ZIMBABWE Organic Producers and Promoters’ Association (ZOPPA) executive director Fortunate Nyakanda has urged the government to put tight screws at the country’s border posts and introduce legislation to curb the influx of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) as they are feared to pose a health hazard to consumers.
BY PHILLIP CHIDAVAENZI SENIOR REPORTER
Speaking on the sidelines of a media workshop on food safety in Harare on Wednesday, Nyakanda bemoaned the lax controls at the border posts and lack of a legislative framework to deal with illegal imports of GMO foodstuffs.
GMOs are suspected to be responsible for emergent lifestyle diseases such as cancers.
“The human effects are not much known, but there is a lot of speculation. Our major concern, however, is that smallholder organic farmers were being impoverished,” Nyakanda said.
Although GMO food products often fetched lower prices on the market, Nyakanda said they could become more expensive against the backdrop of their suspected negative impact on human health.
The influx of GMOs is also driving local farmers out of business.
“Maybe the issue is to say cheap is expensive in the long run. Why those products are cheap is because they have support as far as the production is concerned. Farmers are struggling. There should be a multi-sectoral approach so that these products become available,” she said.
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She said although legally GMOs were not allowed in the country, they were slowly flooding the local market and there was need for institutions such as the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority to tighten borders and keep the products out.
“We do have GMOs in Zimbabwe. Some are labelled and others might not be labelled. Because people want to protect their markets, they don’t give enough information. But what we know is that things are getting in through the borders because the borders are porous,” she said.
“As long as our borders are porous and we are allowing in everything, people just consume, so what we need to do is to protect the local industry to make sure that it’s regularised and standardised.”
Despite hunger threats in the country, government has maintained that it will not embrace GMO technology despite the country facing imminent hunger.
