OFAB Chooses Female Journalists to Spread the GMOs ‘Good News’

In effort to keep the Rwandan society on track in regard to the Genetically Modified

Organisms’ campaign, OFAB Rwanda chapter has brought female journalists on board.

OFAB is an informative platform that brings together stakeholders in the field of

Biotechnology and the public to enable interactions, sharing, and exchange of knowledge,

experiences, contacts, and exploring new avenues of bringing the benefits of

biotechnology to the Agricultural sector.

Well aware of the role a woman plays in food security, a couple of weeks ago OFAB

brought women journalists together for a training that first of all introduced them to the

notion of GMOs, and packaged a message destined to their audience.

“None can ignore the fact that women always feel concerned by food; they prepare the

food and serve it…For us, we believe that women journalists can help us deal with all

those who take for granted the food with GMOs,” said Dr. Athanase Nduwumuremyi of

OFAB.

“Once female journalists understand the role of GMOs in better nutrition and food security,

they will write a lot of content for their audience, which will spread the good news in real

time.”

Indeed, Clementine Nyirangaruye, one of the female journalists who were trained took a

resolve to file content that helps the audience to be still, because, GMOs is rather a

technology that comes to face food insecurity.

“Mine is to trigger action; to encourage relevant government institutions to speed up the

programs and he laws that will enable implementation of GMOs farming on one side,”

Nyirangaruye said.

“On the other side, my content will be packaged in a way to present the advantages of

GMOs in agriculture for the farmers to embrace it, with an informed perspective on the

advantages that it carries.”

For Emma Marie Umurerwa, she said that for a longtime she filed GMOs anti campaign

content, but the training enlightened her to an extent that she is going to help the

community understand GMOs dividends.

“Take South Africa for example. They have GMOs in use since 1994. By the way, when we

talk about GMOs, we mean the crops that are boosted and thus, resilient to diseases and

challenges of climate change,” he said.

In many countries, he said, the GMOs food has been in use, and consumers have nothing

to complain.

A bio safety law which authorizes growing and consumption of GMO food in Rwanda was

approved in February 2024. Trial started with cassava. First GMO crop is expected to be

accessed by 2026.

GMO food is in use in several countries like Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, United

States of America, Brazil, Argentina to mention but a few.

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