safety, it was necessary to build local capacity in safe exploitation of tools of modern biotechnology to solve the country''s problem in agricultural, the environment and industry.
"The USAID country mission through PBS is assisting Ghana to build that capacity for the safe handling of Genetically Modified Organisations (GMOs) and for export as necessary".
The advisory group is made up heads from Environmental Protection Agency, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research ( CSIR), Farmers Organisation Network in Ghana, Biotechnology and Nuclear Agricultural Research Institute (BNARI), National Biosafety Committee.
The rest are Faculty of Agriculture, University of Development Studies, Food and Drugs Boards, USAID, Nouguchi Memorial Institute into Medical Research and the Consumers Association of Ghana.
The group will also facilitate communication and implementation of programme strategies and priorities in the country, provide a representative base for policy development and offer periodic assessment of the output of the projects and advise on the way forward.
The group has a three-year lifespan to correspond with the project with funding level of about 750,000 US dollars from USAID.
Prof. Alhassan noted that whilst waiting for the Bio-safety bill now before cabinet for study to be brought back to the Ministry for onward submission to the Attorney General for the final draft to be submitted to parliament for approval to be passed into law, there was the need to use existing regulatory legislation, such as plant quarantine law and seed law in order not to deny people of accessing the technology.
He said as part of the work plan for the group for the next one year, an enabling environment would be established for Confined Field Trails (CFT).
"There will also be training of the National Biosafety Authority to review applications for the CFT, phytosanitary inspectors on the conducts of the CFT and training of scientists on the application for the conduct of CFT".
He explained that risk communication strategies would be developed to conduct biotechnology communication needs assessment to ensure that the right message was passed to the general public. Journalists, he said, would also be trained to be well vest in the area and this would enable them to present accurate reportage on the subject.
Professor Emmanuel Owusu Bennoah, Director-General of CSIR and a group member advised that there was the need to include the non-governmental organization and the civil society so they could also offer their input in every deliberation of the group. Mrs Lydia Sasu, Coordinator of the Farmers organization Network in Ghana expressed the need for the rural farmers, especially women to be trained in the application of tissue culture at the local level to prevent them from the long travels to the laboratory in Accra for the seeds.
"Some countries are actually doing well to save their farmers the agony of travelling to the laboratory in the cities; the only place they could get the seedlings and if we have the facilities here why can''t we do the same for our poor rural farmers"?
The group agreed to tap existing regulatory legislations to work with, whilst they wait for the Biosaftey bill to go through the formalities to be passed into law.
Prof. Eric Quaye, Chairman of the National Biosafety Committee said: "We just cannot begin with the field trails without having any legal backing laws to support what we will be doing."Source:
GNA
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