COMMENT: GMO technology in Uganda

Eighty per cent of farmers in Uganda grow maize and the crop generates an estimated US$51million annually to the country (UBIC). It is also a major food crop for both humans and livestock. However, the crop’s production is seriously hampered by stem borers and recurrent droughts which reduce yields by about 40 per cent. Through GM research it has been possible to prepare maize that can withstand both drought and stem borers. This breed of maize will become available to the farmers following the passage of the Biotechnology and Bio-safety Bill causing an estimated annual boost of US$25 million to the economy.

Irish potato farmers currently use almost 50 per cent of their in-puts’ budget to buy pesticides in order to overcome the Late Blight disease which is hard to control because it has become resistant to chemicals. Using GMO technology NARO has prepared potatoes that are resistant to Late Blight and will soon be ready for passing on to interested farmers to grow after the passing of the Biotechnology and Bio-safety Bill. Consumption of Irish potatoes is known to reduce malnutrition since they are rich in vitamin B6, minerals, and dietary fiber. (UBIC) Uganda is the leading producer of sweet potatoes in Africa. It is a major food crop for both humans and livestock. Harvest-plus, which is a global anti-hunger organisation, is currently promoting the growing and consumption of bio-fortified sweet potato enhanced with nutrients such as iron, zinc and vitamin A which the World Health Organisation
(WHO) categorises as the most essential for healthy living. The crop is under attack by virus diseases and weevil infestation that threaten its total extinction. Researchers are now working to develop GM sweet potato that can withstand viruses and weevils.

Due to the growing demand for rice, more farmers are taking interest in growing it but they are challenged by long dry weather and poor soils which cause annual drop of about US $6.2 million (UBIC). Uganda stands to gain an estimated annual US$19.9 million through adoption of rice tolerant to low nitrogen soils and drought. NARO researchers are using GM technology to develop it.

Clearly the adoption of GMO technology in Uganda has been motivated by the need to overcome our own economic and food security problems. It is about our own survival. One wonders, therefore, how multinational trading companies can be dragged into such typically local and national Ugandan issues. Zerubabel Mijumbi Nyira, a scientist himself, and Minister of State for Agriculture has said, “GM technology is not the preserve of the western world and so our people must come to understand that we are not passive recipients of technology but that we are, indeed, capable of defining our own biotechnology research and development agenda to solve uniquely Ugandan and African problems.”

The Ugandan government like many others in Africa saw the agricultural problems coming and built modern biotechnology laboratories to be used by NARO which is manned by Ugandan scientists and funded by the Uganda government and donors. NARO’s mandate is to conduct research related to overcoming our national farming challenges which include crop and livestock improvement, control of crop and animal diseases, among other issues.

Uganda is not the only African country turning to the use of GMO technology as one of the means to solve its agricultural problems.

Sudan, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Egypt, and Nigeria are already growing GMO crops while several others such as Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, Malawi, Swaziland and Mozambique are just about to adopt their own agricultural biotechnology regulation laws and to begin growing GMO crops for almost the same reasons as Uganda.

The concerns raised in the recent Independent magazine article about a Ugandan businessman exporting dried fruits to the USA losing the market due to our country’s adoption of agricultural GMO technology is unfounded because the USA, which has 72.9 million hectares under GMO crops, is the world’s leading producer of biotech crops, according to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Application (ISAAA). Other countries already growing GMO crops outside Africa include: Brazil, Argentina, Canada, India, Paraguay, Pakistan, China, Uruguay, Bolivia, Australia, Philippines, Myanmar, Spain, Mexico, Columbia, Vietnam, Honduras, Chile, Portugal, Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Slovakia, and Czech Republic.

We should not expect any trouble from growing or eating GMO food. In May 2016 the US National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine released its twenty-year-research report into possible harmful effects of GMO crops and declared them entirely safe. It was a comprehensive review of some nine hundred researches on GMO crops conducted since 1996 and it revealed that GMO crops and ordinarily bred crops have no difference with regard to possible risks to human health, livestock health, and the environment. The World Health Organisation (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the American Medical Association (AMA) the European Food Safety Association (EFSA) and a whole range of other respected international organizations agree that GMO foods are as safe as non-GMO foods.

Uganda cannot teach science and technology in her universities without taking full advantage of its benefits. We cannot disassociate science and technology from agriculture and at the same time talk about promoting the ‘Program for Modern Agriculture (PMA)’.

The Bill which was passed is intended to ensure that every GMO crop imported or grown locally undergoes thorough environmental and food safety assessment so that it does not cause adverse effects to human and animal health as well as the environment. It is an international requirement for all countries opting to grow GMO crops often referred to as the Cartagena Protocol on Bio-safety.

International acceptance of agricultural GMO technology is growing and widening, not reducing. Biotech/GM crop hectares were planted in 28 countries in 2014 and the area under Biotech/GM crops has increased more than 100-fold, from 1.7 million hectares in 1996, to 181.5 million hectares in2014. (Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2014 by Clive James). Acceptance is growing because of the obvious economic benefits of growing them and not because of coercion by multinational companies.

It was also false to state in the article that farmers will be forced to buy GM crop seeds at every planting season because this is not stated anywhere in the Biotechnology and Bio-safety Bill that was passed. After all, crops such as cassava, bananas and sweet potatoes or Irish potatoes are clonally grown.

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Michael J Ssali is an agriculture journalist and a farmer based in Lwengo District. He is also a Bioscience for Farmers in Africa fellow. (www.b4fa.org)