South Africa Says Monsant's 'Drought Tolerant' GM Maize Seed No Better Than Conventional Seed

South Africa's Agriculture Minister, Thoko Didiza, has upheld a decision to reject agriculture chemical company Monsanto's application for the commercial cultivation of its triple stacked ‘drought-tolerant’ maize seed.

The maize is genetically modified (GM) to be tolerant to drought as well as resistant to certain insects.

Didiza made a final decision on an appeal lodged by Monsanto SA against the decision taken by the executive council regarding the general release application of a GM maize event, MON87460 x MON89034 x NK603.

Its refusal was based on the fact "that kernel count per row and kernel count per ear showed that there were no statistically significant differences between the MON87460 x MON89034 x NK603 maize event and conventional maize in water limited conditions.

"The yield benefits associated with the MON87460 x MON89034 x NK603 maize event were inconsistent and in some trials the MON87460 x MON89034 x NK603 maize event had lower yields than the conventional maize.

"The insect resistance data presented was insufficient since it was only collected from one trial site for two planting seasons," her department said in a statement issued October 04 m2019 .

Monsanto lodged an appeal in November against the refusal of its general release application by the executive council.

The appeal board upheld the decision to refuse the application and recommended more sites and seasons were needed to demonstrate efficacy of the drought tolerance gene.

On August 28, Didiza made the final decision, upholding the appeal board's decision "and as such the refusal of a general release application for the MON87460 x MON89034 x NK603 maize event is sustained".

The African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) welcomed the "landmark decision", after more than a decade of "battling Monsanto’s bogus drought tolerant maize project".

The decision, it said, was a "triumphant win" for the ACB and other civil society organisations on the continent that had "tirelessly resisted the introduction of these GM varieties in SA, Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

"The Minister's decision was made following the abject failure of the GM varieties to increase yield under drought conditions during repeated field trials in SA.

Full article...

Kenyan Farmers Grow Maize For Animal Feeds Amid Changing Climate

About a decade ago, maize was mainly grown in Kenya as a food crop, with the cereal being the east African nation’s staple. Over the years, however, many farmers are growing the crop for animal feeds in a shift prompted by the changing climatic conditions.

While some of the farmers, who are dairy keepers, are growing the crop to feed their herd, others are farming it for sale in what has turned out to be a more profitable business.

The rains in Kenya have become extremely erratic, affecting maize growing which is mainly rain-fed in the east African nation. This year, for instance, the long rain season in Kenya that usually lasts for three months from March to May was barely a month long, according to the Meteorological Department. This affected maize planting, with most of the crop in the country’s breadbaskets of western and Rift Valley currently at tussling stage instead of being harvested.

In other regions, however, most of the crop failed due to low rains. But farmers who plant the crop for making animal feeds – mainly silage – harvest at an early stage thus avoid ending up with a failed crop due to erratic weather.

Maize prices currently stand at an average of 3,500 shillings (about 33 U.S. dollars) for a 90kg bag but prices normally decline to as low as 10 dollars when most farmers harvest.

... the early harvesting saves farmers the cost of fighting pests, harvesting, drying and storing the grain before transporting it to the market for sale.

Maize is harvested for making silage at four months when their seeds are soft, but not milky if squeezed open. If harvested at the right stage, the crop has more starch than sugar.

Full article...

New Marketing Policy Threatens Zimbabwean Maize Farmers' Viability

When the government here announced a policy requiring farmers to sell their grain only to the state-owned Grain Marketing Board at a fixed price, Beauty Sandukwa dutifully delivered her maize.
Sandukwa has worked the land for nearly 20 years. This year, she harvested 42 tonnes of maize from 20 hectares.

But she says the government didn’t keep its end of the bargain. “It’s been four weeks now, but I have not been paid,” she says.

The new policy isn’t the only thing causing Sandukwa’s instability. In 2015, she says she signed up to receive farming supplies through a program called Command Agriculture, which first launched that same year. Under that program, the government dictates the types and volume of crops a farmer will produce, as well as the price at which they will be sold. In exchange, the farmer receives supplies, including seeds and fertilizer.

The government said that the program would help replace imported maize with domestic maize. But farmers said the promised supplies were delivered late, or not at all.

Sandukwa says she received 1 tonne of fertilizer through the Command Agriculture program, the cost of which will be deducted when she sells her maize to the Grain Marketing Board. The problem, she says, is that she doesn’t know what that amount will be.

When she needed additional fertilizer and supplies, she says, the government couldn’t provide them. Now, she buys them herself. “l ended up selling one of my cows to cover the costs,” she says.

The new regulation requiring that farmers sell their maize to the Grain Marketing Board was enacted in June. Under that regulation, farmers are no longer allowed to move more than 250 kilograms (551 pounds) of the crop from one area to another, unless it’s being transported to the Grain Marketing Board.

Rockie Mutenha, the general manager for the Grain Marketing Board, says the regulation is meant to keep maize from being smuggled to other countries, as well as to protect farmers from unscrupulous buyers.

The Grain Marketing Board will use the maize to ensure the nation’s food security, Mutenha says.

For farmers, though, the regulation makes growing maize unaffordable. Seeds, fertilizer and other supplies were purchased using U.S. dollars, which was the gold standard currency in Zimbabwe when the growing season began. But the Zimbabwean government has since issued its own currency, which swings wildly in value.

Mutenha says the Grain Marketing Board has increased its fixed price per tonne from 726 Zimbabwe dollars ($72) to 2,100 Zimbabwe dollars ($208) to account for inflation.

But that’s not adequate, says Antoinette Chigwe, the chief economist at Commercial Farmers Union, a major farmers’ organization. If the government continues to force farmers to sell to the Grain Marketing Board, many will likely abandon farming in upcoming seasons, she says, or break the law.

“They may need to look for more lucrative markets,” Chigwe says.

Full article...

Illicit Imports Add To Kenyan Farmers' Competitiveness Challenges

Agricultural products between Kenya and its neighbours in the East African Community can be traded duty-free. However, collusion between traders and border officials is suspected to also result in the illegal duty-free import of large quantities of commodities from outside the EAC.

This compounds the problems Kenyan farmers face, which include relatively low productivity.  

Article...

Zimbawe: Seed Treatment Chemical To Fight Fall Armyworm Infestation

Agrochemical company Syngenta is set to introduce a maize seed variety treated chemically, which is said to protect the developing seed against the pest for several weeks after germination.

A spokseman for a company distributing Syngenta products in Zimbabwe said, "FD is a seed treatment chemical.It will have an effect of protecting the crop against fall armyworm during its early stages. It remains in the plant system for the first four weeks after germination, so you won’t need to spray against FAW during that period.”

He said the seed was undergoing necessary regulatory approvals before it was released on the market. The seed has been introduced in countries such as Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Canada, China, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay and Turkey.

Full article...

Southern African Countries Record Reduced Cereal Production in 2019

Namibia, Malawi and South Africa saw a decline in cereal production of about 65,000 metric tonnes compared to 2018, a report has shown.

These are preliminary findings under the crop production and vulnerability assessment report for Southern Africa, which was presented at the joint meeting of Southern African Development Community (SADC) ministers responsible for agriculture, food security and fisheries and aquaculture taking place in Windhoek, Namibia, on June 3rd 2019.

According to the report, the three countries recorded a total of 153,000 metric tonnes of cereal for the 2018 season and only 88,000 metric tonnes for 2019 crop season.

Xinhua

Rain Failure Worsens Armyworm Attack On Kenyan Maize Farms

This is the third year in a row that the pest is attacking maize in the east African nation, with agriculture experts noting that the vagaries of climate change are getting worse.
The armyworm attack is expected to be worse this season due to insufficient rainfall, according to agricultural experts. This is because the current dry weather following failed rains offers perfect conditions for the fall armyworms to reproduce and spread faster to other areas.

Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization, a government agency, has warned that this year’s armyworm invasion would be worsened by the erratic rainfall.

Besides pesticides, the ministry of agriculture is advising farmers through an SMS service to use ash and even soapy water to eliminate the pests.

Full article...

Namibia's 2019 Maize Harvest A 'Catastrophe'

In the absence of the much needed late rains in March, maize producers in Namibia will only be able to supply less than 30 percent (some 30 000 tonnes) of local demand. This will be some 25 000 tonnes less than last year when the country harvested 57 000 tonnes and supplied 47 percent of domestic demand.
The CEO of Namib Mills and Namib Poultry, Ian Collard, says Namibia requires roughly 120 000 tonnes of white maze for human consumption and some 50 000 tonnes of yellow maize for animal fodder.

... Namibia will have to import some 180 000 tonnes of maize this season. The most lucrative of these products is white maize, and the local marketing scheme ensures local millers must first use all local white maize before the deficit can be imported.
Due to the government’s agreement with producers and manufacturers the harvest increased from some 5 000 tonnes in the 1990s to more than 10 times that in 2018, but this season everything has been undone.

Collard says yields are lower in Namibia due to rainfall, soil quality, farm practices as well as the fact that only non-genetically modified organism (GMO) seed is allowed to be planted in the country.

Full article...

Benin Achieves Record 2017/18 Maize Harvest

Maize production in Benin reached a record 1.6 million tons during the 2017-2018 season, compared to 1.2 million tons two years ago, according to the ministry of agriculture’s figures.

Article...

Biological Control Of Fall Armyworm Shows Promise

An egg parasitoid, Telenomus remus, could prove an important biological weapon in the fight against the devastating fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) that threatens the food security of more than 200 million people.

Dr Marc Kenis, Head of Risk Analysis and Invasion Ecology at the CABI Centre in Switzerland, led an international team of researchers from seven countries, who suggest Telenomus remus provides a 'great opportunity for the rapid deployment of a biological control agent' for fall armyworm in Africa.


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Original Research Paper...

Drought causes massive reductions in Namibia cereal production

A large swathe of southern Africa experienced below-average rainfall in the 2014/15 summer cropping season, causing big drops in the yields of many staple and other crops.

A report released by the Namibian government indicates that communal areas of mostly small scale subsistence farming experienced maize production reductions of as much as 80% below average, and 73% below harvests for the 2013/2014 season. Even in areas of large scale commercial farming, the maize harvest showed a drop of 46% less than last season’s harvest and 12% below the average production.

The national coarse aggregate production (maize, millet, sorghum and wheat) is estimated at 67 800 tonnes, reflecting a substantial decrease in the harvest of about 46% below the average production and 49% lower than last season’s harvest. (...more)

 Even in normal times a large coastal desert and a generally hot, dry climate contribute to Namibia having among the world's lowest maize yields of less than half a tonne a hectare.

African Agriculture

Contradiction between climate change findings and crop cultivation recommendations to Africa

There are now many studies which suggest that rising temperatures and reduced rainfall will make the farming of many African staples more difficult. So there is nothing particularly new or surprising about a new CGIAR study that says yields of maize, wheat and rice may significantly decrease as a result of climate change.

Among other things, the study says that in Africa maize output may decline by 10 to 20%. Irrigated wheat and rice could drop by 13 and 15% respectively in developing countries.

Yet just a few weeks ago there was a much publicized suggestion that Africa could and should be growing more wheat.

What should African countries do about wheat in light of these seemingly clashing findings?

Strictly speaking there is no real contradiction in them. The wheat study said Africa was in general only using up to about 15% of its wheat growing potential. So even if that full potential is going to be reduced, there is still a lot of scope to increase African wheat cultivation from its current low base.

But if African countries are already battling to raise lower-than-needed levels of the more basic staples, rice and maize, should they further thin their resources by significantly attempting to increase wheat production, even if they theoretically can? Would they perhaps be better advised to put all their energy and resources on increasing production of rice and maize before worrying about the 'luxury' staple of wheat?

The answers to these questions are far from easy.

Chido Makunike

African Agriculture

Kenya expects record maize harvest in 2012

Kenya is expecting to harvest a  record 38 million 90kg bags of maize in the current season despite the devastating effects of a disease that has destroyed thousands of hectares of the crop.

“General maize production has gone up from 30 million bags. We expect 38 million bags. Demand is 38--39 million,” said an agriculture ministry official.

Coastweek

As Kenya officially accepts GM technology, anti-GM activists shift focus to mandatory labeling

Kenya made big headlines in mid 2011 when the the government made it legal to import gene-modified maize. Many were surprised by the development but shouldn't have been. It was the culmination of several years of behind the scenes work at several levels to bring Kenya into the GM fold. In the next few years it is expected that the local cultivation of a number of GM crops, euphemistically said to be undergoing 'trials' for the last few years, will also be legalized.

This is a done deal from which there is no going back, but that doesn't mean that all Kenyans are happy about it. The legalization of GM maize imports was a stunning repudiation of the arguments of anti-GM activists. Having lost the battle to keep GM food and cultivation out, they have now moved their tactics to trying to push for mandatory labeling of GM food, the idea being that consumers can make an informed choice about what they consume. It is questionable whether any significant proportion of consumers in most countries worry about reading the ingredients-list on food they buy, but the anti-GM people can't be seen to have totally surrendered the fight. Besides, full disclosure of the contents of food sold to the public sounds like a perfectly reasonable enough demand, although the GM foods lobby in countries like the U.S. has been fiercely against such measures.     

An official of the African Biodiversity Network (ABN) has recently poked holes in the argument that the great East African drought and subsequent maize crisis in Kenya is what partly spurred the legalization of previously banned imports of GM maize.

Ann Maina asks why GM maize imports were allowed when Kenyan farmers in the country's maize surplus areas were not able to find markets for their crop during the national shortage of 2011. She also says the price of the imported GM maize was much higher than that of then locally available non-GM maize.

Maina's implication is that the the decision to allow imports of GM maize into Kenya had nothing to do with maize security concerns.

 In maize-dependent countries, the importation of this staple crop is often a fraught, controversial exercise often plagued with accusations of a long line of politically connected middle-men all wanting a piece of the action. In many countries, the longer the importation chain, the more opportunities for the many levels of middle-men to profit (and profiteer) from the process.

Maina also points out what she says are other irregularities about the GM maize importation decision and the process.

Writes Maina, 'In the US now, there is a big push to label GM foods and Kenya is also in the process of doing so. It is fundamental that we ensure our population have a right to choose the kind of food they want to eat. It is thus important that Kenya be not used as a dumping ground or human testing ground for GM varieties that have been rejected elsewhere.'

All these arguments are coming rather late in Kenya. For better or for worse, the local and international political and commercial forces allied together to put Kenya firmly in the GM camp have arguably won a victory that the anti-GM activists can do very little about now. It will be interesting to see if the calls for GM food labeling in Kenya make much headway, and if so, if they will make much difference to consumers.

African Agriculture 

An example of blended agro-ecological and conventional farming: growing maize with 'fertilizer trees' and reduced inorganic fertilizer

Nitrogen-fixing 'fertilizer trees' have long been used by farmers in farming-difficult areas such as parts of the Sahel. Rainfall is poor, the soils are often sandy and infertile, and yet there are several varieties of acacia and other nitrogen-fixing trees which do well there.

That these trees benefit other crops growing under or between them has long been known. What is perhaps fairly new in recent years is the more scientific study of the phenomenon, and its deliberate encouragement in parts of Africa that have not previously widely used these trees as an additional soil fertility supplementation strategy.

Given all this, 'Can Integration of Legume Trees Increase Yield Stability in Rainfed Maize Cropping Systems in Southern Africa?' seems like a somewhat superflous question whose answer is already known.

Nevertheless, researchers at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) have been undertaking a 12 year study to find answers to the question. The 'hook' they used to justify the study and give the impression of finding something new was that they were studying the 'stability' of the yields of maize intercropped with Gliricidia sepium.

Amongst the findings:

* the control fields of conventional (inorganic fertilizer-using) maize monocultures had the highest

* close behind were the yields for maize intercropped with Gliricidia sepium and then supplemented with 50% of the inorganic fertilizer that would normally be used in 'conventional' maize monocultures.

This is an interesting practice long used by 'resource poor' farmers-using 'agro-ecological' farming techniques to stretch out and supplement the relatively small amounts of inorganic fertilizers they can afford to buy. This is real world small holder farming, not the pie-in-the-sky 'fully organic or death' mantras mouthed by activists in cushy donor-funded offices in town, worlds away from the realities of scratching out a living from the land..

The study's conclusion: "Maize yields remain more stable in maize–gliricidia intercropping than in fertilized maize monoculture in the long term, although average yields may be higher with full fertilization."

Hardly a ground-breaking study or findings, but still interesting.

African Agriculture

Zambian farmers complain of late payments for maize sales to grain reserve body

The 2012/13 rain/cropping season in Zambia is just beginning, and some maize farmers complain that they are yet to be paid by the Food Reserve Agency  for deliveries of last season's harvest.

Vice President Guy Scott has apologised and appealed to small scale farmers to remain calm, saying  government was working on speeding up the payment process to farmers who supplied their maize to the FRA. He pledged that all suppliers would be paid by the end of November.

For some farmers, this will come too late to prepare for planting for optimal yields. Planting of maize in Zambia is advised for about mid-October.

African Agriculture

Zambia to double maize reserve to one million tonnes

"Instead of buying 500,000 tonnes of maize as strategic reserves we will increase that to 1 million tonnes so that we are in control of the situation," said Emmanuel Chenda, Zambia's minister of agriculture in August.

The boosting of the strategic reserves through locally purchased maize was to take place in the four months from July to October this year, he said. October is the beginning of the new rain and cropping season.

Zambia will also limit exports to keep prices of the staple food low as global grain prices surge, the minister said.

Chenda also said that the government will centralise the issuance of maize export permits to closely monitor sales outside the country. Zambia exports maize to countries within Africa, including South Africa.

The price of maize in Zambia is currently around 65,000 kwacha ($13.27) per 50 kg bag.

Zambia's maize output declined by about 6 percent to 2.8 million tonnes in the 2011/2012 season from 3 million tonnes last year.

Chenda said, however, Zambia still had a huge maize surplus because of carry-over stocks from last year but would be careful to ensure that local prices remained under control.




Reuters

Kenyan research bodies clash over cause of Maize Lethal Necrosis

by Gatonye Gathura

The disease threatening to wipe out this year’s maize crop had by the end of August spread to four provinces.

A task force established by the government to look into the crisis says the disease, which was first reported in Bomet last year, has spread to Rift Valley, Nyanza, Eastern and Central provinces.

It has destroyed crops on more than 90,000 hectares, according to the task force which presented its findings for the first time in public on Thursday.

“Where the crops were infected when young, losses are up to 100 per cent, ” Dr Anne Wangai, a member of the task force and a senior researcher with the Kenya Agricultural Institute (Kari), said.

The report reveals glaring conflicts between what the researchers have found out and what the Ministry of Agriculture has been telling the public.

Dr Wangai says the disease is caused by two different viruses working in cahoots.

She told the annual Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa in Nairobi that extensive trials both locally and abroad had confirmed that the infection was a viral disease.

But a statement issued by Agriculture minister Sally Kosgei in June, and posted on the ministry’s website, said the disease was also caused by a fungus.

“Confirmed results now indicate the combination of disease causing pathogens as mainly viruses and fungi... a fungus has been detected as one of the pathogens involved in the disease complex,” the statement said.

However, independent research by Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate (Kephis) was categorical that the disease was caused by a fungus.

Following Dr Kosgei’s statement, Kephis managing director James Onsando changed position but maintained that this was a new disease caused by a combination of viruses and fungi.

Kephis are part of the task force investigating the disease; so are several seed companies.

“The minister’s statement does not contradict our findings,” Dr Onsando told Saturday Nation without elaborating further.

However, scientists at International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) are also categorical that the disease is caused by a virus.

“A combination of two viruses has been confirmed to be responsible for the Maize Lethal Necrosis Disease. This fact is now well established,” Dr Fred Kanampiu of CMMYT said.

Asked why Kephis could have got it so wrong, if indeed they are wrong, Dr Wangai argued that just like HIV, where an infected person is easy target for opportunistic infections, this may have been the case.

“A plant infected by these viruses has low immunity and will succumb to other infections, including fungal,” she said.

But scientists, who did not want to be identified for fear of victimisation, attributed the conflicting findings to sibling rivalry between Kari and Kephis, with the minister choosing to appease both. “One is dead wrong and the government knows which one, but does not want to hurt anybody’s ego,” a source said.

But the confusion between facts, politics and commercial interests does not end there.

The government in its statement is also categorical that the disease is not transmitted through seeds.

“The disease affects all varieties of maize and we have confirmed that it is not seed borne,” Dr Kosgei said. “There is therefore no fear of spreading the disease through seed that is supplied by seed companies.”

But it has emerged that researchers have not established this as a fact. In fact they are screening seeds to determine whether they could be spreading the disease.

“We are conducting tests to verify seed transmission of viruses in local cultivars,” Dr Wangai said.

According to the task force report, a study done elsewhere in 1991 found seeds to be a possible transmission route.

Speaking on condition of anonymous, scientists attending the Thursday meeting and another one for science journalists in Nakuru a week ago, said seed companies afraid of compensating farmers and hurting their businesses are fighting against any attempt to link the disease with their products in spite of the facts.

While new in Kenya, Dr Wangai said the disease was first detected in Peru in 1973 and later in the US, Argentina and Mexico.

However, the report from Kephis suspects the disease to have originated from a maize seed production farm in Taveta, which had a similar problem in 2003.

Daily Nation

Maize Lethal Necrosis reduces yields for some Kenyan farmers by up to 60%

An apparently previously unknown-in-Kenya maize disease is reported to be ravaging the crop in the areas where it has been found. Dubbed maize lethal necrosis, it makes the crop turn yellow and dry up, but little is known about the mode of transmission.

Researchers at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization are worried about the disease but don’t yet know enough about it to make any specific recommendations to farmers.

However, reports from KARI offer hope that there are maize hybrids that are resistant to the virus that causes the disease. Farmers are also being encouraged to plant alternative crops in order to break the virus transmission cycle.

Since it was first reported in the Bomet County area in September 2011, maize lethal necrosis is said to have affected at an area of least 75,000 hectares.

African Agriculture

Issues of concern about Malawi's farming inputs subsidy programme

Malawi’s late president, Bingu Mutharika, reportedly treated his country’s much praised farming inputs subsidy scheme “as a personalised presidential programme, kept that way by the numerous awards that were conferred on the president in recognition of the FISP's achievements.”

So writes Blessings Chinsinga, associate professor at the University of Malawi. He further explains, “It was not possible for technocrats to address concerns by development partners, however constructive, because of Mutharika's heavy and direct involvement in the programme.”

Although he was said to be very unpopular when he died a few months ago, Mutharika is widely credited for spearheading Malawi’s current maize self-sufficiency through the Farm Input Subsidy Programme. He instituted it in the face of opposition by ‘international development experts’ and the country's donors, on whom Malawi is said to depend for up to 40% of its budget. Although the donors later came on board on seeing its successful results, perhaps it is not surprising that Mutharika was subsequently sceptical about the advice/concerns raised by the foreign ‘experts’ that are always part of any aid package.

The previous opposition of the donors and their ‘experts,’ as well as Mutharika’s arrogance on the success of his programme meant that he was not much interested in listening to what they had to say. The unofficial aid rule book says that the recipient must take the advice packaged together with the money by the donor, but perhaps Mutharika’s ‘I told you so’ success gave him more leverage in this situation than would be the case in most cases.

However, Mutharika’s thumbing his nose at the donors’ concerns about certain aspects of the FISP did not mean that they were without validity.

Among them, Chinsinga says, were “…the lack of transparency in the cost of the FISP, especially in relation to overheads, and excessive interference in the award of FISP contracts. They worried that the FISP had become more or less a means for settling political debts, since preference in the award of the contracts was given to those with very close ties to the government, whether their bids were competitive or not.”

Chinsinga points out that despite the fact that the FISP is clearly not sustainable as currently structured and (donor) funded, “subsidies have become more or less an integral part of the social contract between the government and citizens. A government that discontinues the FISP risks voter backlash. In other words, maize subsidies are at the core of Malawi's politics. “

Chinsinga’s article is thoughtfully written and a very good read. It is important because of how almost all the issues he touches on in regards to subsidies and food security apply to most African countries.

African Agriculture