The National Biosafety Act 2017 has been passed into law in a bid to streamline biotechnology activities in Uganda.
According to Dr. Elioda Tumwesigye , the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, the Act enacted on Wednesday will facilitate the safe development and application of modern biotechnology.
Biotechnology refers to any technique that uses living organisms or substances from living organisms to make or modify a product, improve plant, animal breeds or micro-organisms for specific purposes. Biosafety on the other hand means the safe development, transfer, application and utilization of biotechnology and its products.
The Act establishes institutions that shall regulate and promote the safe development and use of biotechnology in Uganda in order to exploit and promote the use of biotechnology and science in modernizing agriculture, environmental protection, enhancing public health and industrialization
“The Act will make it possible for Uganda to derive maximum benefit from the potential that modern biotechnology has to offer, while minimizing the risks to the environment and to human health. The Act provides mechanisms to regulate research, development and general release of genetically modified organisms and for related matters,” Dr. Tumwesigye says.
The Act designates the Ministry of Science Tecnology and Innovation as the National Focal Point and Competent Authority on matters related to Biosafety.
The Act also establishes an Inter-Ministerial Policy Committee on Biotechnology and Biosafety chaired by the Prime Minister, and has the Ministers responsible for Science, Technology and Innovation, Health, Agriculture, Trade and Industry, Environment, Education, Lands, Security, Energy and Defence, as members. The Committee will provide strategic guidance on matters of Biotechnology and Biosafety as well as consider other matters of national interest in relation to Biotechnology and Biosafety.
The Act also establishes the National Biosafety Committee (NBC) that consists experts with at least ten years experience in breeding and genetics, Agronomy, pathology, Molecular Biology, Food Science, toxicology, Ecology, Microbiology, Pharmacology, Soil science, Industrial chemistry, Veterinary Medicine, Human Medicine and consumer rights.
According to the minister, the Act will help protect Uganda from unauthorised entry of GMOs as well as protect people from consuming unsafe biotechnology products.
The Act, according to its writers, will also help alleviate farmers from the devastation and impoverishment often caused by crop diseases, animal diseases, uncontrolled use of expensive pesticides and unpredictable weather and drought occasioned by climate change.
“Give the country opportunities to use all science and technological options including modern biotechnology tools to handle crop and animal diseases and other stresses that cannot be effectively handled by conventional tools,” he says.
It will also support our scientists to fully and safely utilize their advanced knowledge and capabilities in biotechnology to help us solve contemporary challenges especially in health, agriculture, industry and environment and unlock the full potential of our economy to create wealth and jobs for our young people as well as shared prosperity for all using all facets of the bio-economy.
The enactment of this law follows consultation with stakeholder groups such as scientists, farmers, civil society, religious leaders, and policy makers among others.
The enactment of the law, ends years of governmental debate over whether Uganda’s farmers will be able to access GMOs and other tools of genetic engineering.
The National Biosafety Act 2017 will now be forwarded to President Yoweri Museveni to sign it into the law and become operational immediately.
Those who have been waiting for the law are celebrating. Patricia Nanteza who works with the national banana program at Kawanda research station said: “It’s exciting, though it feels almost unreal after all the setbacks. “But finally, banana farmers will be able to access varieties of banana resistant to bacterial wilt, and the people, especially children, can finally eat bananas and other foods rich in Vitamin A.”
Peter Wamboga-Mugirya is an Alliance for Science Fellow who has been instrumental in educating both the grassroots and policy-makers to help them understand the process of biotechnology and why the biosafety law was needed.
Mugirya, the director for communication and partnerships at the Science Foundation for Livelihoods and Development (SCIFODE) said the long process that started before 2008, when the Biotechnology and Biosafety Policy was first approved by Parliament has finally bore fruit. The newly approved national biosafety law will now operationalize the policy.
Despite its enactment, there still remains a section of Ugandans and leaders including members of parliament who say bitechnology is not good for Uganda.
Uganda first passed the Biotechnology and the Biosafety Policy in 2008 after it had ratified the Cartagena protocol on Biosafety in 2002. GMO field trials in Uganda currently are being conducted under the National Council of Science and Technology (UNCST) Act.
Under the UNCST Act, Uganda established the National Biosafety Committee (NBC) with a mandate of supervising GMO activities up to the Confined Field Trial (CFT) stage. The current bill, when enacted, gives the UNCST authority to decide whether to approve new GM crop varieties that will be made available to Ugandan farmers, taking the recommendation of the NBC into account.
