The ministry of tourism, environment and communications is lobbying parliament to adopt a National Biosafety framework that would enable farmers to try out new technology to address the country's food security and economic challenges.

As recommended by former Tourism, Environment and Communications Minister Thandi Shongwe, if approved and adopted by parliament, a National Biosafety law would help the country protect its rich biological diversity.

This, she said, would be through putting in place mechanisms for enabling the safe use and transboundary movement of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that may have adverse effects on humans and the environment.

"The country needs to harness modern biotechnology to be able to meet the challenges of food security and poor agricultural production," she had recommended. "However, without a National Biosafety Framework, the technology cannot be harnessed within the country and our neighbours as well."

Shongwe pointed out that most Southern African Customs Union (SACU) countries had already domesticated the Cartagena Protocol on biosafety. She added that as trading partners, it was imperative that Swaziland be on an equal footing with the world and other SADC member states as the GMOs would soon be traded locally.

"There is support from Global Environment Facility and the secretariat of the protocol for capacity building and it is on condition that countries develop national frameworks for managing the transboundary movement of GMOs," motivated the former minister.

"National resources alone are not enough to build the country's capacity to harness and manage the new technology. The country needs to adopt the framework as local farmers are eager to try the technology, which promises to address the food security and economic challenges we face."

Meanwhile, Director of Policy Planning and Research Steven Zuke said Swaziland has great regards for the potential benefits of biotechnology in agriculture, environment management and human health.

He said the country needs a national biosafety law because biotechnology involves the use of biological organisms to produce useful products.

"Genetically modified crops promise to reduce the cost of production as it means less frequency of spraying or longer shelf life of agricultural produce," he said.

Zuke added, however, that this new technology comes with lots of fears and uncertainties as the adverse effects of such on the environment and human health has not been fully investigated.

He said there was fear, for instance, that the in-built toxin in such crops may kill non-target insects as well and that other traits like herbicide resistance may be conferred to wild relatives of species like cotton, which may turn them into super weeds that cannot be controlled in future.

The director added that some of the health concerns include the potential for developing antibiotic resistance in the gut of humans as the marker genes used in the technology were antibiotics.

He said common socio-economic and ethical issues for African countries include the fear of multi-national control of agriculture as these products were usually patented by these multi-nationals and had an element of restricting trade as well as dictating who should supply.

"It is for this reason that during the Earth Summit in 1992, safety of modern biotechnology was raised as an issue to be looked at seriously," noted Zuke.

"As a party to the protocol, Swaziland has an obligation to domesticate the international treaty by developing a national instrument that is in line with the protocol.

"Swaziland as a country that is rich in biodiversity has an obligation to regulate the introduction and development of GMOs so that crops and humans are protected from any possible adverse impacts."