Courses and meetings held by Danish scientists in Kenya are building up knowledge and awareness of potential benefits and risk factors of GMO, thus paving the way towards an autonomous decision to introduce GMO into Kenyan fields.

The use of genetically modified organisms (GMO) in agriculture has been met with resistance and uncertainty in many African countries. With currently only one African country, South Africa, having commercialised GM crops, the situation persists.

However, in Kenya, at least, things seem to be changing. The change of heart is due to better knowledge of GM crops, their benefits and consequences – knowledge that has been gleaned from courses and meetings held by, among others, scientists from the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences (DJF) at the University of Aarhus.

The Kenyan government has recently declared that it strongly supports the enactment of a biosafety bill. According to CropBiotech Update, the Agricultural Secretary, Dr. Wilson Songa, says that the government needs biosafety laws to create legal and regulatory structures for governing and managing responsible research, development and deployment of the beneficial products of modern biotechnology to Kenyan farmers and consumers. He laments continued parliamentary delays to the bill.

Via the international, Danida-supported project “BiosafeTrain”, scientists from DJF and the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Copenhagen work together with colleagues in the East African countries Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to raise awareness about GMO. BiosafeTrain aims to contribute to the responsible use of biotechnology by building capacity in biosafety. This is done through training specialists, holding courses and developing infrastructure. The latest biosafety course, held for the personnel of the Kenyan National Environment Management Authority, was opened in Nairobi in November 2007 by the Kenyan Minister of the Environment.

- Lack of food is a serious problem in Africa and it is urgent to find ways to increase the continent’s food production. Use of gene technology is one way to do this. One of the most important challenges in this regard is to get people to understand when and how it is safe to use, explains senior scientist Gabor Lövei from DJF. Gabor Lövei leads the BiosafeTrain Project.

For more information please contact: Senior scientist Gabor Lövei, Department of Integrated Pest Management, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Aarhus, telephone: +45 8999 3636, e-mail: Gabor.Lovei@agrsci.dk

Text: Janne Hansen

Photo: Natural Collection