Why Africa’s biggest adopter of GM crops changed its mind
Posted on February 5, 2016 by Brian Dowd-Uribe and Matthew Schnurr
Bt cotton reportedly increased production as intended. So why is
Burkina Faso phasing it out?
Dadjan Wassinatou, 34, holds a basket of freshly harvested cotton in
the village of Zorro, Burkina Faso. Credit: Ollivier Girard/CIFOR.
Dadjan Wassinatou, 34, holds a basket of freshly harvested cotton in
the village of Zorro, Burkina Faso. Credit: Ollivier Girard/CIFOR.
The thorny topic of genetically modified (GM) crops was recently
thrust into the global spotlight again. Speaking at the World Economic
Forum in Davos, Bill Gates said that GM crops are a necessary tool to
fight hunger and poverty in Africa.
But something Gates did not discuss was the news that the largest and
most significant African adopter of GM crops – Burkina Faso – recently
began a phase out of Bt cotton. Bt cotton is the most widely grown GM
crop by poor farmers in Africa.
Why would Burkina Faso, a nation that struggles with hunger and
poverty, turn its back on the very tools Gates and others so ardently
support?
How Burkina Faso came to be an early adopter
In 2003, Burkina Faso became one of the first African countries to
begin field trials of Bt cotton. This was done in partnership with the
agriculture company Monsanto. Bt refers to a toxin – Bacillus
thuringiensis – that kills one of the world’s most common and
pernicious cotton pests, the bollworm. Monsanto agreed to backcross
the Bt gene onto local Burkinabè varieties, which were subsequently
released to farmers in 2008.
Burkina Faso’s adoption of Bt cotton made big news. Not only is
Burkina Faso consistently one of Africa’s largest cotton producers,
but cotton is also seen as the engine driving rural development
throughout large parts of the country.
The introduction of Bt cotton has reportedly boosted total cotton
production. In 2014, Burkina Faso had the largest number of total GM
crop producers on the African continent. It has more than 140,000
smallholder farmers cultivating Bt cotton.
Burkina Faso’s success story has been celebrated as an example of how
GM crops can help poor farmers. Many farmers have enthusiastically
adopted the technology, and for good reason. Studies show that Bt
cotton has increased yields and profits. The average Bt cotton farming
family gained 50% more profit than from conventional cotton. This is
despite the very high cost of Bt cotton seed.
Bt cotton growers also use significantly less pesticide. The total
number of sprayings has gone down from six to two, reducing exposure
of damaging chemicals and saving valuable labour time.
[Read: Beyond the poverty of poverty reduction: the case of cotton]
Why the reversal?
But Bt cotton hasn’t been a blessing for everyone.
The inferior lint quality of Bt cotton has caused severe economic
losses for Burkinabè cotton companies. This has prompted a complete
phase out of all Bt cotton production over the next two years. Company
officials and Monsanto representatives cite two problems with lint
quality.
1) Bt varietals produce shorter, less desirable lint. The shorter
length means poorer quality, which in turn means a lower price on the
international market.
2) Even though cotton yields are up, the amount machines are able to
extract from the picked cotton has diminished. In other words, Bt
cotton produces both less cotton lint, and lint of an inferior
quality.
Inferior lint quality is not a big deterrent for farmers, who sell
their cotton at a guaranteed price to the cotton companies. But it is
a critical issue for the companies themselves. The combination of
shorter staples and lower lint quantities substantially undermines
profits.
These cotton companies also control the provision of seeds and inputs
to farmers and were able to unilaterally phase out Bt cotton. This is
much to the dismay of many Bt cotton farmers.
[Read: Beware the Green Revolution]
Complex debates
The story of Bt cotton in Burkina Faso underlines the complex nature
of debates around the potential for GM crops to help poor farmers. In
this case the technology does what it is supposed to do: confers pest
resistance, reduces pesticide use and increases yield. Many farmers
like it, and want more of it.
But an unexplained impact on staple length means the cotton companies
are shifting away from this technology. This technical hurdle will
need to be overcome for Bt cotton to continue as a success story in
Burkina Faso.
Burkina Faso’s reversal on GM cotton also raises some worrying
questions for the future of GM crops on the continent. Will different
GM crops also have unintended and detrimental consequences? Can the
institutions and companies in charge of their development be trusted
to transparently show both the pros and cons to their adoption?
This case also calls into question the philosophy behind GM crop
introductions – that genetically engineered scientific breeding
programmes can address farmers’ needs.
The Burkina Faso case demonstrates the perils of such a narrow, trait
specific approach to addressing agricultural development. Sometimes
focusing on a single trait – in this case pest resistance – can have
unintended and harmful consequences for other important traits – in
this case, cotton quality.
At Davos, Gates said: “Africans I think will choose to let their
people have enough to eat.”
This suggested that the advance of GM crops across the continent is
inevitable. However, after several years of producing GM crops,
Burkina Faso looks ready to abandon this technology.
Brian Dowd-Uribe, Assistant Professor, International Studies
Department, University of San Francisco. Matthew Schnurr, Associate
Professor Department of International Development Studies, Dalhousie
University. The Conversation
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the
original article.
For more on this subject, see:
Beyond the poverty of poverty reduction: the case of cotton
Beware the Green Revolution
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