21 Nov 2021

Biotechnology has been found to be useful in many areas such as food and agriculture production. 

This was said by an environment specialist at US Embassy, Ms Phatsimo Kwenane, during a modern biotechnology public awareness campaign recently. 

 She said the scientific method could be beneficial in helping Botswana become self-sufficient in food production. 

  Therefore, she implored farmers in Serowe to embrace biotechnology as one of the methods that could be used to address issues of food security given its success in some areas.

She said USA has been using biotechnology and had found that other countries could benefit from the method. 

Biotechnology is a field that involves the use of genes, allowing modification or removal of genes from one living organism and inserted into another living organism in order to modify some of its functions, traits or characteristics.

Ms Kwenane however called on countries to take advantage of the technology saying that it hasd shown enormous effects especially in the USA. She said biotechnology has resulted in benefits to farmers and consumers and has helped to make both insect control and weed management safer and easier while safeguarding crops against disease.

She said biotechnology could also help reduce the need for agrochemicals which some small farmers in developing countries often could not afford. 

Ms Kwenane said United States and Botswana had partnered through the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security in an endeavour to educate farmers and the public on the advantages of biotechnology.      Further, she said the programme was expected to help provide objective information on biotechnology and related biosafety issues.

Deputy district agricultural coordinator for central district, Mr Orman Roy said that biotechnology was not a new field and has been used for many years for different purposes in agriculture and food production.

He said biotechnology had been used in the production of food by means of fermentation techniques and the example of such foods are cheese, sour milk, mageu and beer.

Mr Roy said this method of crop production has been used in the USA and other developed countries for many years and it has proved to be very feasible as it produced good results.  However, Mr Roy said he was optimistic that the scientific method would benefit Botswana. The awareness campaign was organised by the department of Agricultural Research in collaboration with US Embassy. ENDS