When farmers in India first heard of biotech-engineered cotton 20 years ago, a few scoffed at the idea while others embraced it.
A team of scientists at Monsanto had developed Bt, a variety of cotton that required less spraying and produced more bolls per cotton plant.
It had been genetically modified to produce Bacillus thuringiensis, a substance that is harmful to the cotton bollworm, which is a major obstacle to the growth of cotton bolls.
This insect resistance can lead to savings in chemical pest control and higher effective yields in farmers’ fields
According to a document on Bt cotton published by the ministry of Trade, the crop produces a substance that harms caterpillar pests but does not pose any threat to human health.
“When the caterpillar feeds on the Bt cotton plant, its digestive system is weakened, making it unable to feed and it eventually dies.
However, Bt is very specific and not harmful to humans and other animals. It has been used in organic farming as a spray for over 50 years to control insect pests,” reads the document.
Fed up with the damage brought by pests such as the cotton bollworm, the farmers took up the crop.
Just 20 years later, the crop’s total yield across the expansive Asian nation has increased by 50 percent.
“Nationwide, for the 26 million acres currently under Bt, this implies an annual net gain of almost 50 billion rupees or Ksh111.4 billion in cotton profit,” reads a report published in 2012 by researchers Jonas Kathage and Matin Qaim.
In 2019, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISSAA) reported that the planting area of Bt cotton in the world had reached 24.9 million hectares.
Despite these gains, the crop’s adoption is still sluggish on the African continent. This is because most African farmers are yet to exploit the opportunities that BT presents, according to a number of experts.
Kathage and Qaim’s study suggests that genetically modified crops, including Bt cotton in India, have reduced chemical insecticide use by 37 percent, increased crop yields by 22 percent, and increased farmer profits by 68 percent.
The improved crop yields also saw the living standards of farmers’ families increase by 18 percent between 2006-2008.
According to agronomist and biotech researcher Kennedy Oyugi, Africa is not only lagging behind through reduced cotton productivity but is also seeing reduced earnings from the crop.
“We lose around 2.5 billion as a continent every year due to the failure to adopt biotech in our agricultural enterprises,” Mr Oyugi told The Scholar Media Africa during an interview.
In 2019, Kenya granted approval for the cultivation of the Bt variety. So far, one metric ton of seeds has been distributed to demonstration farms spread across the country to create greater awareness of the variety.
Some of the counties targeted in the seed distribution exercise that kicked off on November 6, 2020 include Kirinyaga, Tharaka Nithi, Kitui, Embu, Meru and Makueni.
According to Dr Margaret Karembu, who is the director of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) and chair of the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB-Kenya), the Bt variety represents a new lease of life for cotton cultivation in the country.
“Bt has been proven to be a reliable alternative to conventional cotton both in terms of improved yield and reduced pesticide usage. Its adoption could not have come at a better time for the cotton sub-sector,” she said.
Meanwhile, South Africa and Sudan are way ahead in the race for better cotton.
The two countries are currently cultivating a cumulative 0.3 million hectares of Bt cotton.
Kenya’s cotton yields continue to remain low, with the annual production recorded at 25,000 bales in 2017.
This was compared to a potential yield of 700,000 bales. This has resulted in a number of farmers abandoning the crop for more profitable alternatives on their farms.
Cotton is grown in 24 out of 47 counties, with less than 10 including it in strategic plans for the agricultural sector in 2019.
If adopted, the Bt variety can produce up to 1,200 kilograms per acre compared to the traditional variety that produces between 580 to 800 kilograms, with yields of just 200 kilograms reported in some areas.
According to Dr Charles Waturu who is the principal investigator leading the country’s Bt cotton project, the crop requires only three to four cycles of spraying. Conventional cotton on the other hand will take up to fifteen cycles of spraying, a costly and tedious affair.
“BT Cotton is protected against pests like aphids and white flies. It is therefore an attractive prospect for any cotton farmer looking for good yields and reduced spending on pesticides,” says Dr Waturu.
The main challenge in cotton cultivation is pests which have reduced the average harvest of cotton lint and seed to 211 kilograms per hectare and 572 kilograms per hectare respectively, compared to a potential of about 925 kilograms per hectare for cotton lint and 2500 kilograms per hectare for cotton seed.
Pest control takes on average 45 percent of all production costs, presenting a major obstacle that has been the major contributor to the collapse of the cotton sub-sector.
Africa averagely exports about 1 billion USD worth of cotton every year. This represents a paltry 2 percent of the total cotton grown on the globe.
Adoption of the crop in Kenya and other African states could prove to be the game changer in the continent’s efforts to increase its cotton output and secure a reliable income for farmers.
The recently signed African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA) also provides the continent with a wider market.
While admitting the place of cotton in the country’s agriculture and industrialization sectors, Trade and Industrialization CS Betty Maina has pointed out the decline of the industry in recent years.
“Cotton that is allied to the manufacturing sector has played a key role in the government’s industrial agenda, the CS told participants at the close of the African Biotech Summit on September 22, 2021.
“The cotton sub-sector and related enterprises were once big and thriving projects that employed many people. The sub-sector has been in decline over the last few years. Farmers have challenges including poor seed varieties and pests which deprive the crop of its productivity,” said Dr Maina.
“As a result of reduced yields, smallholder farmers have been getting demoralized,” the CS said in a candid virtual speech.
She noted that most cotton ginneries on the continent had closed, with a few remaining operational albeit at great cost.
“Most ginneries have closed operations and those that are open still do so at high operating costs,” she said.
She added her voice to the experts’ call for widespread adoption of genome editing and other biotech methods by experts
“Let us be conscious of genome editing as a potent and positive technological advance that can help us address our agricultural output challenges,” Dr Maina said.
On his part, Mr Oyugi laments that the slow uptake of Bt Cotton and other genetically modified or gene-edited crops continues to stand in the way of the continent overcoming production bottlenecks caused by conventional crop varieties that are susceptible to pests and unpredictable weather.
“The worrying situation has also persisted despite the advances made by scientists from the continent in developing drought and pest resistant varieties of important crops such as cowpeas, bananas, rice and maize. We are still slow to adopt these crops which have been developed by Africans for Africans,” said Mr Oyugi.
He points out that the current regulatory environment is designed to view genetic modification of crops as a threat to human existence, a perspective he terms “inaccurate and sadly misguided”.
“All these stringent rules that block or restrict biotech crops hurt no one but ourselves. If we continue to enforce them, our upcoming innovators and entrepreneurs will be forced out of business as they will not be able to afford regulatory costs,” he said.
According to the scientist, the continent should aggressively innovate and keep abreast with the technologies available to improve agricultural output.
“In all honesty, Africa needs more technology, not less. The current strides that other scientists are making are admirable and the continent should emulate them,” he said.
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