Are GM crops a solution to increasing droughts across Africa?

In this blog post I discuss the potential use and challenges of genetically modified crops (GMOs), with a focus on drought-tolerant varieties.

With the agricultural industry being the world’s largest consumer of freshwater (~70% of global freshwater use) and demand projected to increase by 60% over the next 5 years, it is now more important than ever that water conservation practices and policies are implemented across all agriculture spaces (Boretti and Rosa, 2019). This need is exacerbated by the rising threat of extreme weather events and shifts in climatic patterns. In consequence, droughts across Africa have become more frequent, intense and widespread over the last 50 years and are likely to worsen in the future (Masih et al., 2014). This will inevitably have a widespread impact on agriculture with over 95% of farms in sub-Saharan Africa relying on rain-fed agriculture. Drought conditions in 2010 and 2011 led to a decrease in cereal production and significant livestock mortality which was ultimately a key driver of the 2011 famine in Somalia (Hillbruner and Moloney, 2012). More recently in 2016, 29 million people across southern Africa were made food insecure due to an El Nino induced drought leaving many in need of vital food aid (Muzhinji and Ntuli, 2020).

To continue using agricultural land with increasingly unreliable water supplies, technological solutions such as GMOs might be necessary. Given the controversial nature of GMOs, this post tries to understand if they can be a part of the response to drought-stricken regions across Africa and help achieve and sustain the 2nd UN SDG.

But first what are GM crops?

Put simply, the genes of GM crops have been altered to express a certain trait. The altering of crop genetics is not new given the practices of selective breeding which has occurred for centuries. However, GMOs refer specifically to precise gene editing technology which transfers genes from one organism to another. GMOs have been around for over 40 years with the major commercialized GM crops involving herbicide resistance genes or toxins fatal to pests. Current GM seed technologies are advancing with new traits such as bio-fortification, resistance to fungi and viruses, salinity and drought tolerant varieties (Godfray et al., 2010).

Are GMOs safe?

GMO crops are now well-established globally with their increase in cultivated area from 1.7 million hectares in 1996 to 191.7 million hectares in 2018 (Muzhinji and Ntuli, 2020). Even so, there are still ongoing debates around the bio-safety of GMOs despite no clear scientific evidence that GMOs pose any new risks in comparison to their commercial crop counterparts (Paarlberg, 2010). This it hasn't stopped the spread of misinformation. For example, in 2002 a British group named Farming and Livestock Concern warned an elected official of Zambian government that GM corn could form a retrovirus like HIV. This couldn’t be further from the truth but startled Zambia into banning GMOs completely. In fact, many countries producing GM crops have benefited greatly with improved productivity and food security (Adenle, 2011). 

Of course, there are issues beyond bio-safety which need to be addressed. The few biotech companies selling GM seeds hold monopolies over the whole GM market making them inaccessible to smallholder farmers given their high costs of entry and subsequent reliance on commercial fertilizers and pesticides. If seriously considered as a solution, cost and access must be revaluated to allow resource-poor farmers across Africa access to GMOs which could increase yields and reduce water or insecticides usage.

GM crops in Africa

So far South Africa is the only country across the African continent to be commercially planting GMOs. 9 other countries (Burkina Faso, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda Zambia, Zimbabwe) have reported field trials of GMOs. On the other hand, several countries have now imposed bio-safety restrictions on GMOs including Algeria, Angola, Benin, Sudan, Uganda and Mozambique. This has meant in the past that food aid was rejected during times of food shortages because it contained GM produce.

If given the opportunity, GM crops could stabilize local food supply but there remain many hurdles for this technology to reach and be adopted by local farmers. Many activists and local farmers are concerned about high prices set by GMO corporations where farmers are forced into a vicious cycle of taking out loans to afford GM seeds (Azadi et al., 2016). It is therefore fundamental that GM crops are only introduced with the assurance they will benefit the farmers and not create new challenges.

Drought-tolerant GM crops

Drought tolerant GM crops are not yet widely adopted with many still being researched and developed. However, there are innovative and exciting trials which have the potential to revolutionize agriculture in drought-stricken regions. One such trial is the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) project which has shown promising results for small holder farmers across Ethiopia using TELA – a drought tolerant and insect resistant variety of maize (Yirga et al., 2020). Maize is a staple food for over 300 million people across Sub-Saharan Africa so this new GM TELA maize could see widely implementation if the interests of the farmers are put before companies’ profits. Another project ran by the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) have developed a drought tolerant wheat variety called Njoro-BW1, which since 2001 has become so popular among Kenyan wheat farmers that KARI struggle to keep up with seed demand (Academy of Science of South Africa, 2010).

GM crop debates are complex and heated. In this blog, I have only scratched the surface but I do believe that there is a hopeful future for drought-tolerant crops to help farmers protect their livelihoods during times of severe drought across Africa. If implemented fairly and access increased, there are benefits to GM crops which cannot be denied. But in my opinion, they should not be viewed as the best and only solution African agriculture has for increasing droughts. Keep your eyes peeled for the next post which discusses a very different way of addressing this issue!