SCIENTISTS in the country want the strict Liabilities Act under the Environmental Management Act (2004) repealed to enable them start research on how the country can start using genetically engineered crops.
Speaking to ‘Daily News’ in Dar es Salaam, the chief researcher at Bio Self, Mr Peter Bagenda, urged that the government should institute a policy that allows agricultural scientists to conduct research and trials on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in different research centres.
He said that the Act under the Environmental Management Act does not allow the application of such research and that it should therefore be amended.”Scientists are interested in carrying out that research, but first, a change in legislation and policy should put in place that framework that allows the use of GMOs by researchers in the fields,” he said.
According to the Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, Eng Mbogo Futakamba, scientists have already conducted research on improved crops but notes that the existing legal framework has to be ammended to allow their application.
He noted that some research was being carried out on maize known as wema, cassava to identify whether they were resistant to diseases, pests and also drought-tolerant crops before using them to improve agriculture.
Recently, the Minister for Water and Irrigation, Professor Jumanne Maghembe, said the government recognised the potential of modern biotechnology in reviving the country’s cotton industry.
He argued that GMOs were one way to increase productivity and boost the income of African farmers and challenged scientists to do research to find out if GMOs are harmful to humans and the environment. “For example, cotton is not a food crop.
Why don’t we start with that so that we can increase yields and help farmers earn more from this crop?” he asked. This week, the bid to introduce genetically engineered technology got a boost in a meeting convened by the Ministry of State in the Vice- President’s Office responsible for Environment in Dar es Salaam, for stakeholders across the country.
Stakeholders immediately view cotton as the first crop in which genetic engineering should be introduced, to scale up production six-fold, among farmers and subsequent export.
In an interview, the Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) Senior Programme Officer for Agriculture, Dr Nicholas Nyange, told ‘Daily News ’ that from a number of interactions government had benefited from this technology, he understands they are working ways out on how such can assist here.
University of Dar es Salaam don, Dr Lenny Kasoga, told ‘Daily News ’ that the same way mobile technology has revitalized the communications industry in the country, biotechnology carries with it great potential to advance the agriculture sector.
Cotton was among best performing industries but it declined in the early 1990s due to an influx of cheap second- hand clothes, high cost of production, low purchase price and closure of ginneries previously owned by the government.
Stakeholders also expect that following the recent waiver window given by on Tanzania goods, increase in production of such usually exported produce as cotton would increase Tanzania’s exports. In an interview with ‘Daily News on Saturday’ , Dr Prosper Ngowi, a lecturer at Mzumbe University, said preferential treatment of market access recently given by China to such goods, is expected to increase the country’s exports to that part of Asia.
He said the implications are that Tanzanian businesses that are exporting the items that have received tax exemption will potentially export more to China. But if we are able to export more, it will be good for the economy because export earning will increase and contribute into improving the position of the Balance of Payment, said Dr Ngowi.
From University of Dar es Salaam, economist Dr Lenny Kasoga said there is a need to learn from the AGOA fiasco if the China tax exemption opportunity is to benefit the country and its business community.
The other 80 per cent are exported, thus, revealing a potential source of domestic value addition as an estimated 90 per cent of the profits are obtained abroad, according to Tanzania Cotton Board.
“The introduction of Bt cotton is considered as one of the main avenues to increase yields via the adding on of the licensed germplasm. The other avenue in seed breeding is to develop “new hybrid seeds according to various growing zones,” says Tanzania Cotton Board.
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