AGRA Annan's ambiguity over GMO use ratchets up African biotech debate

The statement at a Nairobi news conference by Kofi Annan, Chairman of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), that they would not incorporate GM technology into their strategy for boosting agricultural productivity reverberated around the globe.

Though the journalists present felt they represented Annan well, AGRA and others thought that he and AGRA had been misunderstood. Some thought AGRA would never incorporate GM technologies into their strategy while others thought Annan was more nuanced in saying that GM technologies are not apart of AGRA's "initial strategy."

But if GM technologies were not part of the first phase of AGRA's work, then the alliance was not clear on when GM technologies would be incorporated, if ever.

Mindful of the tension between GM proponents, opponents, and those in between, AGRA released a "Statement on Plant Breeding and Genetic Engineering" to clear up the controversy. They stressed that AGRA was not against the use of GM crops, but was focusing on conventional methods because it could generate quick successes and fits within the regulatory framework of African countries.

Organisations that support the use of GM technologies in African agriculture issued a response welcoming the clarification. For them, and many others, it seemed strange that the Rockefeller and Gates Foundations, who have and currently support GM technologies in other initiatives and institutions, would be against the use of GM crops in Africa.

Did the journalists get it wrong, or did AGRA shift its position to appease the various pro-and-anti-GM crowds? The truth is probably somewhere in between these two extremes. Could Annan's perceived ambiguity and AGRA's nuanced shifts in its statement be a part of an effort to pander to those for and against modern bio-technologies in Africa at the same time? Perhaps no one will ever know whether AGRA was pressured into avoiding GM technologies by anti-GM environmentalist groups, simply saw GM as unfit for their "current" strategy, or actually dealt with a combination of both realities.

But the controversy has reopened the GM debate and whether genetically modified technologies are a critical element in the battle for Africa's food security. The opinions of 11 experts, scholars, bio-technology scientists, economists, professors, government leaders, political scientists, and private sector officials were sought on this issue.

Many of them believe that Africa can achieve food security without GM crops, but stress that they should not be excluded from the overall strategy on fighting hunger.

Dr.Victor Konde, coordinator of the Africa Technology Development Forum, said, "Africa can achieve food security without GMOs but should not ignore them. A green revolution that ignores GMOs is just as far fetched as one that is entirely based on them."

Kenyan agriculture ministry Permanent Secretary Romano Kiome said, "I believe that Africa can achieve food security without GMOs, but let us also accept the fact that they may contribute to the continent achieving the goal."

Others believe that GMOs are either irrelevant for African farming systems or could distract the continent from a more integrated strategy for addressing food security.

Hans Herren, the director of the Millennium Institute in Washington, says, "Yes, Africa can achieve food security without GMOs and it will probably do even better without the promise of a quick fix as many envisage with the use of GMOs."

Zeyaur Khan, the principal scientist at the International Center for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), doubts that GM technologies fit within the farming systems of poor African farmers.

Dr. Florence Wambugu of the Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International (AHBFI) believes that African countries "must use all technologies to address the challenges facing agriculture. It's not an either/or situation."

Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Professor of International Affairs at The New School (New York) and editor of the recently published GM Crops and Unequal Development explains, "My main concern with ruling out investment in GMOs in African agriculture is that African farmers will not be able to compete in world markets; importing rice, wheat and maize will be cheaper than producing sorghum, maize, cassava, plantains and other staples locally."

GM maize has increased productivity and reduced prices in the US and elsewhere; GM rice and wheat may be coming into the market in the foreseeable future.

With commercial GM technologies being available for slightly over a decade, the countries that underwent green revolutions did so without GM technology. Konde points to West Africa, which improved its food supply faster than Central, Eastern and Southern but behind North Africa. Egypt, for example, has virtually weaned itself out of food aid over the last four decades- from being one of the largest recipients in the 1970/60s. None of these increases in food production can be attributed to seed technology alone, he says.

The real question is whether conventional crops grown in Africa can compete with GM crops on the international market in the short and long term. Food security, according to Prof. Fukuda-Parr, is not only a function of feeding oneself but being competitive in the global market.

Will GM rice and wheat from elsewhere, for example, depress the market price for African rice and wheat grown through conventional breeding?

Wambugu says that while some developing countries with food security issues (e.g., Iran, China, South Africa, Slovakia, Honduras and the Philippines) have aggressively pursued the new GM technologies , most African countries "have been held back by confusion over the international debate, lack of bio-safety regulatory frameworks and a lack of infrastructure to effectively engage in the technology. No African country that was food insecure in the 1990s has achieved food security by 2007. In fact, African agriculture has been in steady decline."

So the paradox is that while GM technology was not necessary for a historical Green Revolution, but it may be harder without it today for countries to achieve food security and compete in the global agricultural market as other countries employ newer technologies for production.

David Nyameino, Chief Executive Officer of the Growers Association of Kenya, remarks, "Africa's food insecurity is more than a matter of science. The current technologies in research stations are under-utilised due to several factors and if fully utilised Africa will definitely be food secure. If factors such as infrastructure, organised markets, farmers' capacity to produce commercially, etc. are not addressed, the introduction of GMOs will also be yet another technology to sit on the selves."

But what is obvious for Wambugu is that in the absence of dramatic increases in agricultural productivity through the latest technologies, infrastructure investments alone will not achieve sustainable food security in Africa. "Improving roads, upgrading produce markets or supplying farm equipment is of little effect if the farmer is unable to harvest more produce of better quality with less inputs and at a lower cost," she said.

Fukuda-Parr points to the fact that the Green Revolution in other places was driven by the public sector, not the private sector. She says, "The fact that GMO development has so far been dominated by global corporations has stigmatised this technology. Global corporations have used this technology for profit, not for food security, and so have targeted the needs of profitable crops in the US, not the needs of poor farmers in Africa."

For Herren, the AGRA initiative does not seem very different from other initiatives established to achieve a Green Revolution in Africa. He comments, "So far it just a repetition of what has been done in the past and failed to work.What is needed is a much more holistic approach to agriculture. We need to much better understand the wider system, look at where the key blockages are and devise a strategy that involves all parties concerned."

But Dr. Peter Matlon of AGRA thinks there is something special about this initiative that others have not done before. "There hasn"t been any program that has examined the entire supply chain for the key inputs. And we will be doing that very explicitly and in a very targeted fashion to attack the constraints along the supply chain," he said.

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