VARIOUS: SCIENTISTS IN AFRICA SAY THEY HAVE FOUND A NEW ALTERNATIVE TO CONTINENT'S FOOD PROBLEM - GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS
Record ID:
710524
VARIOUS: SCIENTISTS IN AFRICA SAY THEY HAVE FOUND A NEW ALTERNATIVE TO CONTINENT'S FOOD PROBLEM - GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS
- Title: VARIOUS: SCIENTISTS IN AFRICA SAY THEY HAVE FOUND A NEW ALTERNATIVE TO CONTINENT'S FOOD PROBLEM - GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS
- Date: 3rd June 2002
- Summary: (L!1) MANDERA, KENYA (FILE - MAY 31, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) VARIOUS WOMEN WITH SICK BABIES UNDER A MAKESHIFT HOUSE WIDE SHOT MOTHER WITH BABY CLOSE UP AND EMACIATED BABY SV: MOTHER HOLDING A BABY CLOSE UP EMACIATED BABY PAN OF MANDERA CAMP
- Embargoed: 18th June 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MANDERA, NAIROBI, MARAGUA, KENYA/ SOUTHERN SUDAN / KAMPALA, UGANDA / IBADAN, NIGERIA / ROME, ITALY
- City:
- Country: Sudan Kenya
- Topics: Quirky,Science,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
- Reuters ID: LVAF0WXUTCNSXYHIN1DLNJAWB0YR
- Story Text: Scientists in Africa say they have a new alternative
to the continent's food problem. They are offering an option
to food relief by introducing genetically modified foods.
The upcoming World Food Summit in Rome will discuss
the need for adequate food for the world's population. It is
expected that various ethical issues surrounding food and
agricultural production will be raised.
Wars and poor rain are often blamed for Africa's famines,
but the reality is more complicated. Food insecurity is
commonplace even in countries where there's no war -- and with
aid agencies pumping food into any corner of the continent
that needs it, governments have come to rely on outside help
to feed their people.
Now, scientists are trying to sell a new solution to
Africa, an alternative to food relief: Biotechnology, or
rather genetically modified foods.
The idea is to create pest and drought resistant crop
species - which many believe is the only way out.
Romanon Kiome, the Director of the Kenya Agricultural
Research Institute, KARI, says: "I'm not trying to say that
bio-technology is the silver bullet to resolve all our food
problems but there is very good opportunity, it has a very
high potential of resolving some of our problems we've been
unable to resolve with the conventional science."
Uganda is one country where it's already being put into
practice.
The country was reeling from a devastating cassava mosaic
disease harvests dropped dramatically and the disease also
spread to other parts of Eastern Africa.
They have since started growing the new varieties
developed by the National Cassava Programme with the
assistance of the International Institute of Tropical
Agriculture.
And in Kenya' central province, small-scale farmers are
also seeing benefits from biotechnology. When the deadly
Panama and Sigetoka diseases wiped out entire banana
plantations, it caused a localised famine. So they decided to
try the new technology.
"With the traditional bananas it used to take about one
and a half or about two years. So I would say these ones grow
faster, they have bigger bunches and I think there test is
also palatable, so I believe they are better," says Samuel
Kamau a farmer in Kenya's central province. He has been
involved in genetically modified crops for the last one year,
though he has been a farmer for the last decade.
But not everyone is convinced - after all, the genetically
modified foods are a sensitive issue, given that the long-term
effects of dabbling with nature in this way are still unknown.
"The issue with genetically modified organisms is a bit
more complicated and complex because it involves releasing
into the environment a man-made plant and what the problem
there is that we are using genes which are not really from the
plant kingdom so we don't do exactly what nature does," says
Dr Hans Herren, the Director General of the International
Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, ICIPE.
Already this issue has sparked fierce scientific and
ethical debates in Europe, where many governments have placed
strict policy guidelines that regulate the biotechnology
industry. But the information so readily available to Western
consumers is hard to come by in developing countries.
With no clear guidelines on genetically modified
foodstuffs by African governments, companies involved in
genetically modified foods have found an ideal testing ground
on the continent.
It's big business. Some Western companies are turning a
very real humanitarian problem - food insecurity - into a very
lucrative enterprise by selling super plants to starving
nations. Many in Africa fear that biotechnology will end up
with countries loosing the little control they still have over
their natural resources.
Despite calls for free trade on the world arena, Western
governments continue to enforce policies that protect their
own national agricultural sectors, which makes it more
difficult for developing countries to sell their agricultural
products in the West.
So it's not surprising that some in Africa feel this is a
classic case of western double standards.
"So the question is what measures will we take
internationally to ensure on the one hand that these
technologies are safe for human health and for environment?
What measures can we take to ensure that if we develop these
technologies is not in the hands of few people or few
countries but they can be available for humanity and they can
be effectively used in all parts of the world", says Jacques
Diof, The Director General of the Food and Agriculture
Organisation, FAO.
The debate is long and complicated. And in the absence of
protective laws that protect the environment and the African
citizen, it is hard to find a common ground. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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