Are GMOs the answer to food insecurity?

Following the recent lift of the ban on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in Kenya, a number of GMO opponents viz environmentalists, ecologists among others have come out against the move highlighting that it is not good for the country since GMOs have a negative effect to both public and environmental health.

These claims have however been trashed by the proponents of GMO, claiming that all the views being presented by the anti-GMO groups are not based on science since there has never been any evidence of health issues associated with GMOs and that their impact on the environment is less harmful compared to that from traditional agriculture.

It is worth noting that the ban had earlier been imposed following research that had been published by a French scientist Gilles-Eric Séralini whose findings linked genetically modified foods to cancer but the paper was later retracted from the journal of Food and Chemical Toxicology with claims that its study methods were questionable. There thus continues to be a lot of rift between the pro and anti-GMO groups but the question remains that are the GMOs really the answer to the food security problem?

 In Uganda, a Bill, the National Biosafety and Biotechnology Bill 2012, which was aimed at providing a regulatory framework that facilitates the safe development and application of biotechnology, research, development and release of GMOs, was passed by the Ugandan Parliament in 2012 but President Museveni declined to sign it into law in 2017 and 2021 highlighting that the issues pertaining patent rights of indigenous farmers, sanctions for scientists who mix GMOs with indigenous crops and animals needed more clarification. Uganda is a signatory to the catagena protocal on biosafety which aims at ensuring that there is safe transfer, handling and use of organisms resulting from biotechnology but this has not been enough to pass the Bill since there are still unanswered questions about GMOs.

With Kenya, Uganda’s neighbour lifting the ban on GMOs, Uganda is most likely going to be affected directly or indirectly by this since both countries trade in crops like maize in which the GMO technology is applied.

Many ordinary farmers would attest to the fact that there is need for technology that would enable them to save their yields from drought and biotic constraints viz pests and diseases, which could then contribute towards food security but they are definitely not very certain about the implication of many technologies including the GMOs. Could such technologies be trying to make a quick fix which will have immense long-term effects?

 In a research review paper written by Chen Shen in collaboration with other researchers which was published in the Springer journal on the  January 13, 2022 titled, “Evaluation of adverse effects/events of genetically modified food consumption: A systematic review of animal and human studies”, numerous negative effects namely mortality, tumours and cancers, significant low fertility, decreased learning and reaction abilities as well as some organ abnormalities were linked to GM food and the paper concluded that GM food must be labelled to enable the consumers to make informed decisions.

 As we aspire to manage the food insecurity problem amidst the ever-increasing population, agricultural technology is definitely key but it shouldn’t be detrimental to the health of the public and the environment. As controversies still surround the use of GMOs, which require scientific probing and answering, there are numerous other options of managing food insecurity which can be explored viz training farmers about climate-smart agriculture options which would increase their adaptation to the climate change effects, Integrated pest management techniques which would enable the farmers know how to manage the biotic constraints in their fields without compromising the environment, eliminating the bottlenecks that exist in the agriculture supply chain like the counterfeit inputs that affect the farmer, among others.

There is thus no need to rush to roll out the GMO technology when there are still unanswered questions like those that were raised by President Museveni. Let research be done, provide the facts and then the technology can be introduced if it indeed has no detrimental effects on public and environmental health since if it has like the opponents acclaim, there will be vast economic implications in the process of managing the caused damage.

Mr Thomas Malunda is an agroecologist 

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