Day

BY WILBER MUHWEZI-KASIBANTE

IN BUSHENYI—-

The executive director of presidential initiative on banana industrial development (PIBID) has warned government against introducing banana GMOs because they are a threat to indigenous traditional banana varieties.

Minister Dr.Elioda Tumwesigye stressing a point at the closure of the Training.

Rev. Prof.Muranga Florence said this during the function to pass out farmers who had completed a three day training on banana production marketing and value addition. The training was held at the factory in Nyaruzinga in Bushenyi town.

Rev. Muranga broadly told Dr. Elioda Tumwesigye who is the minister of science technology and innovation that the idea by Government to introduce GMOs is not health to good indigenous Bananas and government should abandon the idea.

She noted that they have received orders from both North and South America to export banana products but the first condition is that the country must not have GMOs.

For that matter therefore, the Government should not introduce Banana GMOs because the factory will not survive since potential buyers of banana products don’t want GMOs.

In his reaction, Minister Elioda noted that they will take Prof. Muranga’s concerns and see how they can implement, he added that the bill on GMOs is already in parliament and will continue to push it but Muranga’s ideas are not bad.

On the other hand Uganda is the second country in the world in banana production but surprisingly it doesn’t feature in first ten countries that export bananas.

He hailed Rev.Muranga for working hard to get government support which resulted into a big banana factory which will help to increase banana export and in turn bring more foreign exchange to the country.

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