Experts have said the introduction of bio-technology in agriculture sector in African countries could help increase yields in cash and food crops.<\/p>\n
Bio-technology is any technological application that uses biological systems and living organisms to produce useful products.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the opening of an Africa leadership course on strategic planning and grassroots, Tanzania\u2019s former Minister of Energy and Minerals, Adam Kalima pointed out that if used correctly, bio-technology could give a solution to food insecurity which has affected most countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are crops that are resistant to drought and it\u2019s a must have if we are to achieve food security. If we continue to do farming in this ridiculous way, we are likely to experience more trouble.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only problem with this at the moment is the fact that ordinary farmers do not know about this and are likely to have had a negative attitude already but they need to be taught on the benefits,\u201d said Kalima.<\/p>\n
Malawi National Commission for Science and Technology Programme Manager for Bio-safety Systems Boniface Mkoko said bio-technology is one of the instrumental tools to assist in crop production.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou may have noticed that over time there has been low production of crops. This has been the case because some crops are attacked by pests and diseases,\u201d Mkoko said.<\/p>\n
Mkoko said studies have shown great potential of Bt cotton (a biotechnology cotton seed). He revealed that these confined field cotton trials were done at Luanar, Chitala, Kasinthula and Makoka agricultural research stations and Toleza farm in Balaka.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe results were submitted to environmental affairs department\u2019s bio-safety registrar for further assessment, thereafter this will go to ministry of agriculture and the whole process may take two years,\u201d he said, adding that Luanar is also conducting another confined trial on cow peas.<\/p>\n
All these crops which are undergoing biotechnology trials are under attack of pests and diseases. Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development has also submitted an application on similar trials at Bvumbwe and Nkombezi agriculture research stations. Malawian bananas have been attacked by banana bunchy top disease a development which has contributed to the scarcity of the fruit.<\/p>\n
Malawi has the national and requirements which also meet international standards for conducting studies on genetically modified crops (biotech crops) in place. It has a national biotechnology and biosafety policy which was approved by cabinet in 2008 and a biosafety act<\/p>\n
The course has been organised by Cornell Alliance for science and it has gathered participants from Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Experts have said the introduction of bio-technology in agriculture sector in African countries could help increase yields in cash and food crops. Bio-technology is any technological application that uses biological systems and living organisms to produce useful products. Speaking at the opening of an Africa leadership course on strategic planning and grassroots, Tanzania\u2019s former Minister […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22238"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22244,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22238\/revisions\/22244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}