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A former Deputy Minister for Agriculture is calling for a nationwide lecture to bring an end to the debate and confusion on Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) technology as a bad science for food production.

According to Dr. Ahmed Yakubu Alhassan, the complex scientific language used to communicate the technology to farmers and consumers is to blame for the undesirable dilemma in the public sphere thus the need for a simple justification to foster the introduction of GMO products unto the Ghanaian market.

“I agree that the demand for science to be simplified for everyday understanding is a legitimate demand particularly that people in society are now more conscious about what product they consume and therefore they will always be ready to ask questions,” he stated.

“Now if they ask questions and they are given answers that are too technical to internalize obviously those who engage in propaganda will definitely win the day. So it is a legitimate demand that science should do so,” he added.

The former Minister was speaking at a movie screening on Genetically Modified Organism for the International Association of Agric Students, University of Ghana at the Silverbird Cinemas at the Accra Mall, Wednesday February 28, 2018.

Dr. Alhassan who is for the motion on the commercialization of Genetically Modified Organism in his submission advocated for science communication to be imbibed in the curricular of science at the various levels of education to clamp down on the ignorance which will aid the acceptance of technological advancements without doubt.

“Many years ago I advocated that science communication should be part and parcel of the study of science because you are not just going to do science in a vacuum but you are going to do science and communicate scientific results for the consumption of the general public,” he bemoaned.

He maintained that “Gone are the days when scientists felt that their business was to generate scientific knowledge or technologies and take it to the public and they will take it without questioning.

“Now the situation is not so because people will definitely be interested in what they consume and in fact will be interested in the processes leading to what they are consuming.”