Author: Venter Mwongera
Publication:
Date: Monday, September 29, 2008
Via: AgBios
Heightening food insecurity in Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi,
Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe and several other African countries of
the region has stimulated political and public attention on genetic engineering
in general and on the potential benefits and risks of genetically modified
foods (GMs).
In the recent past, over 10 African countries were facing a
major food crisis with more than 38 million threatened with hunger and
starvation due to a number of interrelated factors like rapid decline in food
production as a result of bad agricultural policies; sever drought, poor
infrastructure, poor investments in agricultural research.
Overall agricultural production in Eastern, Western and
In
PEM deficiency is manifested in stunting and causes poor
cognitive development and low educational achievement. Sub Saharan Africa is
now the largest recipient of food aid with approximately 1.3 million people in
Food security assessments conducted by the World Food Programme (WFP) is the year 2004 showed that that more than
70% of households in
Demand for and accessibility to food is influenced by a
variety of factors including income levels, population growth and movements,
infrastructure, lifestyles and preferences and human resources development.
Increasing environmental degradation in Sub-Saharan Africa
is the order of the day food, insecurity has also deepened poverty, increasing
cases of tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/Aids epidemics, while other parts of the
World are experiencing growing levels of food security, high rates of economic
growth, better standards of living, low mortality rate which is attributable to
scientific and technological advances.
Advances in modern technology have made it possible to
produce new, improved, safer and less expensive drugs, food additives,
industrial enzymes, oil eating and other pollution degrading microbes are a few
of the goods that can be developed using this technology.
To meet increasing demand for food and enlarge the basis for
its security in Sub- Saharan Africa, productivity increases is therefore vital.
“Biotechnology could contribute significantly to the achievement of the
objectives of the convention on Biological Diversity and the attainment of the
Millennium Development Goals.
However, it must be developed judiciously, and used with
adequate and transparent safety measures,” said former United Nation Secretary-
General Kofi Annan.
According to an expert from Kenya Agricultural Research
Institute, Dr. Simon Gichuki, modern agricultural
biotechnology has opened a wide range of possibilities of identifying,
isolating, selecting and transferring genes from one organism into another to
improve on quality, yielding and resistant to pest and diseases.
“Tissue Culture (TC) has done marvelous in terms of food
security; an estimated 300,000 Kenyan rural families rely on banana to provide
them with a regular cash income. The importance of banana in tackling the
problems of poverty, food security and malnutrition in
She however elaborated on what her ten year of much
dedication on TC in Kenya has done to the farmers adding that it has helped
them recover from the setback in banana yields that occurred during the mid-
1990s. The area under banana, which had declined to around 46,000 ha at the end
of 1996, had risen drastically and was estimated to be around 82,000 ha by the
end of 2006.
This increase in banana orchards is equivalent to an additional
net income of Ksh.5508 accruing to the banana growers (Acharya
and Alton Mackey, 2007).
Acharya and Alton Mackey (2007)
have estimated the direct economic impact of TC bananas, taking the area under
TC bananas as 4288 (5.22% of the total banana area) and the difference in net
income between TC and non- TC banana is Ksh224, 526 per ha noting that the
additional income that accrued to TC bananas growers is around Ksh.963 million
being an indirect impact of Ksh. 5508 million results
in a total economic impact of Ksh. 6471 million.
At family level, a TC banana plantation is an important
asset, since it provides food security and put to an end ‘begging culture’ when
there is a drought to the area. Malnutrition has decreased to those who have
adopted TC and the families’ diets have become more diverse since the income
from selling bananas can be used to buy other types of food.
Groups benefits arising from the TC banana project are many
including social cohesion and the group can present a collective voice for the
community improvement, access to additional development activities is much
easier, the groups can access credit, and use the money to buy plantlets or
other inputs, vast knowledge, has enhanced their status in the society, have
developed new business and entrepreneurial attitudes.
The Africa Harvest CEO further said that the technical
impact of TC banana is that there is availability of large quantities of clean
and superior planting materials which has enabled them to participate in
reclaiming their old banana orchards and reduce losses due to pests and
diseases.
She however attributes this success to the enormous support
they got from the Ministry of Agriculture, KARI, JKUAT TechnoServe,
ISAAA, BTA, GTL and ATL.Moreover TC banana has a
positive impact to gender balancing since in earlier time, banana was
considered as a ‘woman’ crop since 89% of banana orchard was taken care of by
women but currently due to a huge income that has accompanied TC banana, 30% of
the new groups are women while 70% is men.
According to the chairman of Africa Harvest Dr. Kanayo Nwaze, Africa Biotified Sorghum (ABS) is one of the 43 projects that seek
to tackle one of the 14 major scientific challenges which if solved, could lead
to important advances in preventing, treating, and curing diseases like
HIV/Aids, malaria and many more disease that are affecting the developing
countries.
The initiative is supported by a US$450 million commitment
from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) as well as two funding
committees: US$27.1 million from the Wellcome Trust
and US$4.5 million from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
Dr. Kanayo further puts that he is
optimistic that the ABS project will contribute to the overall goal of creating
‘deliverable technologies’ and health tools that are effective, inexpensive to
produce, easy to distribute and simple to use in developing countries.
Apart from the infrastructure and scientific capacity, the
ABS project through thr Public Acceptance and
Communication (PAC) program, has contributed to a better understanding of
biotechnology issues in
It provides a tangible opportunity to put into action
commitments made to biotechnology through pan-African forums for such as the
African Union and the New partnership for
Dr Stella Makokha, KARI says
development of stem borer resistant maize using Bt maize, development of GM
herbicide resistance in maize to combat the Striga
weed, field trials on sweet potatoes resistant to viruses development of maize
streak viruses-resistant maize varieties which they have done in conjunction
with ISAAA and ICIPE has been a success since many farmers have tried it and
are jubilant with the results got. Networks within institutions that deal with
biotechnology: ABSF, ABNETA, KARI, ILRI, ISAAA and CIP.
She however emphasize that low government funding has been a
major setback hence called for at least 1% of GDP since other countries like
Asian Tigers and EU countries which are doing very well allocate 4% of their
GDP to biotechnologies.
Limited facilities for research and communication, low
experience in commercialization of technologies, little knowledge to the end
users about technologies being developed, less emphasis on animal on
biotechnology research, conflicting policies- importation of old clothes can
stifle the cotton industry once cotton production increases; are also some of
the challenges that are affecting biotechnologies.
Other crops that the scientists have improved on are; maize,
potatoes, sweet potatoes, rubber, rice, cassava, coffee, mushroom, grain and
legumes, cow pea, tobacco.
The global scientists vowed not to rest irrespective of a
chain of challenges the face and are currently currying out research on
industrial crops especially bio-fuel production, untapped desirable drought and
disease resistance genes, TC of high value crops like vanilla, livestock
disease control measures, improvement of livestock breeds for environmental
stress and improve the nutritive value of foods.
Kenya’s assistant Minister for Higher Education Science and
Technology, Kilemi Mwiria,
told Africa Science News Service that the parliament is in its last stages of
passing biotechnology bills to guard these scientific innovations and adopt
them adding that the government is also committed to make sure that her
citizens don’t sleep while hungry and that it will support scientists in
fighting poverty, diseases and malnutrition.
He urged the developing countries to burry begging culture
and embrace these biotechnological findings that if applied can make them self
sufficient.
Dr. Kilemi further said that
developing countries should come out of paranoid state and embrace biotech
since majority of people in these countries don’t seek traditional medicine men
but instead seek medical attention from these scientists (doctors) hence warned
that this is the safe technology that is used in crops and animals to increase
their yielding abilities.
The legislator called for the members of the parliament to
stop giving hand outs to their constituents but instead empower them with the
knowledge of biotechnologies which can improve on their living standards
He advised scientists to make their scientific, technology
finding reports and write books in a simpler way so that everybody can
understand their benefits without problems.
SOURCE:
agbios.com