(HERALD) Biotech can boost developing economies
Biotech can boost developing economiesBy Sifelani Tsiko
ZIMBABWEAN scientists believe biotechnology has the potential to transform the country’s economy into a hub of innovative ideas and development if more resources are set aside for the emerging scientific discipline.
Scientists who attended the just-ended blue ribbon National Biotechnology Authority workshop to celebrate the country’s achievements, capabilities and talents in the field of biotechnology say Zimbabwe must fully embrace biotechnology to find solutions to some of the country’s problems.
Modern biotechnology, they say, when integrated with new technologies such as ICT can help to improve the country’s health delivery system, agricultural production, enhance environmental conditions and expand new industries in the biotechnology sector.
"GM crops now constitute a sizeable percentage of global agriculture. The technology is flourishing," said Prof Christopher Chetsanga, president of the Zimbabwe Academy of Sciences.
"Biotechnology is creating for us, GM crops that contain human vaccines in their leaves, seeds and roots and even in the fruits of some plants. I want Zimbabwean scientists to embrace biotechnology. They must go to bed with biotechnology, sleep with this wife called biotechnology.
"We have the brains, we have the genetic resources and institutions for research. I want to know what are we waiting for?
"I want to see Zimbabwe truly embrace biotechnology so that we sleep in the same bed with it. At the moment we are watching its attractiveness from the sidelines," said Prof Chetsanga.
He said developing countries such as Cuba, Brazil, Argentina, India, South Africa among others have seen the advantages of using modern biotechnology to solve problems in the agricultural, medical, environmental and energy sectors.
These countries, he said, showed that biotechnology can offer Zimbabwe an opportunity to address food security problems through the development of drought-tolerant, pest-resistant and flood-tolerant animal and crop varieties.
In Africa, only Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania,
Zambia and Zimbabwe have granted approval for field trials.
AfricaBio, a biotechnology stakeholders association, estimates that the global area of approved biotech crops in 2005 was 90 million hectares, equivalent to an annual growth rate 11 percent in 2005.
Countries growing biotech crops are increasing every year. In 2005, 21 countries grew biotech crops, up from 17 in 2004.
At the workshop, Zimbabwean scientists strongly backed biotechnology despite the growing antiGMO movement that is against the wider application genetic engineering in food production, research and commerce.
"I think people must realise the benefits of this biotechnology," said Dr Dahlia Garwe, a researcher at the Tobacco Research Board, "Biotechnology is quite promising and offering scope for tackling some of the greatest challenges of the 21st century.
"Of course, there are some known and some unknown risks, but lets use science and not emotion to promote biotechnology," she said in a broadside on antiGMO activists.
Scientific voices at the workshop, which also sought to draw a road map for the development of a vibrant biotechnology sector in Zimbabwe, were unanimous that Zimbabwe should fully embrace biotechnology and tread the path that India, China, Cuba, Brazil and South Africa have taken.
"The fastest moving nation in this regard (modern biotechnology) is China, our ‘Look East’ policy partner," said Prof Chetsanga, "I keep hoping that Zimbabwe will form a smart partnership with China (in biotechnology)."
China, he said, has developed 141 types of GM crops and out of these, approximately 65 GM crops are undergoing field trials.
"My smart partnership challenge to this audience today is that our trading partners are using modern biotechnology to both feed themselves and enrich themselves," said Prof Chetsanga.
"These friends are South Africa from whom we import GM maize to meet our food import requirements and China from where we have ordered 4 000 tonnes of GM soya beans for our cooking oil. Why can’t we form smart partnerships with our friends so as to strengthen our balance of trade?
"What prevents us from going into biotechnology at full throttle? We have all the enabling legislative provisions to guide. We have the National Biotechnology Authority to supervise the field trials. What are we waiting for? he asked.
Dr Garwe said it was important to allay fears over biotechnology by providing accurate and relevant facts about the GM crops and consumers’ concern of biosafety and food safety.
Genetic modification provides a method of identifying and transferring particular characteristics to living organisms making it possible to use genes from widely different organisms such as bacteria and plants to improve crops.
The term ‘genetically modified organisms’ (GMO) often refers to the products of this new technology. The process does not occur through mating or natural recombination but through the insertion of genes responsible for a particular trait into a plant or micro-organism.
An example of a GMO is Bt maize. This is a type of maize crop that has been altered to contain a gene from a bacterium that gives it builtin resistance to the maize stalk borer.
Scientists who strongly advocate biotechnology say this new process provides tools for the development of agriculture, food processing, medical and environmental sectors.
They argue that when appropriately integrated with other technologies for the production of food, agricultural products and services, biotechnology can be of significant assistance in meeting the needs of an expanding and increasingly urbanised population in Africa.
"We have the capability, we have the motivation and brains to develop the biotechnology industry in Zimbabwe," said Mr Abisai Mafa, acting chief executive officer of the NBA.
"We are just missing the link between raw materials and the intellectual capacity to develop biotechnology."
His organisation, he said, wants the biotechnology sector to contribute 20 percent of GDP by 2020.
"The future is green. The future is biotechnology and together we can make biotechnology a household name."
The Minister of Science and Technology Development, Dr Olivia Muchena said there was need for scientists to strategise and find novel ways of mobilising resources for research and development.
"We are a country rich in natural resources. Equally true is the fact that we do have some of the best brains. To make money out of our resources and talents, we need to deliberate, targeted and visionary investment in science, technology and innovation," she said.
"We have the creative gene, all we need to do is to look at the Great Zimbabwe Monument. The creativity of our ancestors is a source of inspiration for us.
"We want to inspire the young generation, to create in them a science culture rooted on science soil," Dr Muchena said.
The Government contributes about 0,5 percent of GDP annually to biotechnology research, development and application.
Dr Muchena urged industrialists to provide the other 0,5 percent to increase funding for scientific activities to one percent.
During a question and answer session, veteran plant breeder Dr Joseph Mushonga asked what strategies had been put in place to protect consumers from terminator technologies.
University of Zimbabwe biochemist Prof Idah Sithole-Niang allayed fears over terminator technologies.
"The technology is not in commercialised products, so there is no technology that is coming into the country," she said.
Frederick Mandizvidza, chief executive officer of the African Institute of Biomedical Research and Training (AiBST) said he strongly believed that Africa’s tragic underdevelopment can be rectified through rapid investment in biotechnology research and development.
He said Africans should be geared to manufacture their own drugs, and it was worrying that the continent was the dump
Labels: BIOTECHNOLOGY, THE HERALD, ZIMBABWE
posted by MrK @ 3:51 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home