Getting bioengineered crops into the hands of third world farmers does more to boost local food production and relieve poverty than delivering foreign aid.
“Food imports do not necessarily help the poor. An excess of food aid can literally kill the farmers and the local economy,” said biotechnology researcher Channapatna Prakash of Tuskegee University in Alabama.
In his native India, bioengineered crops have increased annual wheat production to 82 million tonnes from six million in five years, decreasing famine and improving food self sufficiency.
“By simply producing more food per acre we are able to lift one billion people out of poverty,” he said at a biotech conference in Calgary Sept. 23.
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Genetically improved crops can help local farmers produce more food on less land with less water and fewer chemicals.
Florence Wambugu of Kenya believes bioengineered crops could reduce malnutrition and poverty for African nations.
Africa has 30 percent of the world’s malnourished people and it is the largest recipient of food aid.
Three million in Kenya receive help and recent polls show people would accept government regulated genetically modified products. The same surveys reported Kenyans are less concerned about biotechnology than they are about finding enough food.
Wambugu is chief executive officer of Africa Harvest, a nonprofit organization promoting biotechnology in African agriculture. While support exists for bioengineered crops nothing significant is happening on the continent beyond South Africa.
For many subsistence farmers, yields are static or declining in the main crops of corn and cotton.
The annual corn yield may be reduced by 17 percent due to drought, while 20 percent is lost with poor soils, five percent to disease and 15 percent damaged from weeds. Between 10 and 20 percent of the stored corn is lost to insects.
There is a significant loss of cotton due to insect damage. This could be reversed because there are genetically modified varieties available with resistance to the boll weevil.
Wambugu said many Africans have been slow to adopt biotechnology because they fear they could not export to the European Union. However, exports to Europe are inconsequential, she said. Studies showed anywhere from 1.1 to 8.5 percent of the trade would be lost in a specific product.
“This perception that they will have a trade barrier is not a fact,” she said.
Her organization wants to provide more information to farmers interested in producing a safe, secure food supply.
There is a lack of biosafety regulations in Africa and companies have struggled to gain commercial licences to provide insect-resistant crops like corn or potatoes. There is a lack of infrastructure and expertise to get seeds to the farmers.
She believes help could be delivered through public-private partnerships but these groups need to understand who the customers are for improved products.
“Most people grow their own sorghum so you cannot reach out with fortification in a package.”
“They eat what they grow. The consumers and the producers are the same people,” she said.
