Africa is grappling with food insecurity, climate change shocks as well as pests and diseases, which limit farm productivity on the continent. As of 2022, 282 million people in Africa were undernourished — up from 278 million people in 2021 — while 30 per cent of the continent’s children (or about 63 million children) were stunted, according to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023 report published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

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As certain African nations have legalised genetically modified organisms (GMOs), primarily for food and crops, others like Rwanda have introduced bills to explore the benefits of modern agricultural biotechnology. The New Times’ Emmanuel Ntirenganya interviewed Vitumbiko Chinoko, the manager of the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB) Project, to discuss the current state of GMO adoption on the continent, its potential, and the concerns surrounding it. This interview took place in Nairobi, Kenya, during the conclusion of the first-ever African Conference on Agricultural Technologies (ACAT).

Excerpts:

What is the current state of biotechnology or GMOs (biotech crops) in Africa?

I can say that we have seen an improvement. In 2001, we only had two countries in Africa that had good biosafety laws, and also commercialising and growing biotech crops — South Africa and Egypt. And a year later or so, Sudan came through as the third country.

In 2023, the space has really improved. We have seen Egypt slack behind a little bit, they can import but they cannot grow within the country. That’s what their framework looks like.

We do have Malawi in Southern Africa with very good safety laws and commercialised Bt cotton. We have Mozambique in Southern Africa which has very good biosafety, and they are about to commercialise maize.

Within East Africa, there is very good progress in Kenya where they have commercialised Bt cotton, they are about to commercialise cassava and maize.

Again in East Africa, you’re looking at Ethiopia which has commercialised Bt cotton and we hope that very soon they are also going to commercialise maize because the process has really progressed very well.

We’ve also seen within East Africa, very progressive steps in terms of ensuring that there is an enabling environment in Rwanda, that now has a biosafety law, and we know that research is already happening on cassava within the country.

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In West Africa, we have seen a bold movement towards food crops. So, we have seen in Nigeria where they have commercialised PBR (Pod Borer Resistant) cowpea which is a major food crop and the source of protein for most Nigerians, and this is now the third year that farmers are growing, communities and families are eating GMO food crops. And this is the first GMO food crop within the Sub-Saharan Africa.

This is why I feel like mentioning Nigeria as a good example where most Africans can learn in terms of how we can deal with the fears that have come from the anti-technologists that GMOs are unsafe because in Nigeria they are growing, they are eating and there is nothing that is happening.

But very soon, also in West Africa, there is going to be commercialisation of cowpea in Ghana and in Burkina Faso.

What potential does agricultural biotechnology present for Africa?

Overall, when you look at the challenges of the agriculture sector that Africa is facing, African governments are deciding to also include biotechnology as a tool to fight those challenges.

Those challenges include climate change which is a common and widely acknowledged challenge where some of the technologies that we have been using have been falling apart, and now people are looking up to biotechnology as one of the solutions that can help deal with the problem.

The other challenge that we’ve had is population growth. By 2050, Africa will be the most populous continent and Africa will need to meet the increasing food demand, therefore, there is a need to ensure that we have technologies that are able to help us produce enough food and address food insecurity.

The other challenge is the nutrition element. Africa is the most malnourished continent. One of the things we have seen is that biotechnology can help us improve the nutrition status of some of the food crops that we are growing.

Lastly, at the macroeconomic level, one of the things that have been acknowledged is that 60 per cent of the food that we eat in Africa is imported, and the reason why we are importing that food is that we do not produce enough to meet the demand that is there.

Now with all the resources that we have, all the expertise the continent has, it is important to address that by ensuring that we are able to grow food on our own and indeed reduce that food import bill to something that is manageable.

How is agricultural biotechnology helping tackle the current issues including climate change shocks, pests, and diseases that destroy crops?

I will run through the different countries that have commercialised GMOs. In Kenya, we have commercialised GMO/Bt cotton. And when you look at the yield advantage that comes with GMO cotton, farmers are reporting about 50 per cent yield advantage compared to conventional variety.

This is because the GMO cotton variety is pest-resistant, uses fewer pesticides, and increases the yield for farmers.

When you look at the maize variety that we commercialised in South Africa for example, it also has a yield advantage of 30 per cent.

ALSO READ: Drought, pest-tolerant biotech maize gaining foothold in Africa

But I think the most important example is perhaps the PBR (Pod Borer Resistant Cowpea) cowpea from Nigeria where this GMO technology helps to arrest a pest which is called Maruca (a damaging legume insect pest) that can destroy your cowpea up to 90 per cent, meaning that if you are unlucky to be attacked by Maruca you can almost harvest nothing.

Take an example of a GM cowpea (legume) variety resistant to Legume Pod Borer, one of the most damaging insect pests.

Now, imagine a farmer who has lost [almost] everything and a farmer who is able to harvest up to 90 per cent of what he can get.

So, we have seen a lot of examples and I think we have seen that GMO technologies have a lot of advantages and if properly crafted, it is also something that can contribute to the economic empowerment of households.

There are worries that biotech or GMO seeds or crops would result in Africa being dependent on mega-companies that developed them (and own their patents), and it would be costly for farmers to adopt them because of the implicated prices. What do you say about this?

I have a short-term response to that, but also a long-term response.

The short-term response is this; if you work with AATF, then issues around cost do not arise, because part of the cost of these technologies are royalty costs, IP (Intellectual property) costs, [and] AATF gets in between to broker for these technologies and absorbs those costs. So, at the end of the day, a farmer will still get these technologies royalty-free, they would go and buy these varieties as if they are buying a normal seed.

Working with AATF has that advantage where it deals with all these negotiations that need to happen, and all the cost elements that also come with it.

The long-term or strategic response is this; the reason why those technologies are expensive in terms of seeds and everything else is because somebody else developed them and they have to gain from it. And this is why we are encouraging African governments to be able to develop their own technologies.

For most GMO technologies that we have in Africa currently, we have not yet been able to develop our own capacities and, therefore, we are having to import these technologies into our countries. And this is why they are coming with the cost element that you are talking about.

So, my strategic response to that is to let our governments enable researchers to come up with these technologies in-country because when we do that, we substantively reduce the cost element.

What are the challenges regarding agricultural biotechnology or GMO adoption in Africa?

We’ve seen that there is a tremendous impact of adopting biotechnology in different countries, and we have seen that despite the benefits of biotechnology very few countries have adopted it. And the question is why that is the case.

Firstly, it’s the fact that if you don’t have a good law, if you don’t have a facilitating law, then you cannot adopt these technologies. We still have a gap in terms of enabling laws that can help you to adopt these technologies.

Secondly, we still have a lot of misinformation, and disinformation around biotechnology where we have fears that biotechnology can cause diseases, enhance the role of multinationals, and take away the seed sovereignty of farmers and all that. I wish to mention that even those fears are not true.

What we are doing as AATF through OFAB is to go out there and inform people about all these misconceptions, lies, and propaganda against technologies, and it is very important to ensure that people out there have correct information on what these technologies are all about.

The other challenge is indeed investment because all these technologies require that we invest, they require that we have institutions that train biotechnologies, and laboratories that are able to do these technologies, and most of our countries are not yet at that level.