 |
| Olushola Olayide, Representative of African Union Commission |
Experts at the ongoing Climate Change conference in
Marrakech, Morocco have restated Africa’s capacity to feed itself now and in
the future without genetically modified organisms.
They however warned that it will require increased
investment in climate change research, development and innovation to make
technology accessible and affordable for farmers, to enhance opportunities for
easy access to agricultural finance and insurance, to facilitate trading and
access to markets at all levels, and to create an enabling environment for
private sector investment in the agricultural value chain.
Mrs Olushola Olayide, representative of the Africa
Union Commission at the conference stated that the absence of an AU official
position on GMOs does not manifestly translate into an endorsement of the
organisms as “the continent has recorded good success stories in local food
production and conservation methods in Benin and Malawi and with these efforts
being upscaled currently, Africa will comfortably feed Africa.”
For Dr Abdalla Hamdok, the Deputy Executive Secretary
of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the GMO issue is “a debatable one
as they are problems in addressing biodiversity and loss but its potential to
create enhancement in productivity cannot be discountenanced.”
Civil society Concerns
Mithika Mwenda of the Pan-African Climate Justice
Alliance (PACJA), representing over 800
African civil society organizations
including small scale farmers, faith based organizations and indigenous
peoples at the Marrakech conference, declared emphatically that Africa can only
feed Africa when we translate words into action, put in place mechanisms and
frameworks aimed at putting more money into agriculture in line with the Abuja
Declaration, and ensure extensive implementation of the CAADP framework as well
as integrate climate change adaptation strategies into agriculture.
 |
| Mithika Mwenda |
According to Mwenda, African civil society is
concerned about GMOs because the interest of the multinationals promoting them
is at variance with the long-term interests of African farmers. “GMOs constitute
a threat to the survival of small holder farmers across Africa as it will
create more poverty and food insecurity.”
FAO
Warning
The Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) of the United Nations recently warned African countries against the use
of genetically modified organisms as they are not needed to improve food
production and are unsuitable for many countries in Africa.
While issuing the warning, Jose
Graziano da Silva, FAO Director General added that “Our position as FAO is not
that we are against GMOs but we are saying we don't need them now to eradicate
hunger."
He further expressed concerns
about the impact of GMOs on the environment as “we don't know what will happen
to areas of production and the crops.” "It is risky for continents
whose crops have GMOs; we want to ensure that proper security measures related
to environment contamination are taken.”
Expensive Technology
A report on the conclusions of
the 2008 International Assessment of Agriculture Science and Technology
(IAASTD) underlined the fact that GM is not a suitable technology for
alleviating hunger because it does not benefit small and subsistence farmers,
and it is these farmers that provide 70% of the world’s food.
The IAASTD report emphasised that agro-ecological
approaches were the most appropriate technologies to tackle food security and
hunger. Techniques focused on building organic matter in soil to help in
drought situations, utilising mixed cropping and rotations, and the use of
agro-forestry are showing they can deliver increased yield and greater
resilience.
These techniques are not reliant upon expensive inputs like
fertilisers and pesticides that GMOs rely on, and that small farmers can ill
afford.
GMOs are organisms whose genetic material have been altered using genetic engineering techniques and those modified include micro-organisms such as bacteria, yeast, insects, plants, fish and mammals.
Atayi Babs, Marrakech, Morocco
No comments:
Post a Comment