Line 4Line 4 Copyic/close/grey600play_circle_outline - material
Answers

Question

How come GMOs are not used in most of Africas Continent? Shouldnt they be where they are needed the most?

Submitted by: cool


Answer

Expert response from Mark Edge

Water Efficient Maize for Africa Partnership Lead, Bayer Crop Science

Thursday, 12/03/2015 10:06

GMOs are grown successfully in South Africa, Burkina Faso, and Sudan.  South Africa grows GM maize, soybeans and cotton, while both Burkina Faso and Sudan grow only GM cotton.  Farmers in all three of these countries have experienced the benefits of reduced pesticides and increased yields and their adoption of the GM technology has grown rapidly.  It is therefore somewhat surprising that these same scale-neutral GMO benefits aren’t yet realized by the rest of African smallholder farmers.  The reasons and barriers for this are varied and complex.

 

To be able to plant GMOs, the first requirement is that the country must have a functioning and capable regulatory system in place for GMOs.  Many African countries are working diligently to develop regulatory systems and could soon be ready to start the regulatory processes for commercial release of GMOs, but until those regulatory systems are in place, the technology cannot be introduced in the country.

 

GMOs are part of a seed system, and in many countries in Africa there is little or no developed seed system to deliver even conventionally improved varieties.  Seed delivery systems need to be profitable to be sustainable and unfortunately inadequately developed seed systems in many African countries precludes the delivery of any kind of innovative seed technology.  This challenge is not limited to GMOs but also affects well established technologies as basic as hybrid maize seed.

 

Government policies make a big impact on ease of doing business and the willingness to take business risks and make investments.  Across much of Africa, government policies hamper investments by small, medium and large companies who are interested in building sustainable and profitable agribusinesses in Africa.  The inadequate policy support for agribusiness in general also has an indirect impact on the rate of introduction of new GMO technologies that would benefit African farmers.

 

Despite the many barriers and challenges, work is on-going to bring innovative and appropriate GMO technology to smallholder farmers in Africa. One example is the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) project: a public/private partnership working to improve food security and rural livelihood among smallholder farmers and their families in Sub-Saharan Africa by developing and deploying new drought-tolerant and insect pest-protected maize varieties. The project is led by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) based in Kenya, and it is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and USAID. Partners include: Monsanto, CIMMYT and five National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa.  The WEMA project objectives are to increase maize yield stability and reduce risk under drought conditions in Sub-Sahara Africa through plant breeding and biotechnology.  Specific targets are to increase yields 20 to 35 percent in ten years, promote adoption of drought-tolerant hybrids, and deliver biotech insect-pest and drought tolerance to smallholder farmers in Africa.

 

There are many examples in Africa of innovative work being done to use all appropriate technologies to improve the livelihood of smallholder farmers in Africa.  GMOs are one tool that can help make a difference, but to truly help African farming will require a holistic systems-based approach tailored to the specific needs of the agro-ecological zone for the individual farmer.  There is progress being made across Africa on regulatory systems, seed systems, and government policy.  I think that within the next decade we will see improved holistic systems-based approaches (including GMOs as part of the system) across much more of Africa contributing to improved food security in a meaningful way.