NEWS IN GHANA

About 80 selected students drawn from 8 senior high schools within the Northern Region have benefited under a 1-day sensitization workshop on Biotechnology at the Nyankpala campus of the University of Development Studies in Tamale They were ten participants each drawn from eight selected schools within Tamale, Tolon and Kumbungu respectively in the Northern Region.   “It was fashioned to sensitize students on job prospects in the field of Biotechnology and to encourage them to enroll in the subject for a better future” Dr. Margaret Ottah Atikpo, Focal Person of OFAB-Ghana Chapter has said. Biotechnology is the use of scientific methods to produce genetically modified food crops that are more pest, disease and drought resistant and with short maturity periods. It is a technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms or derivatives to make or modify products or processes for specific uses. The technology unfortunately has su

 by Joseph Kobla Wemakor (aglahsoliner@yahoo.com) The Former Director General of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Ghana (CSIR) Prof. Walter Sandow Alhassan has urged farmers to reject claims against Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) seeds by Anti-GMO groups that it is harmful and accepting it would amounts to “seed colonisation and seed slavery". Prof. Walter S. Alhassan According to him, those groups do not have any scientific proof or knowledge to offer when it comes to Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) technology therefore should be abhorred.   GMOs have generated huge controversy in Ghana since 2013 after the Ghanaian government announced its introduction into the country that same year.   Several activists groups including Food Sovereignty Ghana, the Coalition for Farmers Rights and other individuals have kicked against it describing it as harmful and a threat to human life.   Other Anti-GMO groups till date have rejecte