GM maize could arrest food insecurity

By Wilson Chafutsa

In most years we are facing hunger due to one reason or the other. The reasons can be internal ones such as unreliable rains. But sometimes excuses for not harvesting enough include external ones such as the Russia- Ukraine war. Whatever reasons are given harvesting less, the bottom line is that we are usually hungry as a country. Malawians, especially rural masses who do not salable skills to earn a living suffer with hunger.

It is a known fact that the Malawi population is growing. Some experts estimate our population to be above 20 million souls. The same piece of land is expected to feed the ever-growing human population. The other fact that is making us hunger stricken is the low productivity per unit area for most of our crops. Seed of improved varieties is very expensive for a local farmer, hence local farmers resort to recycling the improved seed or use local varieties that are low yielding. Some farmers harvest as low as less than a tone per hectare when they use the local maize varieties. Yes, local varieties have other attributes that farmers are looking for, but the fact is they are low yielding that they cannot feed the fast growing population.

One of the solutions to ending this hunger is to run to Genetically Modified Crops. Luckily enough we have all pieces of legislation is place that will check the importation, use, growing and selling of GM crops. Communities should be civic educated on how GM can end hunger at household and community level. Information is key; let us provide necessary information to our rural masses so that they can do away with this regular hunger. Rural masses have several platforms through which can be reached with this important information.

While information about GM maize varieties is readily available in institutions of higher learning and other organizations at central level, we should breakdown this information and properly channel it to the main stakeholder, the farmer at the grassroots, so that they can embrace it.

Testing of GM maize varieties in Africa began some time back. Several African countries have put recommendations for commercial production. The adoption of the recommendations started with South Africa, then Kenya came in. this means that we have our brothers in South Africa who are eating this GM maize. Have we noticed any changes in the body physiology? Adoption of GM crops would also boost up livestock production in the country since livestock feed is becoming a challenge due to several factors.

High maize prices have been driven primarily by successive years of drought, and expectations that the upcoming season will also be poor will likely lead to even greater food insecurity.

Other global drivers of high input prices (for example, elevated fertilizer prices due to the Russia-Ukraine war) have served to worsen an already dire food-insecurity situation in Africa.

However, a shift towards GM maize may prove to be a game changer for the continent in terms of its potential to deepen and expand regional trade.

The shift towards GM maize presents an opportunity for South Africa to supply relatively lower-cost maize to Africa for feed and human consumption. It also adds Brazil and the US as potential supplier options, with the latter already in the middle of negotiating a bilateral free trade agreement with Africa.

The change in GMO policy also offers the potential to expand the commercialization of the country’s livestock production and increase its seed trade, all of which present the potential for quantum leaps in animal and crop productivity.

From a livestock feed perspective, one of the major factors that has limited the commercialization of Africa’s beef, dairy and poultry industries is the high cost of feed, with high maize prices limiting the competitiveness of local feed manufacturing.

Cheaper GM maize, particularly yellow maize, could effectively change this situation, with GM soya bean, sunflower and cotton being complementary source options for oilcake that could fundamentally change the country’s feed and livestock sector.

From a productivity standpoint, drought-resistant GM maize varieties could potentially see Malawi doubling its. It is likely that Malawi’s maize consumption is likely to over the next five years, which means that doubling yields due to the adoption of GM maize could shift most African countries from a deficit to a surplus producer of maize.

If Malawi implements the right complementary market policies, such as strong free-market regulations and investments in storage, warehousing and irrigation, among other regulations, the shift to GM maize could well become the cornerstone policy that arrested food insecurity for the country.

We have no choice now other go for GM maize production to arrest huger. The so called potential side effects of GM maize are just fears, that are yet to be proven scientifically. There are fears of long term side effects that may develop from eating GM maize, but these fears are unfounded. As we fearing the unknown, people are dying of hunger in Africa. There is a lot of potential in GM maize.

Where GM maize is being used to feed people or livestock, have seen funny looking people? We visit South Africa and eat GM foods, have we become different from the other people after eating such foods?

Wilson Chafutsa is an Agricultural Research Scientist in Malawi’s Ministry of Agriculture. He is based at Mkondezi Agricultural Research Station in the district of Nkhatabay (Northern part of Malawi)