Scientists are advocating for the adoption of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to help address challenges in Ghana’s agricultural sector.
According to them, this will bring relief to the Ghanaian people.
Their recommendation comes after concerns about the impact on major imports, such as agricultural produce. The large imports by traders have partly been blamed for the continuous fall in the cedi value.
Speaking in an interview, a Senior Research Scientist at the CSIR-Savanna Agricultural Research Institute, Dr. Jerry Nbotine, indicated that making good use of agricultural biotechnology will maximise production and reduce food imports.
“Biotechnology is actually one of the safest things that can help us as a country get to where we want to go. Other countries have exploited that technology and benefited immensely from it. The experiences are there. Let’s take advantage of it, maximise production, and reduce food imports so that we don’t cry so much about the falling value of the cedi,” he remarked on GTV.
Dr. Nbotine warned that Ghana faces food security challenges that need to be addressed.
“We have very serious challenges. We are just in Accra here. Now just start driving from Circle all the way to Amasaman, Nsawam. It’s just continuous houses. Do you see agricultural lands there? The rate at which our population is increasing in Africa, by 2050 our population will reach about 2.6 billion. That’s about a 91% increase over the 2020 figures. That is serious. So once you are converting your agricultural lands to housing, that means that the food areas that you have for production, you have to maximise the yields from these particular areas.”
“Nutrients in our soils have been highly depleted because we keep cultivating the same piece of land year in and year out. So when our farmers grow the crops, no matter the best-performing variety that they grow, they cannot get the kind of yield that you are looking for. And that is where technology comes in to make sure that if you have an acre of land, you can maximise your yield such that you don’t just feed your family but you can also sell the excess to feed others who are not in production.”
On his part, the Deputy Director of the CSIR-Crops Research Institute, Dr. Maxwell Darko Asante, asserted that GMOs are safer for the environment.
“Most of the GM have been transformed so that you actually use less pesticides in the environment. They are even safer, but for us plant breeders, GMOs are just one of the technologies available to us, so it gives us more power and options to do more. If you ask your scientists not to work on GMOs, you are taking one major means out, and it’s powerful means which is very safe for the environment as well.”
In his view, stopping food imports will contain the cedi’s depreciation.
“Our scientists are working hard to make us food secure and also stop all these imports that are causing our cedi to fall.”
The scientists debunked claims that eating GMOs causes cancer, calling it a myth, and pushed for the commercialisation of GM crops.
