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Parliament on Tuesday passed a biosafety bill which seeks to put in place a legal framework to regulate development, testing, handling and application of biotechnologies and their products.
The bill, among other things, prohibits persons to engage in genetic modification of organisms or to import, develop, produce, test, distribute or use genetically modified organisms unless done under the authority of a licence.
Those violating the licence regarding the application of biotechnologies and their products will be fined K1 million or an equivalent of the financial gain generated by the offence or a jail sentence of 10 years.
Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Minister Harry Thomson said the aim of the bill is to protect human health and the environment from the possible adverse effects of the products of modern biotechnology.
Thomson said the maximum fine of K1 million is in line with the penalties enshrined in the Environmental Management Act. He said the figure has been arrived at on the understanding that the cases pertaining to the licensing regime will be of a serious nature.
Most members who commented on the provisions of the bill notably, Kate Kainja (Dedza Southwest); Henry Mussa (Chiradzulu East); and Hetherwick Ntaba (Lilongwe Southeast) supported the bill although some noted minor shortfalls in it.
Mussa said the bill will ensure that all genetically modified products are thoroughly checked before they enter the country, saying this will safeguard human health and the environment from possible harmful effects of biotechnologies and their products.
But Kainja, while supporting the bill, suggested that it should have been married with the science and technologies bill which, she claimed, has similar provisions with the biosafety bill, especially on licensing issues.
Ntaba on the other hand pointed out shortfalls of bill in areas of chemical, pharmaceuticals and vaccines, but Thomson said the issues raised by the member are covered in other pieces of legislation, saying the biosafety bill does not usurp the mandates of other existing legislation.
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