African countries increase land in growing GM crops

African countries have increased their land under genetically modified crops since the introduction of the technology nearly two decades ago, a new report shows.

Burkina Faso increased its Bt cotton hectares by 51 per cent from 313,781 hectares to 474,229 whereas Sudan, in its second year of commercialisation, tripled its Bt cotton from 20,000 hectares in 2012 to 62,000 last year.

On the other hand, South Africa’s biotech hectarage remained the same as in 2012 at 2.9 million hectares. Data on the Egypt’s Bt maize could not be easily established due to political turmoil in the Arab nation throughout last year.

The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) report on the Global Status of Commercialised Biotech/GM Crops 2013 released last week also shows that seven African countries-Uganda, Kenya, Egypt, Ghana, Cameroon, Malawi, Nigeria -have either carried out or still carrying out confined field trials on various crops including cotton, maize, bananas and sweet potatoes as the penultimate step to approval for commercialisation.

“Biotech crops are demonstrating their global value as a tool for resource poor farmers who face decreased water supplies and increased weed and pest pressures – and the effects of climate change will only continue to expand the need for this technology,” said Dr. Clive James, the author and founder of ISAAA.

Although the report says biotech crops are contributing to food security and significantly reducing poverty, majority African countries are yet to embrace growing GM crops due to a combination of factors including strong anti-GM campaigns and the absence of regulatory frameworks.

For instance, Ugandan parliament is yet to approve the National Biosafety Bill meant to regulate the general use of the technology whereas Kenya banned the importation of importation of GM crops following a study carried by a French scientist Gilles-Eric Séralini et al linked it to cancer.

However, the study whose results were published in the November 2012 edition of the Journal of Food and Chemical Toxicology linking the formation of cancerous tumours in rats to the genetically modified maize that they were fed on was retracted in November 2013.

As such, there are signs that Kenya may be preparing to revise its stance on GM foods again.

Kenya is working towards commercialising GM cotton this year after successful field trials showed the crop’s ability to cushion farmers against high production costs.

Further, biotech drought-tolerant maize under the Water Efficient Maize for Africa project is also set for commercialisation in east Africa by 2017 subject to regulatory approvals.

Tanzania has a regulatory framework with the responsibility clause-that discourages scientists from even carrying out confined field.

The report says revenue worth $116.9 billion were generated globally by biotech crops during the 17- year period 1996 to 2012, of which 58 per cent were due to reduced production costs (less ploughing, fewer pesticide sprays and less labor) and 42 per cent due to substantial yield gains of 377 million tonnes produced.

“Biotech crops are also a land-saving technology, capable of higher productivity on the current small piece of land and hence help to preclude deforestation and protect biodiversity,” the report says.

It is estimated that approximately 13 million hectares of biodiversity – rich tropical forests, are lost in developing countries annually due to deforestation as the population search for more land for agriculture.

Globally, for the second year in a row, developing countries planted more hectares of biotech crops than industrialized countries, representing confidence and trust of millions of risk-adverse farmers around the world that have experienced benefits of these crops.

Of the countries planting biotech crops, eight are industrial countries and 19 are developing countries.

A record 175.2 million hectares of biotech crops were grown globally in 2013, at an annual growth rate of 3 per cent, up 5 million from 170 million hectares in 2012, the report says, adding that more than 90 percent, or 16.5 million, of farmers planting biotech crops are small and resource-poor.

“Nearly 100 percent of farmers who try biotech crops continue to plant them year after year,” the report says.

Dr. Charles Mugoya, the programme manager, Agro-Biodiversity and Biotechnology at Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa told The EastAfrican that the increase in acreage under GM crops in Africa demonstrates confident in the technology.

African scientists under their umbrella organisation- African Science Academies- have jointly endorsed growing GM crops saying they are safe as their non-GM counterparts. END

African Orphan Crops Consortium names 100 crops for nutritional research

The African Orphan Crops Consortium has released the names of the 100 African crop species whose genomes it plans to sequence, assemble and annotate to improve nutrition of African families, especially children.

Orphan crops are African food crops and tree species that have been neglected by researchers and industry because they are not economically important on the global market.

The list of the 100 African species, which among others includes; African eggplant, amaranth, Guava, cassava, and potato, developed by African scientists and their colleagues elsewhere, is being availed so that researchers around the world can contact the consortium with suggestions for research needs regarding the selected species.

Dr. Allen Van Deynze, Director of Research at UC Davis' Seed Biotechnology Center in US and one of the scientists on the project said the consortium plans to sequence a reference genome and produce 100 lines for each of the crop listed.

The research will be conducted at its Nairobi-based African Plant Breeding Academy hosted at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), with improved planting materials offered to smallholder farmers throughout Africa.

Dr. Deynze said baobab, which can be used as a dried fruit powder for consumer products, will be the first orphan crop to be studied.

Baobab, called "the wonder tree" in Africa, is claimed to have antiviral properties and other health benefits, ten times the antioxidant level of oranges, twice the amount of calcium as spinach, three times the vitamin C of oranges and four times more potassium than bananas.

“The consortium’s goal is to use the latest scientific equipment and techniques to guide the development of more robust produce with higher nutritional content,” Dr. Deynze said.

Formed in 2010, the African Orphan Crops Consortium includes the African Union - New Partnership for Africa's Development (AU-NEPAD Agency); Mars Incorporated; World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF); Beijing Genomics Institute; Life Technologies Corporation; World Wildlife Fund; University of California, Davis (UC Davis); iPlant Collaborative; and Biosciences eastern and central Africa - International Livestock Research Institute (BecA - ILRI Hub).

Mars Inc has led a similar collaboration that sequenced, assembled and annotated the cocoa genome and made these data publically available on the Internet to all researchers in 2010.

According to the consortium more than 600 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa consume orphan crops, and thus boosting their main crop production and nutrition could help reduce hunger and malnutrition.

Data from the World Health Organisation, shows that under nutrition is directly or indirectly responsible for 3.5 million child death every year, and at least 35 per cent of the disease burden in under 5 year old children in Africa.

While the degree to which indirect determinants of death varies between countries, WHO says malnutrition is a critical risk factor in most countries, and nutrition and food security remains a fundamental challenge to child survival.

The consortium will also train 250 plant breeders and technicians in genomics and marker-assisted selection for crop improvement over a five-year period. END

Scientists release 10 drought tolerant maize varieties to farmers in E.A

Agricultural scientists across East Africa have released at least 10 conventionally bred drought tolerant maize varieties that will boost farmer’s production despite catastrophic weather conditions.

Scientists across the region told The EastAfrican that four drought tolerant maize varieties have been released in Uganda and Kenya whereas three are in the final stages for release in Tanzania.

The development of the drought tolerant maize varieties, whose research started in 2007, was carried out in collaboration with the African Agricultural Technology Foundation under the Water Efficient Maize and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) under the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Project.

Dr. Godfrey Asea, the cereals programme team leader at the Uganda’s National Crop Resources Institute, Namulonge, told The EastAfrican the Institute has released four varieties of drought resistant maize awaiting to be distributed to farmers starting July this year.

“The maize we have developed performs well in both conditions; dry and rainfalls environments and at the same time are resistant to pests and diseases,” Dr. Asea said.
Dr. Asea said the new maize varieties- UH5354, UH 5355, WE 2114, and WE 2115, are currently under multiplication by Nalweyo Seed Company and Farm Inputs Care Centre (FICA) Limited.

Dr. Asea said drought has become a serious threat to the maize production across the region due to surging effects of climate change.

Scientists from the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR) under its programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security say temperatures in East Africa are likely to increase by between 1.3 degrees and 2.1 degrees Celsius by 2050.

This implies that crop productivity in the region could be severely hurt given that they are heavily dependent rain fed agriculture; and thus susceptible to vagaries of nature, resulting into low yields.

Dr. Francis Nang’ayo, the regulatory affairs manager AATF, which operates in ten African countries, told The EastAfrican that the organisation in collaboration with Kenya Agricultural Research Institute has released one variety in Kenya and more three varieties are on the pipeline for release.

“The varieties are in the final stages of evaluation before the evaluation committee and will be released to farmers soon,” Dr. Nang’ayo said.

CIMMYT has also released two drought tolerant maize varieties in Kenya and plans release four more varieties are underway.

In Tanzania, the National Variety Committee has requested the National Seed Committee approval for the newly developed three drought tolerant maize varieties for release to farmers.

The scientists are also carrying out confined field trials on transgenic drought-resistant (DT) maize in Uganda and Kenya; expected to be commercialised in 2017, subject to regulatory approvals.

Currently, Kenya leads in the production of maize in the region, with production averaging about 2.7 million tonnes per year- and slightly lower than the three million tonnes consumed per annum, compared with 2.4 million tonnes in Uganda and Tanzania’s estimated 3-4 million tonnes, according to Kilimo Trust data.

However, Uganda, due to low dependent on maize for consumption, exports most of its crop to Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. END

Agriculture policy research in Uganda gets $5 million grant

The Netherlands’s Government is investing $5 million to support a four-year research on policies seeking to improve agriculture productivity in Uganda.

The project dubbed Policy Action for Sustainable Intensification of Ugandan Cropping Systems will be hosted by the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture in Uganda, together with the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Economic Policy Research Centre and the International Food Policy Research Institute.

The research will be carried out in south western highlands for Irish potatoes and Lake Kioga plains of eastern Uganda for rice. The two zones are characterised by high population pressure, small farm sizes of less than two hectares with no option for expansion, making traditional farming unsustainable.

IITA’s country repressive Piet Van Asten said the research aims to ensure that the evidence on constraints and opportunities for intensification of two cropping systems are gathered and communicated, zonal investment plans are prepared and owned by key stakeholders as well as actions are initiated for the removal of bottlenecks in national polices relevant to agricultural intensification.

“We believe that PASIC will generate vital knowledge and evidence for decision makers to plan public investments and attract responsible private entities,” Mr. Piet said.

Mr. Piet said PASIC will focus on major constraints hampering effective agriculture policy actions including fragmentation of the roles and mandates in the agriculture sector, largely due to establishment of several autonomous agencies in the agriculture ministry, insufficient funding, inadequate human resources, lengthy policy formulation and implementation as well as duplication of programmes.

The project will mainly target small holder farmers who have the capacity to intensify production through improved agronomic practices, market-oriented production or increased use of inputs.

Dutch Ambassador to Uganda Alphons Hennekens said the country’s improved agriculture productivity lies in the intensification of cropping systems by using fertilisers, improved seeds, good agronomic practices and attracting investors for buying farmers produce.

Uganda’s rice production currently stands at 250 metric tonnes per year despite of the high demand for the crop that has nearly doubled, said Agriculture Minister Tress Bucyanayandi, adding that Irish potato production has also remained low.

IITA is a Nigerian based non-profit agriculture organisation started in 1967,   working with other partners to enhance crop quality and productivity, reduce producer and consumer risks, and generate wealth from agriculture, with the ultimate goals of reducing hunger, malnutrition and poverty.

IITA's research-for-development focuses on addressing the development needs of tropical countries across Africa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EAC now eyes promoting aquaculture even as fish in Lake Victoria surges

The East African Community is now eyeing at promoting aquaculture in the region to boost food security and export earnings even as fish in Lake Victoria starts to increase.

EAC’s Deputy Secretary General Jessica Eriyo said the secretariat is developing a programme that will encourage farmers in the region embrace fish farming.

“So far, we have brought together experts on aquaculture across the region and development partners including Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency to look at the opportunities, challenges and to come up with some measures to address those challenges,” Ms. Eriyo said.

Ms. Eriyo said the secretariat has met twice with the stakeholders to work on the programme expected to be rolled out next year.

Ms. Eriyo said the new progamme is expected to boost the region’s export fish earnings given that the demand for fish within and outside the region especially Europe continues to grow.

Aquaculture, which involves cultivating fresh water and saltwater populations of fish under controlled conditions as opposed to catching fish in the wild, is one of the world’s fastest growing sources of animal protein, projected to raise 33 percent over by 2020, to reach to 79 million tonnes, says Food and Agricultural Organisation report 2012 on the State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture.

EAC states exports most of its fish to Italy, Lebanon, Jordan, Belgium, Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, Spain, Greece, and France. Other importers includes; Turkey, China, Australia, Hong Kong, Egypt, and the United States of America.

Dr. Oliva Mkumbo, the programme's focal person at the Jinja –based Lake Victoria Fisheries Organisation (LVFO) told The EastAfrican that whereas fishing sector in Lake Victoria is showing signs of recovery, a lot is still needed to curb illegal fishing especially of Nile Perch as well as promote aquaculture in the region.

 “There’s a sign of recovery but not that significant,” Dr. Mkumbo said, adding that not only illegal fishing is hampering the growth of the region’s fishing  sector  but also those using illegal fishing gears.

LVFO data shows that fish export earnings from three East African Countries-Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania- registered a 17 per cent growth in earnings in 2012 citing strict measure to curb illegal fishing and high prices at the international market.

 However, LVFO and fish exporters and exporters in the region could not state changes in prices on the international market due to continued price fluctuations on different markets.

The region exported 74,540 tonnes last year worth $340.7 million compared with 56, 040 tonnes worth $291 million exported in 2011.

In spite of the continued growth trend of the region’s fish export earnings between 1992 and 1998, the sector has since then undergone numerous challenges including illegal fishing and market shocks that have continued to affect the region’s export earnings.

For instance, the region’s fish export earnings declined from $ 130.6 million in 1998 to $ 122.7 million in 1999 when the European Union banned fresh fish imports from eastern Africa because of the cholera epidemic that hit Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. The export volumes also declined from 61, 900 tonnes in 1998 to 49,600 tonnes in 1999.

And between 2008 and   2011, the regions export volumes as well as earnings also decline tremendously from 71.700 tonnes worth $ 323.4million to merely 56,000tonnes worth $ 291 million due to illegal fishing and the effects of the euro-crisis.

The effects of the 2008 global financial crisis led to a decline in demand for fish in Europe in as countries tried to put in measures to meet the rising cost of living.

This year, the total world’s fish production, according to FAO, is projected to reach over 160 million tonnes.

Fish production is projected to reach 161.2 million tonnes by the close of 2013, showing a 2.9 per cent growth compared with 2012 whereas the value of exports is expected to grow by two per cent to $ 130.8billion.

 

Low yields could force region to adopt GM crops

In spite of ongoing campaigns against growing genetically modified crops in East Africa, the effects of climate change, pests and diseases as well as rapid population growth could see farmers in the region embrace GM crops as soon as biotechnology laws are passed.

Scientists who gathered in Kampala on September 27 to mark 10 years of the existence of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) said farmers in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi must grow GM crops alongside their conventional crops if the region is to achieve food security.

AATF is a not-for-profit organisation that promotes public-private partnerships for access to and delivery of appropriate agricultural technologies for sustainable use by smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.

Yonah Baguma, a principal research officer at the National Agricultural Research Organisation in Uganda said conventional crop breeding has proven unsuccessful in making crops to diseases and pests.

“We as scientists embarked on using biotechnology in developing resistant planting materials because conventional methods proved futile,” said Dr Baguma.

READ: East African scientists defend work on GMOs

Sterile crops

Dr Baguma added that some crops such as cassava and bananas are difficult to breed for resistance using conventional methods as they are sterile, and thus do not produce fruits.

So far, Uganda has approved and carried out field trials on banana to test black sigatoka disease resistance (2007-2009); two trials to evaluate Bacterium throngesis and roundup ready cotton (2009-2010); a trial to test cassava mosaic virus resistance (2009-2010); and two ongoing trials to test banana bio-fortified with vitamin A and iron, to test resistance to banana bacterial wilt.

READ: Ugandan scientists to start trials on GM potato for resistance against blight

The scientists are also carrying out confined field trials on GM maize to test their resistance to stem borer and drought as well as Irish potato to test resistance to Phytophthora infestans, the fungus that causes potato blight.

This puts Uganda at the helm of carrying out confined field trials on GM crops in different parts of the country.

Kenya is carrying out confined field trials on cassava to test for resistance against cassava mosaic virus, cotton for insect resistance and maize to test drought and insect resistance. The country’s scientists are also carrying out research on sweet potato for disease resistance as well as bio-fortified sorghum enhanced with vitamin A, zinc and iron.

Commercialisation

Kenya is working towards commercialising GM cotton by next year after successful field trials showed the crop’s ability to cushion farmers against high production costs. Uganda projects to commercialise the crop in 2017. Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda are yet to start trials on GM crops.

The GM cotton variety is resistant to pests and diseases, which have contributed to low yields.

In Africa, only South Africa, Egypt, Burkina Faso and Sudan have commercialised GM crops, according to the Global Status of Commercialised Biotech/GM Crops: 2012 report released by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications.

Until 2008, South Africa was the only country in Africa that allowed the commercial cultivation of GM crops, such as maize, cotton and soybeans.

In the same year, Egypt started growing small quantities of GM maize, followed by Burkina Faso, which allowed GM cotton. Last year, Sudan allowed growing of GM cotton.

South Africa accounts for nearly all of the three million hectares of GM crop plantings in Africa, dwarfing the 129,000 hectares in a largely GM-free Europe but still a tiny fraction of the 170 million hectares of global GM crops.

Globally, more land in developing countries is under GM crops compared with industrialised countries, for the first time since the introduction of the technology two decades ago, the report said.

“Out of the 28 countries that planted GM crops in 2012, 20 were developing and eight were industrial countries, compared with 19 developing and 10 industrial countries in 2011,” said the report, signifying a major shift by farmers to growing GM crops.

Many African countries are currently at different stages of enacting biosafety legislation, ranging from functional, interim and “work-in-progress” national biosafety frameworks.

Uganda GMO maize trials shows promising results

Results from the ongoing confined trials in Uganda on genetically modified maize that is resistant to the stem-borer are having promising results with the transgenic lines planted early this year showing complete resistance to the pest.

Ugandan scientists introduced Bacillus Thuringiensis, a naturally occurring soil bacterium that protects crops against pests, to maize stock obtained from South Africa to create resistance to the devastating stalk-borers (Chilo partellus and Busseola fusca). The trials are part of a three-year research project under the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) project that started in 2008.

WEMA is a sub-regional, public-private partnership project between the Nairobi-based African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) and national agro-research systems of five sub-Saharan African countries — Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa.

Michael Otim, the principal project investigator at the National Crop Resources Research Institute, Namulonge, told The EastAfrican that all the eight lines of GM maize planted in the confined field trial at the foothill of Mt Rwenzori, western Uganda, have proved resistant to the pest compared with the 12 lines of non-GM maize.

Dr Otim said the next phase will involve a second trial at Namulonge in central Uganda.

Stalk-borers are a class of pest made up of a number of moth species that lay their eggs at night on the underside of emerging leaves of young maize plants.

The larvae, or caterpillars, that hatch from the eggs, quickly make their way inside the plant, where they feed on the crop undisturbed.

Scientists say stalk-borers in Uganda are currently rampant in Kasese, western Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania; causing at least 20 per cent crop loss for farmers every year.

Scientists say if the research on the GM maize proves successful in the subsequent trials, the crop could be commercialised in the country by 2017 subject to the enactment of the biotechnology law.

Commercial release

The National Biosafety Bill, which intends to introduce biotechnology seeds and allow commercial release of GM products from ongoing research into the market, is currently before parliament for approval.

Uganda’s trials on BT maize are being carried out in tandem with those for transgenic drought-resistant (DT) maize as well as stalk-borer resistance using conventional methods.

Kenya is also carrying out confined fields trials on the GM maize resistant to the pest at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute.

Research on GM maize in Uganda comes at a time when some countries including South Africa are battling with the pest even after resorting to GM maize that is supposed to be resistant to it.

Last year, stalk-borer was discovered feeding on GM maize in South Africa even after farmers applied the refugee land strategy in managing the new generation of hard-to-kill pests.