B4FA – The Week in Review

14 August 2013

This week the discussion of plant genetics in Africa focuses largely on genetic modification, including stories (both audio and print) on former anti-GMO campaigner Mark Lynas and the news that Ghana is testing four GM crops in confined field trials.  One journalist analyses African countries’ reluctance to adopt these new crops though there are signs of small changes in Ghana and Nigeria.On this timely topic, B4FA Media Fellow Christopher Bendana (Uganda) asks whether biotechnology is the future in Uganda.  In Ghana Kofi Adu Domfeh engages this question as does Abdallah El-Kurebe in Nigeria.  In Tanzania, Victor Karega tackles this topic in English while Samson Kamalamo addresses it in Swahili.

Please read on for even more interesting articles from this week!  As always, we welcome your feedback at [email protected] or molly@theb4fa.org.

Biosciences and Plant Genetics

Rice gene digs deep to triple yields in drought
SciDev.net

Should we embrace GM food? – five-minute video debate
The Guardian (UK)

Ghana testing four genetically modified crops
GhanaWeb

AUDIO: Mark Lynas, former anti-GMO campaigner turned pro-GMO (Script)
UBC, by B4FA Media Fellow Richard Katami Bwayo

Most of Africa ‘not positive’ about growing genetically modified crops
BDLive

Ghana

Eating to live: debate on growing GM crops rife in Ghana
Gender and youth prioritized under Dryland Systems in agriculture
ModernGhana.com, by B4FA Media Fellow Kofi Adu Domfeh

Ghanaian journalists trained in Biotechnology
GNA

Nigeria

Why Government Must Listen to Farmers on Agric Biotech
News Diary Online, by B4FA Media Fellow Abdallah el-Kurebe

Tanzania

Anti-GMO activist makes up-turn, urges Africa to adopt technology
TZ at risk of plant diseases, say experts
University researches on legumes
The Citizen, by B4FA Media Fellow Victor Karega

Teknolijia katika kilimo kuikomboa Tanzania (in Swahili – Agricultural technology liberates Tanzania)
Chuo cha Mandela kuwakomboa watanzania? (in Swahili – Can Mandela College save Tanzania?)
Changamoto, by B4FA Media Fellow Samson Kamalamo

Cassava: Kilimo Programme (in Swahili)
Radio Al-Noor FM Zanzibar, by B4FA Media Fellow Japes Kasimu

Uganda

Is biotechnology the answer to our agricultural problems?
Saturday Vision, by B4FA Media Fellow Christopher Bendana

AUDIO story: Cotton researchers in Malawi, recording at FARA conference
UBC, by B4FA Media Fellow Sarah Natoolo