By Henry Neondo
Ministers of Agriculture from the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS) gathered today in the Malian capital of Bamako to endorse a regional action plan for agricultural biotechnology development.
The Ministerial meeting was officially opened by Hon. Ahmed Diane Semega, Malian minister of Mining, Energy, and Water.
He urged ECOWAS Ministers to take advantage of the new opportunities offered by science and technology especially biotechnology to play a role in addressing some of these challenges.
The meeting of experts came up with key recommendations to set the Action Plan in motion.
These include increasing investment in biotechnology research and development, ratifying the Cartagena Protocol and developing and adopting national biosafety laws and biotechnology policies by 1st July 2006.
The plan further calls for facilitating harmonization of the regional biosafety systems by July 2008, cooperating with regional and international organizations to establish biotechnology information centres and to raise public awareness, creating a fund to monitor and evaluate the impact of agricultural biotechnology on the economies of the sub region and ensuring dialogue among all stakeholders.
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