Nairobi, Kenya
February 12, 2009
Source:
Africa Science
News Service
Kenya’ s President Mwai Kibaki has
today signed into law the biosafety Bill which has been pending
since last December when Parliament passed it after years of
discussions.
The President action now allows regulatory authorities to draw
up regulations that would be used to facilitate implementation
of the Biosafety Act.
The eight government agencies, namely National Environment
Management Authority, the Kenya Bureau of Standards, the Kenya
Plant Health Insepctorate Service, the Public Health, The Kenya
Industrial Property Institute, the Directorate of Veterinary
Service, the National Council for Science and Technology have
been meeting since when the Bill was passed by Parliament in
anticipation of the signing it into law.
Kenya is the most advanced country in East Africa in terms of
GMO research, with crops engineered to be insect or
virus-resistant already in the pipeline.Any biosafety law
eventually adopted in Kenya should also help neighbouring
countries optimise their own biotechnological practices. Indeed,
many are relying on a 'wait and see' approach to biosafety
regulation — looking to Kenya to take the first steps.
As host to the meeting at which the Cartagena Protocol on
Biosafety was opened for signature in 2000, Kenya was the first
country to sign up. Ratification followed in 2003, and the
Biosafety Bill was drafted in 2005 to bring Kenya's law and
practice in line with the protocol.
Meanwhile, three countries in Africa now grow and use GM crops,
this is according to the latest report on the global status of
commercialized biotech/GM crops 2008.
The report released in Nairobi for the first tie by Dr Clive
James shows that the number of countries planting biotech crops
in Africa have marginally grown to three from one country, South
Africa in 2007.
In 2008, Burkina Faso (Bt Cotton) and Egypt (Bt Maize) joined
the exclusive clubs of countries growing and commercializing
biotech crops.
Globally, the number of countries planting biotech crops have
soaredto 25 and the global hectarage of biotech crops rose by
9.4% above previous year or 10.7 million hectare increase,
reaching 12.5 million hectares.
According to Dr James, the rise is 74-fold hectares rise since
1996, making biotech crops the fastest adopted crop technology.
Last year also saw a new biotech crop, RR sugar beet become
first commercialized in the US and Canada.
Egypt, Burkina Faso Bolivia, Brazil and Australia introduced for
the first time biotech crops that have been commercialized in
other countries.
The report shows that the number of crop farmers increased by
1.3 million in 2008, reaching 13.3 million globally in 25
countries, notably 90% or 12.3 million were small and
resource-poor farmers in developing countries. |
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