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Contributions from
the Column
Monitor
Peacekeeping: No reason to fear of civilian-military cooperation
BMZ budget increases
USA approves Indian three-in-one AIDS pill
D+C author under pressure in Togo
Genetic modifications: Uganda: in search of pest-resistent bananas
Liberia: timber embargo lifted
UN budget released
German government assesses crisis-prevention policy
Gender-related violence: Good governance includes protection for women
A single roof for GTZ and KfW
Poor countries lack tax revenues
8-9/2006
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[ Genetic modification ]
Ugandans in search of
pest-resistant bananas
With a per-capita consumption of almost 15 kilograms per year, Germans are considered great banana enthusiasts. But the Ugandans are the world champions in banana consumption: on average, they devour more than 200 kilograms a year and, in some regions, even more than 400 kilograms. Cooking bananas are the most important staple food in Uganda – and provide the livelihood of many Ugandan farmers, who consume a large share themselves and sell their produce at local markets. Only a fraction is exported.
Cultivating bananas is not easy. According to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington, 30 to 60 % of the Ugandan harvest falls prey to pests and diseases. In a recent study, the institute concludes that Ugandan farmers would therefore benefit from genetically modified (GM) varieties, which wouldn’t be harmed by such enemies. However, such GM bananas do not yet exist; and it will probably be years before they do.
In its study, the IFPRI assesses various factors which would determine the demand for genetically improved bananas. First of all, one would have to genetically enhance those local varieties that farmers and consumers accept. Second, the GM plants would have to be brought to the farmers via the established distribution channels. In Uganda, farmers usually exchange suckers among one another, or keep them in small privately or publicly run mother gardens. (Most banana varieties are sterile and can only be multiplied by using suckers from a mother plant.) Third, according to the IFPRI researchers, farmers’ ability to perceive the advantages of the GM varieties would also be crucial. They would have to observe in the field that pest infestations are decreasing and understand the reason. If these conditions were met, then genetically modified cooking bananas would be “a potentially pro-poor application of biotechnology”, the IFPRI study claims.
However, there is still no guarantee at all that there will ever be pest-resistant East African highland bananas. The Ugandan National Agricultural Research Organisation has been working on the issue for six years, with international support from a number of organisations and governments, including the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Britain’s Department for International Development, the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP) in Montpellier and the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. Shortly after a new biotechnology laboratory opened near the Ugandan capital Kampala in August 2003, INIBAP gloated that the first genetic transformation of local cooking bananas could be expected within a matter of months.
Yet three years on, this objective is still far from being reached. So far, the Ugandan researchers have only succeeded in regenerating a few local banana varieties from individual cells. The next step is to insert rice or papaya genes with the desired properties. After that, it will still be a long way to growing mature GM plants.
Frank Shotkoski, Director of the USAID Agricultural Biotech Support Project II, estimates that farmers in Uganda will be able to grow the first genetically modified plants in five to ten years. Before then, however, the Ugandan government still has to pass a law on genetic modification, regulating the handling of GM organisms. According to the UN Environment Programme, which advises developing countries on biosafety matters, that step is imminent. However, the draft legislation has been sitting in the drawer for years.
Once all technical and political hurdles will be overcome, the Ugandan GM bananas will still have to show in the field that they meet the expectations – or whether there will be a repetition of the virus-resistant sweet potato’s episode. Kenyan plant breeders had worked on that project for ten years; in this case, too, a GM variety was supposed to serve particularly poor African farmers and consumers. However, the manipulated potato did not grow any better than conventional ones did in the field trials. Research was discontinued without any meaningful results. (ell)
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