What lifting GMO ban means for Kenya

[NAIROBI] Kenya’s decision to lift a ban on importing and producing genetically modified (GM) food could boost research and development in biotechnology and alleviate food insecurity in the country, food experts say.

At a cabinet meeting earlier this month (3 October), the Kenyan government lifted a ten-year ban on the importation of GM food to combat climate change and foster food security in a country hit by a global food crisis driven by extreme weather.

GM foods are produced from organisms whose genetic material has been changed by introducing the gene of a different organism through a process called genetic engineering.

In 2012, Kenya’s cabinet banned the importation of GM maize following a controversial study led by French scientist Gilles-Eric Séralini that linked consumption of GM foods to cancer in rats. The study was later debunked by further European research.

“This is the right decision for Kenya in increasing food production and enhancing food security.”

By Sylvester Oikeh, African Agricultural Technology Foundation

With the deepening food crisis and poverty levels globally and in Kenya, experts say a reversal of the ten-year-old policy is a step in the right direction.

“This is the right decision for Kenya in increasing food production and enhancing food security,” says Sylvester Oikeh, project manager for Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) at the Nairobi-headquartered African Agricultural Technology Foundation. “It shows that the government is ready to assist farmers to enhance food productivity and reduce importation of food.”

“We have the science and the technologies to transform our agriculture. What we need is political goodwill and this is what has happened in Kenya,” Oikeh tells SciDev.Net.

He says the decision could pave the way for other East African countries to embrace biotechnology to boost agricultural production.

Benefits of lifting the ban

Oikeh believes the decision could also put Kenya on track to eliminate hunger.

He says drought-tolerant and insect-resistant maize varieties developed by the WEMA project are ready to be adopted by farmers but could not previously be approved in Kenya because of the ban.

“These varieties are likely to double maize yields using less pesticides which then reduces the cost of production for farmers,” Oikeh explains.

He criticised anti-GM crusaders for not using science to make their case.

“This technology is transforming other countries such as Argentina, Brazil, South Africa and the United States. Kenya’s decision will now open room for more research and development of technologies that will help farmers combat climate change and increase agricultural production,” Oikeh says.

The 2022 global hunger index published jointly by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe indicates Kenya’s level of hunger as “serious”.

According to Oikeh, an analysis shows that every year 14.5 million Kenyans are food insecure.

In September Kenya’s government dispatched relief food to families of Kenyans in northern and eastern parts of the country currently experiencing severe droughts and hunger.

Why the decision was upturned

The Kenyan government says that it reversed the ban after considering factors such as guidelines of the Kenya National Biosafety Authority (NBA) and a need  to adapt to climate change and reduce reliance on rain-fed agriculture, according to a dispatch after the cabinet meeting on 3 October.

“Cabinet vacated its earlier decision of 8 November 2012 prohibiting the open cultivation of genetically modified crops and the importation of food crops and animal feeds produced through biotechnology innovations; effectively lifting the ban on GM Crops,” the statement said. “Open cultivation and importation of white (GM) maize is now authorised.”

In the same meeting, the Kenyan government lifted an embargo on the commercialisation of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton, a GM cotton variety that is resistant to African bollworm, a devastating insect pest.

Kenya’s President William Ruto, in a tweet this month (3 October) after the ban was lifted, said: “We are adopting emerging and new alternatives to farming that will ensure early maturity and more production of food to cushion millions of Kenyans from perennial famine.”

But Ann Maina, the national coordinator of the Biodiversity and Biosafety Association of Kenya faulted the government’s decision to lift the ban saying that there was no sufficient evidence that GM technology would help the country combat food insecurity and have socio-economic benefits.

“We also lack sufficient capacity to regulate GM because the NBA is limited in both human and financial resources,” Maina tells SciDev.Net. She challenged the Government to increase investments in research to support institutions such as the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Organisation to carry out research that will help develop local innovations and technologies to spur agricultural growth.

This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.