March 28, 2022
The National Biosafety Authority (NBA) of Ghana has called on the public to send comments, petitions, and suggestions as part of the mandatory public participation requirement leading to the deregulation of the PBR Cowpea in the country.
The public notice seeking public participation was published in a state gazette dated February 18, 2022. According to the Biosafety laws of Ghana, the public have 60 days starting from 18th of February 2022 within which they are to send in their support, petition to enable the agency to approve the request from the Sarvanana Agricultural Research Institute which is seeking to deregulate the PBR Cowpea in the country.
The gazette noted that: “Pursuant to section 18 (1) of the Biosafety Act 2011 together with section 19 of Biosafety regulations 2019, the NBA hereby announces to the public the receipt of an application for consideration for the introduction into the environment and placing on the market and importation of genetically modified Pod Borer Resistant (PBR) cowpea in Ghana. The application which follows serval years of research was submitted to the NBA by Savanna Agriculture Research Institute (SARI), under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).”
The application according to the NBA is undergoing a science-based review process together with relevant regulatory agencies in Ghana and independent experts to ascertain that the PBR Cowpea variety is safe for human and animal health and the environment.
Key aspect that will be considered in the application is food safety assessment which includes but is not limited to nutritional composition and potential toxicity and allergenicity. The environmental evaluation of PBR cowpea looks at its potential to become a weed of agriculture or invasive of natural habitat, the potential impact of pollen meditated gene transfer, altered plant pest potential, and potential impact on non-target organisms and biodiversity.
The development in Ghana follows the commercialisation of PBR Cowpea in Nigeria where farmers are now planting the variety since June 2021.
Topics
Species
