Drought-hit Zimbabwe farmers push government to lift GMO ban
12 Aug 2011 22:30
Source: alertnet // Madalitso Mwando
By Madalitso Mwando
GWANDA, Zimbabwe (AlertNet) – With poor crop yields now a perennial problem
and this year looking worse than ever, subsistence farmers like Thumeliso
Mabasa have become living proof of an old adage: desperate times call for
desperate measures.
He and other farmers are being advised to lobby for the use of genetically
modified crops – currently banned in Zimbabwe – as a way of dealing with
worsening extreme weather linked to climate change.
Volatile climatic patterns in southern Zimbabwe’s Matebeleland, particularly
in low-rainfall rural areas like Gwanda, south of Bulawayo, are seeing
farmer livelihoods being destroyed with little they can do to mitigate their
losses.
Each year Mabasa plants his crop, and each year he knows the crop will fail.
He says maize – the country’s staple – has failed him each year. But he is
reluctant to switch away from the crop he prefers, despite being advised by
extension officers to plant drought resistant varieties of other small
grains.
Instead, he is pondering whether genetically modified (GMO) crops could be
an answer.
“I have been in the city (Bulawayo) and was advised by some people that we
should lobby for the planting of genetically modified maize crop, which we
are told is drought resistant,” he said.
GOVERNMENT RESTRICTIONS
Zimbabwe’s government, however, has for most of a decade banned the import
of genetically modified maize seed, citing environmental and health
concerns. As food security has weakened in the country, the government has
agreed to accept genetically modified milled maize into the country as food
aid, but continues to insist it will not allow such maize to be grown in
Zimbabwe.
Advocates of genetically modified crops, however, say that resistance may
need to change as traditional crops bear the brunt of changing climate
patterns, and as the country continues to need food aid.
Parts of this year’s harvest was destroyed by floods that hit parts of
southern Africa early this year, as well as by extremes of heat and then
winter frost that followed in quick succession.
The U.S.-backed Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), which
monitors food security, says millions of Zimbabweans will require food
assistance this year.
Mabasa said the government had provided fertiliser to assist farmers but it
had not helped boost yields.
“Even with the help of fertiliser we have not been able to get the best out
of our land,” he said.
Hubert Sibanda, another farmer, says farmers need a better long-term
solution to their problems, and if that means planting genetically modified
crops, he “does not mind.”
“We need to eat and we need government assurance that they can help us plant
what we want, even in the form of these (genetically modified) crops,”
Sibanda said.
Genetically modified milled maize, grown in neighbouring South Africa,
continues to flood into the country as Zimbabwe’s own farmers fail to grow
enough to meet demand.
Growing the same maize locally could not only improve farmer incomes, but
also stave off hunger among millions lining up for food assistance, said
Gamaliel Sobuza, a climate change researcher with Zimbabwe Climate Change,
an NGO in Bulawayo.
CATCH-22
“There is a kind of Catch-22 for government, and it is that either they
reverse what has been a long time policy and let researchers work with these
small-holder farmers to develop GMOs or refuse to acknowledge this need and
continue appealing for food assistance,” Sobuza said.
Farmers in low-rainfall areas “need crops that are drought resistant and
that could mean GMO research alongside developing organic types to provide
farmers with options,” he said.
Researchers from the Zimbabwe Organic Producers and Promoters Association
(ZOPPA), however, are not convinced.
“There is little to be gained by local farmers as these (GMO) varieties have
not yet shown us that they can improve and safeguard farmer produce,” said
Timothy Panganai, a researcher who has worked with ZOPPA.
“More work needs to be done before farmers take this up as it (could)
threaten the environment,” he said.
An alternative, he said, might be to adopt high-nutrition and
drought-resistant crop varieties being developed by the International Crops
Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). The organization has
embarked on a sub-Sahara-wide research effort to find better adapted crops,
including for countries like Zimbabwe, but its work has yet to filter down
to Zimbabwean farmers like Mabasa, researchers said.
Madalitso Mwando is a journalist based in Harare, Zimbabwe.