Biotech Updates

Minister Calls for Collaboration Between Biotech Experts and the Media in Tanzania

April 23, 2014

Tanzania's Deputy Finance Minister, Mr. Adan Malima has urged scientists and academics involved in crop biotechnology to work closely with the media to enhance biotech awareness and acceptance in Tanzania. The Minister who also serves as the patron of Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) in Tanzania made this call during the launch of Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2014 in Dar-es-Salaam on 14 April 2014.

The Minister further warned that misinformation posed a great danger to acceptance of crop biotechnology in Tanzania therefore making it imperative for experts to seek avenues like the media to educate the public on the subject.

"Some people are sending wrong messages on this new technologies with false claims that they may cause male impotence, deformed bodies amongst many other wild allegations. What these same people forget is that even the clothes they are wearing were made of GMO materials, yet they have never been impotent," Mr. Malima added.

To know more about OFAB and the Launch of the ISAAA report in Tanzania, please contact Philbert Nyinondi at pnyinondi@yahoo.com.