The Use of GM Crops in Developing Countries
Are alternative forms of agriculture, such as organic farming, better suited to improve agricultural practice in developing countries?
4.4 Farmers in many developing countries currently practise a form of organic farming. They are unable to afford artificial fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides. Some people in developed countries view this situation with approval and think that it is a particularly ‘natural’ and desirable form of agriculture. Often, they are unaware of the intensive inputs which are supplied by organic farmers in developed countries. But organic farmers in developing countries are usually not able to provide the continuous enrichment of the soil with fertiliser. On closer inspection ‘organic farming’ in developing countries takes on a different meaning. Most crop yields are too low to provide leftover material to replenish the land. Livestock produce poor quality manure which is mostly burned as fuel. Moreover, cattle are absent from large parts of Africa. Organic manures are little used as fertilisers, and exhaustion of soil nutrients is therefore widespread, leading to rapid soil degradation. Infestations of pests can seldom be countered effectively.4
4.5 As a consequence of these difficult conditions, crop yields are low. For example, yields of maize, rice and sweet potato are on average approximately half of those in developed countries.5 In most of Africa, yields of staple crops are lower still. In addition, we have noted the devastating effect of fungal pathogens, viruses and weevils (see case studies 5 and 6). It is unlikely that organic farming alone can cope with these challenges and provide the basis for sustainable agriculture.
4.6 This view does not imply that other important strategies in agricultural research and practice should be neglected. For example, integrated pest management can be a useful way to combat Striga, a weed that attacks maize. Research has shown that planting maize together with the legume Desmodium uncinatum can help to control Striga. Biological control has also been an effective means of combating the cassava mealy bug. The introduction of a South American wasp, a natural enemy, has helped to reduce the impact of the pest.6 Thus, many factors can contribute to improving agriculture. The development of better adapted crops is as important as the development of alternatives to inorganic fertilisers and pesticides, or the improvement of soil and water management.
4.7 As Gordon Conway, President of the Rockefeller Foundation, has recently observed, the question of whether agriculture should be improved by biotechnological approaches, rather than by more effective use of resources and alternative methods, is hardly ever a question of ‘either/or’. It is mostly a situation of ‘both/and’: ‘the best technology is the one that will safely get the job done in the simplest and least expensive way possible’.7 Thus, while in some cases, organic farming has the potential to improve agricultural practices of small-scale, resource-poor farmers, it seems highly unlikely that it can address all of the serious problems which they face.8 For example, growing rice in semi-arid areas (see case study 2), protecting crops from viral or fungal diseases (see case studies 5 and 6) or producing crops with higher levels of micronutrients (case study 4) may require other solutions. In these cases, the use of GM crops may be the more promising approach. We therefore take the view that sustainable agriculture can be achieved most effectively when the relevant approaches and practices are combined, as appropriate.
Footnotes4 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.
5 FAO (2002) FAOSTAT. Available: http://apps.fao.org/. Accessed on: 20 May 2003; Qaim M (1999) The Economic Effects of Genetically Modified Orphan Commodities: Projections for Sweet Potato in Kenya ISAAA Brief No. 13 (Ithaca, NY: ISAAA).
6 Herren HR (1995) Cassava and Cowpea in Africa, in Biotechnology and Integrated Pest Management, Persley GJ, Editor (Wallingford, UK: CABI Publishing); Khan ZR et al. (2002) Control of witchweed Striga hermonthica by intercropping with Desmodium spp., and the mechanism defined as allelopathic, J Chem Ecol 28: 1871–85. However, we note that, just as with the introduction of any new crop variety, whether GM or non-GM, all such measures have to be carefully considered with regard to their impact on biodiversity (see paragraphs 4.28-4.34). In all cases, a reasonable application of the precautionary approach needs to take place.
7 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 With regard to alternative ways of improving agricultural practice, Pretty et al. found one or more of the following four mechanisms to show significant effect: intensification of a single component of a farm system, addition of a new productive element to a farm system, better use of water and land, improvements in per hectare yields of staples through introduction of new regenerative elements into farm systems, and new locally appropriate crop varieties and animal breeds. See Pretty JN, Morison JIL and Hine RE (2003) Reducing food poverty by increasing agricultural sustainability in developing countries, Agr Ecosyst Environ 95: 217–34.