By BN TEAM

SCIENTISTS coordinating the first GM maize trials in Kenya have absolved the two top organisations involved in the project of any wrong doing describing what had occurred as an inadvertent event caused by a technician.
In a mid-term report to the National Biosafety Committee (NBC) on the Confined Field Trial of Bt maize, Drs Stephen Mugo and S. Gachukia of the International Centre for Wheat and Maize Improvement (Cimmyt) and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (Kari) respectively, state that the trials at Kiboko were halted after it was found that a field technician, with perfectly good reasons to control white grubs( Phyllophaga spp) that were destroying plants, applied Furadan, a systemic insecticide, without prior consultations with the principal investigators.
“Furadan remains in the plant for up to 60 days after uptake and re-infestation may not offer solution to this problem. With stem damage expected, carrying the trial to 14 weeks as planned may not be worthwhile,” the experts state.
“The NBC was briefed on this during their visit at the site on 18 July 2005 and they recommended that the trial be terminated preferably at the 7-8 weeks stage and a second planting be made to obtain results over the full season; an important activity considering the level and extent of interest and attention that these trials have received locally and internationally,” state the researchers.
They further add that no biosafety conditions have been breached from planning, planting, transportation of materials as well as management of the trial and that all major activities had Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate (Kephis) inspectors participating.
“All other records for compliance are up to date and available for inspection at the site. Secondly, the germplasm conversion to Bt is running as planned and controlled pollination has commenced.
The experiment with the Open Field Controlled Trials have been taking place in Kiboko in Kenya’s Eastern Province since May.
A news item in a section of the local print media a month ago gave the impression that the trials of GM maize in Kenya had been banned. The article stated that while announcing the ‘ban’, the newly appointed Agriculture Secretary, who was also reported to be the chairman of NBC, Dr Wilson Songa, accused the local scientists of bending to pressure from transnational corporations and carrying out the trials without adequate information on the effects of these genetically modified crops on the environment. He also said that no Environmental Impact Assessment Study had been carried out before the trials.
KARI and Cimmyt, through the Insect Resistant maize for Africa (IRMA) project, have been testing Bt maize following national rules and regulations since 2001, when cut leaves were imported into Kenya and used for leaf bioassays. Further testing was done in the biosafety greenhouse complex (BGHC) after seeds were introduced in 2004. After the first phase of the trial when ‘proof-of-concept was established, field testing as a confined field trial was proposed.
This is summarized in the report “Application for Field Evaluation, Leaf Bioassays, Seed Increase and Backcrossing of Maize Containing the cry1Ab or cry1Ba (Bt) Genes Under Confinement in the Open Quarantine Site (OQS) at Kiboko”.
The application was approved by the Kenya NBC verbally on 9 February 2005 and in a letter dated 14 April 2005. Kephis spelt out the phytosanitary approval conditions and requested for a compliance document in a letter dated 12 April 2005. The document was developed and presented to Kephis on 19April 2005. Kephis subsequently issued an authorization permit No. 1/KCFT/2005 indicating the conditions to be met during the conduct of the trial on 10 May 2005.
The Director Kari signed a letter of commitment to Kephis on 20 May 2005. The trials were sowed at the KARI Kiboko OQS that had been previously inspected and approved by the Kenya Standing Technical committee (KSTCIE) on 27 May 2005. The report covers one of the two trials of the Bt maize testing in a confined field trial that aimed at confirming under field conditions the effectiveness against Chilo partellus of the cry (Bt) gene events tested in leaf bioassays and in whole plants in the BGHC.
The researchers state that the Bt maize confined field trials have been run without any breach in biosafety and phytosanitary conditions and preliminary results on efficacy of the Bt maize events against stem borer through field infestations and through leaf bioassays have been obtained. “The results indicate that tested Bt maize producing cry1Ab and cry1Ba delta endotoxins will control Chilo partellus Eldana saccharina and Sesamiae calamistis but will not adequately control usseola fusca and additional cry genes or events of these same genes need to be sought and tested for effective stem borer control in all ecologies in Kenya.
This is reinforced by a letter to the Executive Secretary of the National Council for Science and Technology, Prof. George King’oriah, under which the NBC falls. Written by Kari Director Dr Romano Kiome, the correspondence states that biosafety and phytosanitary conditions for the trials have been followed diligently. “The NBC visited the site on 18 July 2005 and were shown and briefed on the progress. Data has been collected on the responses to the four major stem borer species in Kenya to the maize during the early vegetative stage. However, an inadvertent application of a systemic insecticide by the technician in-charge to control white grubs will prevent observation of the effects of the Bt deltaendotoxins during late vegetative stage of the crop in the evaluation trial,” states Dr Kiome.
He adds that the NBC recommended that the trial be terminated early (preferably at the 7-8 weeks) and a second planting be made to obtain results over the full season. He also notes that “the second trial involving maize germplasm conversion is proceeding as planned and controlled pollination will commence soon.”
The letter is copied to the Kephis director, Dr Chagema Kedera.
Host plant resistance to stem borers developed using the Bt technology has been used in several countries since 1996. Its debut in Kenya started with the introduction of leaf tissue in 2001 and continued with testing in the biosafety greenhouse complex in 2004.
In an effort to address the problem of stem borers in Kenya, the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Development, the International Centre for Wheat and Maize Improvement (Cimmyt), the Rockefeller Foundation and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute and Kari have been collaborating in a multi-million dollar programme, dubbed the Insect Resistant Maize for Africa (IRMA) project. The first phase of the project, which started in 1999, came to an end in 2004 and cost $6 million. Now the project is in its second phase and more financial inputs are required for the project to reach completion.
In this regard, the director of the Switzerland-based Syngenta Foundation, Dr Andrew Bennett, who visited the project in June, called on the private sector to participate in the IRMA project’s second phase by contributing financially to this noble cause. Dr Bennett spoke to Biosafety News at Kari headquarters during an interview that preceded a visit to Kiboko quarantine station where insect resistant Bt maize had been planted for the confined field trial.
He told Biosafety News that phase one of the project had been a big success, thus warranting the second phase.
“Phase one of the project basically aimed at screening of materials to make sure that we could come up with transgenic events that could be used to control stem borers and this has already been achieved. The second phase of the project aims at looking at the likelihood of the occurrence of resistance by stem borers to the Bt genes as well as making sure that the project will be sustainable,” Dr Bennett said.
“What we are asking ourselves now is whether we can produce and deliver to farmers’ products that work. We have a shortfall in funding and that is why we are calling on all partners, especially the seed companies to chip in so that this phase can be completed satisfactorily,” said the director.
Dr Bennet said that Syngenta, Kari, Rockefeller and Cimmyt, the four main collaborators in the project, had already demonstrated ‘proof of concept’ in so far as the efficacy of insect resistant maize is concerned and he was sure that the technology would be taken up by farmers in Africa.
“The skepticism which greeted the project is reminiscent of the debate that characterized the introduction of hybrid maize. But presently, hybrid maize is accepted by most farmers and for as long as there is a market for the insect resistant maize, people will grow it,” he added. He underlined the need for farmers to have a seed bank and seed stores where they would be able to save their seeds.
Dr Mugo, who was also present during the interview, said that after the confined field trials, the maize would enter the final trial phase, the national performance trials. “We hope that by 2008, we will have put the maize under national performance trials,”
he said.
On the question of the acceptance level of the transgenic maize in the country, Dr Mugo said that consumer surveys conducted in supermarkets had indicated that the society would be open to the consumption of the maize. “Although awareness is still low and the price may become a major consideration, the acceptance level is quite high,” he told BN.
He said that the partners are continuously sharing information with the public in order to heighten awareness.
Dr Mugo said that although the Bt maize they have planted controls Chilo partellus, the major stem borer in the country, control for Busseola fusca, another stem borer species that occurs in the country, has not been as satisfactory. He said that the project is adopting two approaches to surmount the B. fusca problem. “We have established that the Cry2Aa gene is effective against the fall armyworm which is closely related to B. fusca and we shall be testing this gene against this stem borer. In addition, we are also looking at conventional resistance against B. fusca so that we can select breeds that have innate resistance,” said Dr Mugo.
He said that in addition to stem borers, the project was also looking at the possibility of controlling the major storage pests of maize, the Larger Grain Borer (Prostephanus truncatus) nicknamed “Osama” in the country because of its devastation of stored maize), and the maize weevil (Sitophillus zeamais). “We hope to control these pests using conventional resistance in combination with any transgenic varieties that we develop,” said the coordinator. Currently, these two stored products pests have become a major headache to maize farmers after developing resistance to most insecticides that are used to control them. Only one product, Spintor dust, marketed by Lachlan (Kenya) Limited is showing an efficacy of six months or longer which is approximately the period that farmers need to store their maize before selling it.
Kiome said research is currently being undertaken on both biotic and abioticstresses that affect maize. He cited the example of the Katumani variety and the Makueni composite that have a shorter growing period that enables them to thrive in drought-stricken areas. “Our researchers are looking for better varieties using marker assisted selection for stresses such as drought and nutrient deficiency,” he said.