Kampala, Uganda
December 14, 2006
Peter Wamboga-Mugirya,
SciDev.Net
Uganda will soon be able to identify genetically modified
organisms in food, thanks to new equipment worth US$50,000 that
it hopes will also benefit its neighbours.
The equipment obtained last week — with funding from the UN
Environment Programme Global Environment Facility — will be used
at the National Agricultural Research Organisation's research
laboratories institute in Kawanda, north of Kampala.
Under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, Uganda is required to
identify and document genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in
food.
Several techniques can be used for this and a common method is
to detect the sequences of DNA that are most often used in
genetically modified plants.
However the processes are often unaffordable to labs with few
resources.
Until now Uganda had to send its samples overseas for GMO
testing said Charles Mugoya, regional biotechnology coordinator
at the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in
Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA).
Mugoya, who coordinates Uganda's National Biosafety Framework
project, said ASARECA plans to use the new tools for regional
capacity building.
This could include allowing neighbouring countries lacking the
capability to test for GMOs — for instance Burundi, the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sudan and Tanzania — to
benefit from Uganda's equipment for a fee, he told SciDev.Net.
He added that the association is developing a regional policy on
detecting and analysing GMOs, which will be submitted for
approval to regional governments.
Arthur Makara, biosafety officer at Uganda's science and
technology council, said Uganda will first train its own
scientists for GMO detection and assessment before training
technicians elsewhere in the region.
He told SciDev.Net that regional funding, for instance from
ASARECA or the East African Community, could help make the
Ugandan institute into a regional centre of excellence.
The equipment includes a DNA concentrator, a thermocycler with
accessories, a gel documentation/analysis system; a set of
pipettes and an ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay)
micro-plate reader. |