Media Urged To Educate Public On Biotechnology

Professor Richard Akromah, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), has urged the media to help deflate some of the negative perceptions about modern biotechnology. He said it was a safe scientific tool made purposely to improve the agriculture sector in the country. Professor Akromah explained that biotechnology had been in the system for ages and were used in the production of bread, cheese, yoghurt, alcoholic beverages and many others in the traditional way without having any health implications on humans. �It is therefore not different from modern biotechnology which is the manipulation of the DNA in plants to increase yields.� According to the Professor, modern biotechnology was a safe scientific method with enormous benefits to improve agriculture yields, reduce the application of chemicals on crops which posed harmful threats to both the farmers and consumers as well as reduce food glut. He mentioned countries such as Burkina Faso, South Africa and Benin who had embraced the modern biotechnology and, therefore, were increasing their agriculture yields citing the popular �flavr Savr� tomato imported from Burkina Faso unto the Ghanaian markets. Presenting, a paper on; �What the Future Holds for Agriculture� at a day�s seminar organized by the United States Embassy for selected journalists in Kumasi, Prof. Akromah said the perception that Genetically Modified Crops (GMOs) had health implications on humans was not scientifically proven. He said an intervention to improve agriculture to meet the demands of the growing population was necessary and needed the support of all, especially the media, to understand the issues and educate the public better. Professor Walter Alhassan, Chairman of the Africa Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), and member of the Ghana National Bio-safety Committee, said environmental and health risks associated with biotechnology were all perceived risks since there was no scientific evidence to prove. He said GMO crops under the modern biotechnology had rather been scrutinized thoroughly though several scientific tests to establish its safety whereas the traditional methods of farming did not go through such tests. Professor Alhassan said high levels of ignorance and misinformation in the public domain were rather creating the negative perceptions. He, therefore, urged the media to endeavour to know more about biotechnology to be able to educate the public on its benefits and not the risks which are not evidence based.