Public awareness critical
Scientist or microbiologist adds fertilizer to the soil.
What you need to know:
- Advancements in food and agricultural science have been the hallmark of ensuring global food security in the developed world.
- Biotechnology awareness is already high among consumers in the US, Canada and Western Europe.
The science of producing food and other crops has a significant role in feeding the growing global population and prosperity in nations but the debate around it is controversial. Debate on biotechnology, or bio-engineered food production, is contentious, even political.
A recent survey in Kenya revealed that, despite many respondents being aware of biotechnology, most were unaware of how this science works and its place in enhancing food security.
Also, most were keen to learn more about agricultural biotechnology, their current perceptions notwithstanding.
Kenya has made strides by enacting the Biosafety Act 2009 and establishing the National Biosafety Authority, regulations and policies. Also, policymakers have endeavoured to establish a functional system to tap into the potential of food science to ensure enough food supply to meet growing demand.
But continuous public awareness on the subject has been the missing link. The authority should create awareness on the country’s biotechnology status and why it’s important for us and allay fears among the Kenyans who mistrust the science.
Food security
Advancements in food and agricultural science have been the hallmark of ensuring global food security in the developed world. It has also had a significant role in commercial agriculture.
Being among key economic drivers, there is a need to learn about the emerging global trends being widely applied and embrace those that fit us. Biotechnology awareness is already high among consumers in the US, Canada and Western Europe, where we can learn vital lessons, but low in the rest of the world.
Our agricultural sector faces a myriad challenges that call for innovation to guarantee food security — like poor seed quality, climate change effects, crop pests and diseases, over-reliance on rain-fed agriculture and lack of modern farming techniques.
Biotechnology promises to do for agriculture what mobile technology has done for communication, late Prof Calestous Juma wrote in 2012. There is a role for Kenyan innovators to make biotechnology promote economic inclusion in the same way as ICT.
Mr Obonyo is a public policy analyst. [email protected]
