Elita Chikwati Agriculture Reporter
Agriculture experts have urged Government to remove the ban on genetically-modified stockfeeds and allow confined field trials of GM cotton and other crops to boost production and maintain a competitive edge on the global market.This was said by University of Zimbabwe researcher Dr Idah Sithole Niang at the Agriculture Policy High Level Stakeholder Validation workshop.Presenting a paper recently titled “Strategies for Enhancing Crop and Livestock Production”, Dr Niang said biotechnology was an option to increase yields, especially in cotton. She said major cotton producers such as India, China and South Africa were producing GM cotton while Denmark and Europe were feeding their livestock with GM stockfeeds and the produce was being traded globally.
Dr Niang argued that Zimbabwe could still maintain her export market edge since some of the destinations were also producing GM crops. “GM is not a silver bullet, but can contribute significantly to finding solutions to these challenges. The concept of GMO through plant transformation involves identifying genes of interest for a trait for instance insect resistance genes and insert into an organism of interest.
“Genes can come from a variety of sources including plant species, another crop or organism,” she said.Dr Niang said between 17 and 18 million farmers in 28 countries were producing GM crops. Twenty of the countries are developing nations, while eight are industrialised. “In Africa, South Africa grows GM potatoes, sugarcane and maize. Kenya produces cotton, maize and cassava, while Malawi produces cotton, cowpeas and bananas among other crops.
“Zimbabwe once conducted trials but it was stopped while other countries progressed,” she said. She raised concern over reduced planting, poor pest control and poor prices for crops. “The world leading cotton producers — India, China, Australia, Brazil, South Africa — have adopted 90 percent BT cotton. Over 70 percent of the cotton traded globally in the world is GM. Europe uses GM stockfeeds for livestock while Denmark uses GM soya in pigs that produce the popular Danish Ham traded globally.
“In 2014, Zimbabwe imported 3 988 tonnes of chicken from South Africa. South Africa exported 66 355 tonnes to regional markets. South Africa produces 82 percent GM maize, 95 percent GM soya and 95 percent GM cotton. SA poultry producers have a competitive advantage over Zimbabwean producers who are not allowed to produce GM stockfeeds.
“On safety, BT toxin binds together to specific receptors in the insect midgut which is alkaline. Alkaline activates toxins. The human gut does not have these receptors and is acidic. BT toxin works for specific insects,” Dr Niang said.
However, some researchers complained that the paper was only glorifying GM products and did not give the negative impact of the technology on human beings and the environment.