Posted on August, 30, 2021 at 01:25 am
NAIROBI, Kenya Aug 29 – Though gene editing portends immense value for Kenya and the African continent, the gains could be lost without trust-building outreach to farmers and consumers.
Since farmers and consumers are key beneficiaries of agricultural technology, they must not be left out of the conversation, says a Kenyatta University professor. The key lies in the simplicity of the messaging.
“We need to start thinking very basic,” said Professor Richard Oduor, an associate professor of molecular biology at in the university’s Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology & Biotechnology. “We need to start thinking about the farmers.”
Scientists need to change how they interface with farmers and other members of society, Odour said. “How do farmers and the government, for instance, look at genome editing? Do they find it as trendy as we do? And if that isn’t the case, where are we going wrong?”
It is imperative that scientists and policy makers also loop the youth into the agriculture agenda, an objective that would be achieved by communicating the subject in a language that appeals to this demographic, he said. Similarly targeted messaging must be deployed in reaching out to the political class.
A number of biotechnological innovations have been pitched in Kenya, all looking good on paper, but in all practicality, that’s where it ends.
“I wonder if it is the strategy we use for communicating these new technologies that is the problem,” he said in trying to explain the lack of uptake. “Do we approach it in a language or a manner that is not necessarily exciting? Or is it that we have very good ideas but misplaced strategies?”
Genetic modification (GM), which preceded gene editing and has been widely seen as one answer to Africa’s crippling food insecurity, has hardly scraped the surface of its potential as evidenced by the relatively small number of crops that have been genetically modified in the country.
“GMO has been here since 1998,” Professor Oduor told a gathering of researchers and stakeholders in Naivasha, Kenya. “Almost 33 years later, we still don’t have much to show for it”.
Source: Capital FM