In a recent interview with Mr. Vitumbiko Chinoko, Project Manager, Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB), he x-rayed the activities of OFAB in Africa, especially in the area of advocacy on the adoption of biotechnology to boost food production on the continent. He also speaks on the future of Africa food production as the message of the technology is gaining ground in Africa. COLLINS NNABUIFE brings excerpts.
DO you think OFAB has done well in Africa on advocacy and what area do you think can be improved to have a wider adoption of biotechnology?
I will say that OFB has done well, we have been in 10 countries and we are expanding to six more countries where we do not have presence, so in total we are in 16 countries and that is quite unprecedented in terms of expansion, also in those countries, we have seen progress, we have seen progress in Mozambique in southern Africa where they have commercialised maize, we have seen progress in Ethiopia where they have commercialised cotton and very soon they will be commercialising the maize, we have seen progress in Nigeria where there is a commercialisation of Cotton, cowpea and maize. In Kenya, they have commercialised cotton and very soon, they will be commercialising maize and cassava.
So, if you ask me what we have been doing right, I will say we have had an impact. In terms of where we need improvement as OFAB will start engaging the youth from an earlier age in terms of the benefits of biotechnology. So we want to go into the schools and universities and sensitize them on what biotechnology is all about and that is going to help where they don’t get to interact with biotechnology way later and then become liable to anti-GMO activism.
The second one is that everywhere we have gone, we have noted that we have been able to make progress because politicians have understood the role of biotechnology in the overall development of the country, engaging politicians who are architects of policy, and economic visions of their countries is actually very important. So, we want to ensure that we have dedicated resources geared towards engaging our local leaders, be it politicians, policymakers, but they need to understand that biotechnology has a role in the development of a country.
The last thing that we really want to do is to enhance our engagement with faith leaders so that they will know that some of the misconception about us, that we are doing biotechnology and competing with God, there is nothing of that such, we cannot compete with God, we love God and we appreciate what he has done for us, what we are doing is simply using the wisdom God has given us to continue to make the lives of Africans better, this why we are doing this technology and we are not competing with God. We want to pass that message to our religious leaders so that they can also pass it across to their congregation, therefore we will continue to manage anti-GMO activists.
Those will be the three things in the next four years where we want to do more and not forget where we come from, so the use of the media for instance is very critical in helping us push that agenda.
What do you think can be done more to change the mindset of Africans towards this technology?
One of the things I feel we can do is to ensure that we intensify education awareness and the general engagement with different stakeholders. The problem we have had for a long time is that researchers have operated from their own space, farmers on the other hand have operated in their own space, and policymakers have also operated in their own space.
So, one of the things that we need to do is to ensure that we have these kinds of engagements together so that as a country you create what they call shared vision on biotechnology, you will identify what you want to use biotechnology for, how to use and how to invest in the technology. My biggest point has always been that most of the times we have seen investments on biotechnology come from outside, the only part that we have done as Africans and we have done that very well is to train scientists. We train scientists but we have not provided them with the tools to be able to practise. And what has happened is that because we have not been able to give them the tools to practise, some of the technologies they happen to practise are from outside. What we are saying is that when you have a shared vision, you will be able to say Nigeria in terms of agriculture, this is how we want to use biotechnology, this is how much we want to invest in biotechnology, and this is also the number of laboratories that we are going to put up.
My point is that we need to localise this agenda as much as possible and that localisation starts with us putting our own resources into that technology and then we can start to develop our own technology.
Are we not looking for a way to harmonise biosafety regulation especially on a regional basis?
We are already looking at that and the ECOWAS has moved in that direction this why in the ECOWAS rule, after three countries have commercialized their crop, then the other countries will take it much easier, so we are hoping for example now that we have cowpea in Nigeria and Ghana, maybe we can have Burkina Faso into that, invoking that rule will mean that other countries can adopt it with less rigorous processes.
It is very important that we do not want to be an impediment for countries coming up with their own regulations, it is very important. Let the countries come up with their own regulations. Let these products be regulated and if they are changing anything in terms of regulation, it is in the interest of the country. ECOWAS is moving in that direction; East Africa is also moving in that direction, but it is very important that all these things get grounded at the national level. So, we are moving in that direction, we may not be moving in the speed of light, but we are moving in that direction.
What is the future of Africa with biotechnology?
The future is bright, when you look at the number of Sub-Saharan Africa, before it was only South Africa, but now there are some couple of countries in all parts of Africa embracing this technology, it can only point to greater future, what we can do going forward is to ensure that we invest in this technology so that we rid of all these external shades that it has which are not true. So for me, the future of Africa with biotechnology is really great.
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