Accra, Jan. 29, GNA – Mrs Florence Nazare, the Acting Director of Knowledge Management and Programme Evaluation, at the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) says Africa’s ability to embrace emerging technology solutions will fuel rapid growth.
She noted that science solutions including the Ged tool, as part of modern biotechnology, could reduce the cost of production and processing in agriculture.
Mrs Nazare who was speaking at the opening of a two-day training workshop for communicators on Genome Editing (GEd) in Accra said climate crisis impacts like drought that affect crop production could be addressed by developing a short duration or drought resistance seed for farmers.
GEd is a method that allows scientists to change the DNA of many organisms, including plants, bacteria, and animals.
In the agriculture sector, genome-editing technologies enable targeted precise changes to genomes and can improve a wide range of crop plants, including those that underpin food security in low- and middle-income countries.
The workshop was organised by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), on behalf of the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) with funding and technical support from AUDA-NEPAD under the Genome Editing project.
Mrs Nazare said the livelihood of its people could be improved and achieve its goals through emerging technologies to support food systems, enhance the value chain and drive the development agenda.
“African science has to lead in socio-economic development,” she said.
Mrs Nazare urged African governments to mobilize resources domestically to drive their development agenda by dedicating a budget to build human resources and infrastructure.
Mr. Kwamena Essilfie Quaison, the Director of Science, Technology, and Innovation at MESTI said the trust of the public should be built in opportunities in science and technology solutions.
The public, he stated, must know the importance of emerging technologies as modern biotechnology plays in the country’s development agenda.
Mr Quaison said Ghana’s Genome Editing Communication and Advocacy document had been finalised and is ready for implementation.
Mr Eric Amanning Okoree, the Executive Director of the National Biosafety Authority, said the country had a Biosafety law, which captured emerging technologies, which included Genome Editing.
He said the law, passed years ago, foresaw that there would be an era with these emerging technologies, therefore, these documents would go into detail to outline the procedures to be followed to ensure that the products and the environment were safe and healthy, providing guiding applicants and regulators as well.
This he said would enable scientists and researchers who wanted to add a gene to any product or anything they would be working on would have to follow and be guided by these guidelines to ensure that the proper procedures and protocols are duly followed.
Professor Paul P. Bosu, the Director-General of CSIR, in a speech read on his behalf, said effective communication was one of the surest vehicles to create awareness about Ged and engender confidence in its products.
“This is why this communication training workshop must be deemed as an important step towards operationalising Ghana’s National Genome Editing Communication and Advocacy Strategy and ensuring that the Strategy achieves its expected objectives and outcomes,” he said.
GNA