Annual Report 2012 - African Agricultural Technology Foundation

58 AATF Annual Report 2012
makers and journalists. The highlight for the year was the successful
hosting of the second OFAB Review and Annual Meeting and the fifth
anniversary celebrations in Accra in May 2012. During the period under
review, media coverage of OFAB activities in the country improved
markedly. However, there were pockets of negative reporting by the
media. This was attributed to lack of understanding of the technology
by the journalists. In future, the chapter will conduct targeted media
training aimed at improving their capacity to report on biotechnology
factually and objectively.
OFAB Tanzania played a key role in enhancing awareness on
biotechnology in the country. The chapter participated in an agricultural
exhibition at the parliamentary grounds in Dodoma, where it engaged
with members of parliament and cabinet ministers through biotechnology
messages. This led to marked improvement in the support of biotechnology
by policy makers. Top policy makers, including the President, Vice
President, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Agriculture, called for
a review of the strict liability biosafety law by the Ministry of Environment
to make it more facilitative to biotech research and deployment that will
support the country to achieve its objectives under the Kilimo Kwanza
initiative that aims to make Tanzania food secure. The Prime Minister
requested the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology
(COSTECH) and OFAB to organise biotech sensitisation workshops for
parliamentarians, the cabinet and heads of relevant agriculture sector
departments. Consequently, the chapter produced and shared with the
same groups a policy brief on the status of biosafety and biotechnology
in Tanzania. In addition, in October 2012, the chapter, together with
COSTECH and African Biosafety Network of Experts organised a ‘seeingis-believing’
field visit to Bt cotton fields in Burkina Faso for members
of parliament, journalists and ministers to acquaint themselves with the
benefits of biotechnology.
‘OFAB will continue to outscale its activities in 2013 to reach more
audiences in a targeted manner. This will be informed by the netmapping
exercise that was carried out in each of the countries that will see evidencebased
strategic activities undertaken in each country. We will also
explore the possibilities of establishing a chapter in southern Africa and
an additional one in eastern Africa in the coming year,’ says Mr Daniel
Otunge, the OFAB Coordinator at AATF.
Deploying agricultural technologies for farmers