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Ugandan Farmers Told To “Use Genetically Modified Seeds For National Food Security”

Ugandan Farmers Told To “Use Genetically Modified Seeds For National Food Security”

A Harvard University professor tried to overcome Ugandan farmers’ objections to genetically modified seeds by invoking national food security at a lecture in Kampala.

Ugandan national food security could be substantially improved by using genetically modified organisms (GMOs), according to an article in All Africa.

Resisting new technology won’t help develop Africa and Uganda, said Professor Calestous Juma, director of the Science, Technology and Globalization Project at the Harvard Kennedy School. Juma spoke at the Association for Strengthening Agriculture Research in Eastern and Central Africa.

Juma tried to dispel what he called false rumors that GMOs have bad effects. “I urge Ugandans to adopt them,” he said. “Biotechnology and in particular GMOs are not more risky than conventional plant breeding.”

Juma compared the potential of biotechnology and genetic engineering for agriculture to mobile technology and what it did for communications in Africa. However he added flexible and supportive biotechnology regulations are needed and asked the Ugandan Parliament to pass the Biotechnology Bill.

Technology can transform livelihoods, Juma said, and warned that if Africa didn’t embrace GMOs in agriculture, problems like climate change, pests and diseases that have affected agriculture for years would diminish production to “shocking levels.”

In support of GMOs, Juma cited the banana bacterial wilt which has devastated banana crops in Uganda, saying if farmers planted GMO banana varieties resistant to the wilt, the problem could be solved.

Governments should empower their institutions to effectively check safety standards of each GMO product introduced on the market rather than focusing on rumors that harm the reputation of GMOs, he said.

He credited biotechnology with a 24% increase in cotton yield per acre and a 50% growth in profit among American smallholder cotton farmers between 2006 and 2008.

Biotechnology also raised consumption expenditure by 18% in that period, he said. Studies show that  pest-resistant GMO crops also suppressed pests beyond areas where they were originally planted, thus helping farmers who don’t grow GMOs, Juma said.

Genetic engineering, he said, would make agriculture more attractive to youth and reduce their departure from rural areas to seek jobs in the towns.