By Duncan Miriri
MWEA, Kenya (Archyde.com) – Dick Olela has been growing maize on his four-acre plot in Migori County, western Kenya, for three decades, but he fears his livelihood might be jeopardized by the adoption government’s sudden outburst of genetically modified crops.
With more than 4 million people in Kenya facing severe food shortages following the worst drought in four decades ravaged crops and livestock in East Africa, the new government of President William Ruto in October raised a decade-old ban on the cultivation and import of genetically modified (GMO) maize.
Kenya struggles to feed its population of 55 million and has always had an annual deficit of 10 million bags of staple food maize. Imports make up the shortfall, but supply has come under unprecedented pressure in recent years due to urbanization and soaring prices for inputs such as fertilizer.
Mr Ruto said the decision to allow pest-resistant GMO crops was necessary to increase crop yields and ensure food security, an argument rejected by maize farmers like Mr Olela and a group of smallholder farmers who sued the government to overturn the decision.
According to Olela, GM crops threaten a “sustainable” tradition of recycling seeds, leaving maize farmers dependent on big foreign companies that own the patents for GM seeds.
“This is something that will put us in a situation of seed slavery, where we have to buy them every time we plant,” Olela told Archyde.com.
Other critics, including the Kenya Farmers Association which represents thousands of maize farmers, say the decision was made hastily and ignored long-standing health concerns.
COTTON CONTROVERSY
The controversy mirrors the problems encountered in other African countries that adopted the technology earlier. Farmers in Burkina Faso, Africa’s top cotton producer, said the quality of their crop had plummeted following the 2008 introduction of GMO strains.
Samuel Kioko, who grows maize, beans and peas on his one-and-a-half hectare plot near Nairobi, says allowing GM maize would force smallholders like him to carve up valuable land to create ‘isolation’ in order to protect native seed varieties.
Kenya’s National Biosafety Authority has sought to allay some of the concerns.
“We are checking every crop, every genetic trait to confirm safety,” chief executive Roy Mugiira said, touting the success of the technology in the country’s cotton sector, where production had collapsed but was now resurgent following the government authorized GMO varieties in 2019.
Daniel Magondu, who has grown GMO cotton for two seasons near the rice-basket town of Mea in central Kenya, is one such beneficiary. In a field bordering an avocado orchard, he shows rows of lush weeks-old cotton plants as proof that GMO seeds are superior to conventional varieties.
Next to them, on a smaller plot, seedlings of the traditional variety are shorter, less lush and are attacked by aphids.
“It (GMO cotton) didn’t even take a month and you can see how it grew very quickly,” he said, praising its pest resistance and faster maturity. than conventional cotton.
Maize producers remain skeptical.
“Before opting for GMOs, why not…give farmers subsidies for seeds, fuel, affordable credit?” said Kipkorir Menjo, a director of the farmers’ association.