Wednesday, 15 January 2014 07:24
Last November, the National
Agricultural Research Organization (Naro) took concrete steps towards
beating off any opposition to the draft bio-technology and bio-safety
legislation, commonly referred to as GMO Bill, The Observer has learnt.
Naro wrote to the NGO board complaining
about several non-governmental organisations and civil society groups
opposed to the bill. The Observer has learnt that many critical NGOs
risk being de-registered following Naro's letter. Naro also complained
to Makerere University about some of its lecturers, who had taken to
demonizing the bill.
The activists, working under a loose
alliance named Food Rights Alliance, are behind a media campaign against
the bill now before Parliament. Promoters of the bill want government
to block the NGOs' "illegal acts."
The Naro letter, dated November 8, 2013,
follows an earlier one, of May 17, 2013, by the Uganda Bio-technology
and Bio-safety consortium. This particular letter, addressed to Makerere
University Vice Chancellor John Ddumba-Ssentamu, urged him to act on
the staff opposed to the bill. The consortium singled out Dr Giregon
Olupot, a soil scientist, for his fierce opposition to the bill.
"The essence of this communication is to
bring to your attention these serious issues and request you to take
action on these persons to stop such illegal actions that portray
Makerere University negatively," reads the consortium's letter in part.
This letter was followed by another one from Naro. According to the head
of bio-technology at Naro, Dr Andrew Kiggundu, the letter was not
intended to cause the sacking of anyone.
"Our intention is not to have the staff
dismissed but we want the university to have control over their
statements because they might be construed to be the universityís
official position," Dr Kiggundu said.
Radio announcements
Naro is particularly unhappy about
advertisements on various radio stations across the country that it says
portray the organisation negatively.
"Naro is concerned about the radio
announcements that claim that we are poisoning Ugandans, we want the
NGOs to substantiate these claims, we want to find out from the funders
of that advert whether they have evidence," Kiggundu said.
The anti-GMO activists have been running
radio adverts, facilitated by ActionAid, VEDCO (Volunteer Efforts for
Development Concerns) and SEATINI (Southern and Eastern African Trade,
Information and Negotiations Institute) calling on the electorate to
lobby their MPs to reject the bill.
"Our research methods, technology
testing and release are well documented; it is, therefore, shocking to
hear some of the allegations aired in the mass media by some NGOs. There
have been allegations that Naro technologies cause cancer and
infertility. I wonder what research they have done to make this
conclusion or which specific Naro technology they are referring to,"
read the letter, signed by Naro Director General Emily Twinamasiko, who
has since passed on.
Twinamasikoís letter to the Chairman of
Uganda National NGO Board lists ActionAid, Pelum Uganda (Participatory
Ecological Land Use Management), ESAFF (Eastern and Southern Africa
Small Scale Farmersí Forum), VEDCO, SEATINI and CAPCA ñ which are known
to be critical of the bill.
"As an agency of government, our outputs
are monitored by the ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and
Fisheries, and the Office of the Prime Minister. I don't know whether
any of these NGOs get clearance from any of these authorities to make
such statements." he wrote.
"I request you to warn these NGOs to
desist from sabotaging government programmes and disadvantaging Ugandans
in accessing improved technologies through broadcast of false and scary
information. You should also task them to provide evidence for their
pronouncements," Twinamasiko added.
ActionAid's advert is said to have
infuriated government the most, especially because it criticized Naro
for piloting GMOs even before the passing of the bill. But the NGOs
insist they have done nothing wrong.
"The advert is telling the electorate to
urge their leaders not to pass the bill in its current form and ask for
a law that takes into consideration non-GMO alternatives. We believe
that Ugandans need information, and we are creating this awareness
because policy formulation should involve the common people," says
ActionAidís Fredrick Kawooya.Ugandan scientists naïve about GMOs
Sunday, 30 June 2013 20:35
I read with amazement the attacks of prominent
pro-GMOs Ugandan scientists on Dr Opiyo Oloya’s criticisms of GMOs in your
article titled ‘Academics and activists clash over GMO bill’.
Atim insists that biotechnology is the way to go
and therefore, the Bio-safety Bill, which is under parliamentary scrutiny, is
just timely. Atim’s thinking that commercialisation of agriculture is
synonymous with introduction of GMOs, is an error in reasoning. Many countries
have commercialised organic farming that has guaranteed their populations food
security.
Atim is not aware that according to Uganda’s plan for the modernisation of
agriculture, the private sector is the fulcrum of Uganda’s economy. This simply means
that once the Bio-technology and Bio-safety Bill is passed, private
multinational players will have a leeway into this enterprise; after all, they
are the experts when it comes to GMOs.
She opines that Uganda is leading the world in
organic farming by default. Atim needs to be aware that Uganda is not
leading by default but by divine providence. She does not tell us what will
happen to farmers who cannot afford the low-priced genetically modified seeds
that will be supplied to farmers.
In the same article, Jacqueline Nyagahima, head
of information and communication of Action for Agricultural Research in Eastern
and Central Africa (ASARECA), believes poverty is what will enslave generations
of Ugandan farmers if the country doesn’t harness and embrace science.
Her argument that Uganda has very capable and
responsible scientists, who will not let us down once the Biotectenology and
Biosafety bill is passed, is laughable. Isn’t Uganda one of the most corrupt
countries in the world? What makes one think that being a scientist is
synonymous with being ethical and having integrity?
How many Ugandan scientists will stand up to
protect Uganda’s
God-given organic heritage when Monsanto invests billions of dollars purposely
to kill this organic heritage?
Monsanto’s Technology Organisation, is a
multi-functional, multi-crop organisation comprised of four broad areas, one of
which is Biotechnology, which is responsible for the discovery, development,
and integration of novel genes into superior hybrids and varieties developed by
breeding to create new traits such as herbicide tolerance, insect resistance,
drought tolerance, higher yield and increased nutrition.
The Ugandan scientists should be aware that GMO
introduction escalates poverty because it dismantles the organic seed heritage
that the farmers depend on from season to season. Arguments that the scientists
are not working at the call of any multinational, that they are working towards
freeing Ugandans from the shackles of hunger and malnutrition, is oblivious of
the fact that Ugandan scientists are some of the most underpaid in the world.
It is surprising that Ugandan scientists are very
ignorant of economic globalisation and naively think that they can play an
isolationist role when it comes to agricultural research. Ugandan scientists
need to know that what causes hunger in Uganda is not food scarcity but,
rather, poor distribution and planning.
The people in Karamoja, for instance, are dying
of hunger as a lot of food is thrown away elsewhere in Uganda. It is surprising that the
government has completely done away with the idea of food reservoirs (silos).
Therefore, once GMOs are legally introduced in Uganda, research in improving organic food
varieties by Ugandan scientists will die a natural death and the entry and control
of Uganda’s
agricultural research by multinationals like Monsanto will be inevitable.
Ugandan scientists need to be honest and patriotic as regards the protection of
Uganda’s
food
The author is a lecturer at Kyambogo University.
