Embrace biotechnology for food safety, security — Panellists

Scientists have advocated that Ghana embraces biotechnology and nuclear techniques, including mutation breeding, tissue culture application for multiplication in ensuring food safety and security.

They said the world, especially the agriculture value chain system, was evolving very fast which made it mandatory for the country to adopt new techniques to fight hunger and diseases.

But these should be underpinned by good agric practices, including soil management  systems.

The scientists, Chief Research Scientist, Department of Nuclear Agriculture and Radiation Processing (NARP), School of Nuclear and Allied Sciences, Abraham Adu-Gyamfi;  Prof. Kwesi Salia, a Food Scientist, and Dr Fidelis Ocloo, Deputy Director, Biotechnology and Nuclear Agriculture Research Institute (BNARI) of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), were contributing to a panel discussion on "Atoms4food: Ensure safe and nutritious food for better life and better future."

It was to mark this year's World Food Day.

World Food Day 

World Food Day is marked every October 16  by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation to raise awareness about hunger around the world.

According to the UN there are around 733 million people facing hunger in the world because of a number of different factors.

In explaining the proposed mutation breeding, Mr Adu-Gyamfi said the process was exposing seeds to chemicals, radiation or enzymes in order to generate mutants with desirable traits to be bred with other cultivars.

He said plants created using mutagenesis were sometimes called mutagenic plants or mutagenic seeds.

He said there was the need to also focus on stable isotopes in the management of soil water and efficient use of fertilizer.

Also used was sterile insect techniques to control insect pests to limit their negative impacts on crop production.

Dr Ocloo insisted that food was a human rights issue as recognised by the United Nations, adding that globally about 900 million people were facing food insecurity.

He called for interventions from all sides to ensure access to safe food and nutritious food for all.

The panellists agreed that one in 10 people around the world fell ill after eating contaminated food, leading to an estimated $110 billion lost each year in productivity and medication on humans.

The three panellists were alarmed at the effects of galamsey on farmlands and the use of polluted water on crops.

Such practices could lead to heavy metals in food produced from such areas which have negative consequences on the health of the people.

They also expressed worry at the abuse of agro chemical products which contaminated the food.

Prof. Salia proposed continuous innovation in coming up with new crop varieties which were disease resistant.

Also in ensuring all year farming and the availability of safe food, he said post harvest management should be taken seriously to promote food security.

DG

As a prelude to the discussion, the Director-General of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), Prof. Samuel B. Dampare, called for abundance of nutrition food for all which must be produced in an environmentally friendly and sustainable manner.

"We should be rigorous in communicating research findings in a manner that ordinary persons can appreciate," he said.