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GHANA – The National Biosafety Authority (NBA) has received a new application from researchers at the Council for Industrial and Scientific Research (CSIR) and the Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) in Ghana asking for permission to add a second gene to the cry1Ab that has already been inserted into the Bt cowpea. According to them, the new cry2Ab gene will…
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GHANA – Ghana’s National Biosafety Authority (NBA) has ticked the import and use of genetically engineered (GE) Bt cowpea event 709A culminating a process which begun in 2008. The Authority had in March sought public opinion to enable them make an informed decision in the approval process. The GM crop is expected to help farmers dramatically reduce their use of…
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KENYA – Just a month after Nigeria published regulations for genome editing in the country, Kenya has also made a bold step towards regulating the sector, becoming the second African country to do so. Kenya’s National Biosafety Authority (NBA) has published gene editing guidelines to provide clarity on which genome-edited organisms and/or derived products will be regulated under Kenya’s Biosafety…
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GHANA – The National Biosafety Authority (NBA), Ghana, has held a one-day sensitization forum on modern biotechnology for 20 district agricultural officers at Abokobi, in the Ga East Municipality of the Greater Accra Region. The forum was meant to enhance the knowledge of participants on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) and its regulation in Ghana. Participants were drawn from Ministry of…
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GHANA – Ghana’s biosafety regulator, the National Biosafety Authority (NBA) is entreating the public to submit comments as it assesses an application to approve the country’s first genetically modified crop — the pod borer-resistant (PBR) cowpea. The application, which follows almost 10 years of research, was submitted to the NBA by government scientists at the Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI)…
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GHANA – The National Biosafety Authority (NBA) and the Ministry of Science and Technology, which regulate Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), have declared that only proven scientific knowledge and not misinformation will inform their decision on whether to permit the open cultivation of the GM pod borer-resistant (PBR) cowpea. Research to produce Ghana’s variety of GM cowpea has been ongoing since…
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KENYA – Kenya has become the first country globally to give a green light to the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) cassava, capable of resisting the destructive cassava brown streak disease (CBSD). CBSD is a viral disease spread by whiteflies and infected cuttings, which leads to devastating losses of up to 98 percent for cassava farmers in Kenya. Cassava is…
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