Biotech can help farmers to reduce cost of inputs

I have a family background in farming and spend every opportunity I can on the land. I also work for Monsanto, a company that focuses on providing technical solutions to farmers across the world. We provide conventional and biotechnology improved seed as well as crop protection chemicals to help farmers maximise their potential.
Our vision as the company is, and has been, to help society produce “abundant food and a healthy environment”. We believe this two can actually work together to actually improve yields and make farmers prosperous and productive and, while having a limited impact on the environment.
Per capita agricultural production in Africa has steadily declined by 23 percent over the last 25 years. Africa imports 25 per cent of its cereal crops and this is set to increase. It is estimated that Africa’s population will double in the next 25 years. If our agricultural production does not make an incredible improvement, then we can expect to see more of the tragedy of the hunger and malnutrition that the southern African nations are currently experiencing. Two or three years ago, my country, Kenya, was in the same tragic situation. I am motivated by the objective of seeing hunger and poverty overcome in my lifetime.
So what is the solution? It is a complex question. Many factors will contribute to the eradication of hunger on the continent. These range from the need for pro-active policy, investment in infrastructure and the empowerment of farmers, information and finance, and a fair global trading environment. However critically important is the application of productive agricultural technology.
I believe that using high quality in-puts, like improved seed, fertilisers, the judicious use of crop protection chemicals, and also by promoting sustainable technologies like crop rotation, and agro forestry, we can become self sufficient in food production.
I like to think of seeds improved by biotechnology simply as “smart seeds” – seeds that have a gene inserted in them and that helps them to protect themselves.
For decades, progressive African farmers have found great benefit in using hybrid seeds. Here in South Africa, both large and small farmers use hybrid seeds to improve yields and productivity.
Biotechnology applications in seed offer several significant benefits that can further help African farmers. Current biotechnology seeds incorporate the Bt gene which helps protect maize and cotton from the worms that would otherwise significantly reduce yields, some times by as much as 80 percent.
For example, in many countries, particularly in the more arid areas, cotton is the only cash crop that farmers rely on. The recent African Growth and Opportunity Act has given many African countries the opportunity to produce and export apparels to the United States, creating a great incentive to boost cotton production. Genetically improved cotton can help farmers drastically reduce the cost of farmer inputs. Currently, many cotton farmers have to spray six to eight times with insecticides, and by using biotech cotton, they are able to reduce this to one or two sprays. This is not only an economic benefit to the farmer, but also benefits the environment by reducing chemical residues.
It is estimated that between 15 to 40 per cent of Africa’s maize is destroyed by the European corn borer. By using genetically- improved maize, we can protect against this terrible waste and make a major contribution to food security.
Weeds can reduce farmer yields by as much as 40 per cent, and require millions of man- hours, or perhaps more accurately “women- hours,” in the backbreaking, laborious task of hand weeding. By using herbicide tolerant plants, farmers can control weeds with a single application of a herbicide, thereby protecting their harvest while saving precious time to engage in other productive activities.
The benefits of the new technology are primarily about improving crop yields. Seventy percent of Africans live by farming, so the greatest opportunity to improve livelihoods is by improving farming. And for this, technology must be adopted and applied. I think it is telling that in the United States and Europe, less than two percent of their respective populations, are engaged in farming, and yet they produce harvests abundant enough to meet their needs and export.
It is not necessary for Africa’s farmers to spend day after day in field preparation. It takes as much as two weeks with a hoe to prepare two acres of farm land, where with the application of a herbicide, this same task could be accomplished in several hours. This not only increases the farmer’s efficiency, but also promotes conservation tillage, a practice that helps conserve precious soil moisture.
The beauty of biotechnology is that it is “scale neutral”. Both large and small-scale farmers, whether they plough with a tractor or use a hoe, benefit from the technology which is incorporated in the seed, and every farmer knows how to plant and tend seeds.
There are many advantages of biotechnology to the environment. The biggest threat to biodiversity in Africa is low yield farming. Low yields per unit area, especially as soils become degraded, forcing farmers to work in the more environmentally fragile areas such as forests, hillsides and swamplands to expand production. Poverty is the greatest environmental polluter. Nearly every one of us would cut down the last tree in the forest if we had to feed our families.
Because insect resistant biotechnology crops are targeted at specific pests, they have less impact on beneficial insects than broad spectrum insecticides that are indiscriminate. I recall walking in the cotton fields of Makhitini in South Africa. In the traditional cotton fields, sprayed with broad spectrum insecticides, the fields were silent. In the fields where Bt insect- protected cotton was grown, there was the sound of bees, wasps and other insects because the locals farmers were using a more targeted way of insect control.
I am encouraged that modern biotechnology is being increasingly researched in Africa to provide African solutions to African agricultural problems. In crops like cassava, sweet potato and cowpea, African researchers, often working in collaboration with international institutions are developing solutions to maximise the productivity of the farmers growing these crops. For the last decade, Monsanto has contributed to this effort by partnering with public instructions in several African countries.
The challenge of food production in Africa is one that calls for us all to work together. Every sector of society, from government to NGO’s research institutes, financial institutions and industry, need to find mechanism that empower to be as productive and profitable as possible. Whereas biotechnology is not a panacea, it can make a significant contribution to increased agricultural productivity and the resulting social improvement in Africa.
Kinyua Mbijjewe is the Corporate Affairs Director for Monsanto, Africa