Dried maize crops due to drought. Photo/courtesy.
The National Biosafety Authority (NBA) completed it’s 30 days public participation request on the open cultivation and commercialisation of Genetically Modified maize alias Bt maize varieties in Kenya. This month, the Authority will review the submissions, considering all reservations before approving environmental release and commercialisation of the GMO crop expected by April this year.
Bt maize is a Genetically Modified crop developed to be resistant to pests such as Fall Army Worm (FAW) and stem borers which have adversely reduced crop yield in the past. The new crop promises to greatly increase yields, consequently increasing farmers profits and a more stable supply of country’s staple crop.
On 3rd October 2022, President William Ruto, in response to severe drought faced in over 40 years (with 1.4 million people facing high levels of food insecurity) lifted the ban on cultivation and importation of food crops and animal feeds produced through biotechnology.
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Previously in 2012, GMO was banned due to lack of sufficient evidence concerning GMO impact on public health in consumption of such foods. This ban prohibited the use of untested GMO by local authorities but didn’t prohibit use of Bt crops. For instance, On December 2019, the Cabinet approved Bt Cotton to be cultivated in effort to revive the textile industries.On June 15 2021, the NBA approved environmental release of Bt Cassava.
Concerns on GMO crops
Various stakeholders have reservations on the safety of the GMO crops. However, the NBA Director of Biosafety Research and compliance, Josphat Muchiri, assures the public of their safety, dismissing all claims that are without scientific evidence.
“What we can assure the public is that measures put in place to ensure safety of GMO products will guarantee that any product approved, following channels of approvals, are safe,” he says.
“There is a lot of misinformation in the public… that GMOs would cause this or other but to date, we have not found any scientific evidence to link some of those things the public have been fed with,” he added.
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While there is skepticism on GMO still lingers, some farmers are eager to cultivate the Bt maize as it promises high yields and at a lower cost of production compared to organic seeds.
“We are requesting KALRO which is incharge of releasing these seeds to accelerate the process of dispatching the seeds to the common farmer. So that we can benefit from the program as soon as possible,” said a farmer from Machakos during a training seminar on Bt maize this week.
