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The Daily Journal |
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African Farmers Seek Help on Biotechnology By Judith Achieng' NAIROBI -Some years back,Tony Wambua was a rich farmer. He owned several tractors and a fleet of up- country passenger vehicles, the outcome of long years of toil on his 30 acres citrus plantation in Yatta, a fertile valley on Kenya ’s eastern district of Machakos. In 1990,a devastating bacterial disease attacked crops in the region, destroying his 3,000 citrus and 1,000 banana trees overnight. “It was a disaster. I went out of business,’’ he says. The farmers received no help from the government.“The government didn ’t even take time to quantify what farmers lost,’’ he says. Wambua, along with other farmers, has sought solutions from scientists attending international meetings on biotechnology in Nairobi. They want the scientists to address the increasing menace of crop losses resulting from tropical pests and diseases. The scientists insist that biotechnology, if built into African staple food crops, could reduce the need for high cost of agrochemicals and water, two most elusive ingredients restricting agricultural productivity on the continent. Researchers in Africa have engaged in the mass propagation of drought tolerant insect resistant varieties of crops like maize,sweet potatoes,citrus fruit trees,bananas and coffee through alternative technologies such as tissue culture. “With time,’’ Esther Kahangi, Kenya ’s pioneer tissue culture scientist, says Africa “shall be able to adapt to biological control methods to prevent reinfestations.’’ Kenya, experiencing population growth of three percent against economic growth of less than one percent, is struggling to feed its 28 million people on a limited arable land compounded by pests and increasing drought spells in recent years. In the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa, the situation is far worse with between 55 and 60 percent of the rural population living on less than one U.S.Dollar a day. More than 200 million people, over one-third of the African population, according to FAO ,suffer chronic malnutrition. Yet 80 percent of the population in the region is involved in agriculture. “As a matter of urgency, Africa needs to adopt and adapt appropriate technologies already developed elsewhere while at the same time not relying exclusively on imported technology,’’ Kenya ’s agriculture minister Bonaya Godana, told an international symposium in Nairobi last year. “Africa needs to develop its capacity for designing new technologies,building its own experience,indigenous knowledge and traditional methods,’’ he said. The raging debate on safety of biotech products elsewhere is conspicuously lacking in Africa, despite strong public campaigns by environmental groups in Europe. “The debate on biotechnology is a luxury in Africa,’’ says Norah Olembo, chairperson of Biotechnology Trust Africa (BTA). “It is unrealistically expensive to the hunger stricken people of the continent. Instead, Africa should endeavour to acquire capacities for both human and infrastructure to conduct effective research and development activities.’’ Florence Wambugu,a biotechnologist who has recently developed the world ’s first commercial sweet potato, concurs. “We must talk food. Biotechnology must address food security,’’ she says.. “Africans must be challenged to seek positive information on biotechnology or risk being bombarded with ‘misinformation ’ seeping through other people who are throwing away their food. If you don ’t know you can be manipulated,’’ says Wambugu. The meeting also saw the launching of a regional body to promote research in biotechnology, and help enhance the livelihoods of African farmers. The Nairobi-based Biotechnology Trust Africa (BTA) is expected to close the gap between research scientists and African farmers. Boniface Makau, a maize farmer in Machakos, has learnt, through researchers working on his farm, how to collect data, select seed and identify high yielding varieties. “We have selected higher yielding varieties. In future I hope to have a maize variety that will be pest resistant, higher yielding and insect resistant,’’ he says. Since its formation last year, Olembo says, BTA has placed aside “a big chunk ’’ of its funds to purchase gene sequencing technology and other sophisticated laboratory equipment to encourage local scientists to stay and work in Africa. “All over Africa,most scientists are trained abroad but have no facilities to work with,’’ Olembo says. But the scientists ’ efforts can lead nowhere if related policies to stimulate agriculture are not strengthened. “My president (Yoweri Museveni)talks about industrialisation but he doesn ’t put even 0.1 percent of the GDP (gross domestic product) in agriculture,’’ laments Thomas Equang, a Ugandan scientist. |
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