The Use of GM Crops in Developing Countries
Possible benefits
1.7 GM crops (see Box 1.2) might offer advantages where other forms of plant breeding, agricultural practice or farm land management are not suitable to address particular problems prevalent in developing countries. Genetic modification can provide improved resistance to disease and pests. It may enable the production of more nutritious staple crops which provide essential micronutrients, often lacking in the diets of poor people. GM crops that are better suited to cope with stresses such as drought or salty soils, common to many developing countries, are also being developed.7
| Genetic modification allows selected individual genes to be transferred from one organism into another, including genes from unrelated species. The technology can be used to promote a desirable crop character or to suppress an undesirable trait (see paragraphs 3.4-3.17). |
1.8 Furthermore, proponents note that GM crops might prove to be an important tool in accelerating the increase of crop yields, especially of staple crops.8 This might be particularly relevant for small-scale, resource-poor farmers in developing countries. Seventy per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas and about two-thirds of these rely primarily on agriculture for their livelihoods.9 Increased yields through improved seeds normally lead to higher demands for labour in agriculture. This usually implies growth in employment income among the malnourished, and would have a positive effect on their ability to afford sufficient food. Such developments would be valuable. It has become clearer that both the reduction of poverty and growth in crop yields have slowed in most of the developing world since the 1980s. Moreover, poverty has persisted and crop yields have remained low in most of Africa, the poorest continent of the world.10 In this Paper, we examine which kinds of GM crops have been grown in particular developing countries, and assess whether there have been, or are likely to be, significant improvements for farmers who grow them. However, any deliberation about the benefits of a technology also needs to address likely risks.
Footnotes7 Thomson J (2002) Genes for Africa: Genetically Modified Crops in the Developing World (Cape Town: University of Cape
Town Press); Conway G (2003) From the Green Revolution to the Biotechnology Revolution: Food for Poor People in the 21st
Century. Speech at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Director’s Forum. 12 March 2003. Available:
http://www.rockfound.org/documents/566/Conway.pdf. Accessed on: 10 Oct 2003.
8 The term staple crops refers to crops which are mainly used for household consumption. By non-staple crops we mean crops
which are grown predominantly for sale.
9 World Bank (2003) World Development Report 2003 (Washington, DC: Oxford University Press and World Bank).
10 Between 1987 and 1998 the percentage of people living on less than US$1 a day in sub-Saharan Africa remained unchanged
at 46%. See World Bank (2001) World Development Report 2000/2001: Attacking Poverty (Washington, DC: World Bank and
Oxford University Press); Huang J, Pray C and Rozelle S (2002) Enhancing the crops to feed the poor, Nature 418: 678–84.