Global Policy Forum

By Sven Lünsche

South African farmers continue to press ahead with planting genetically modified (GM) crops despite resistance by environmentalists and the ban on GM food imports by the European Union. In the 2002 harvest the land under GM crop cultivation in SA increased by 50% to 300 000 ha. Though still negligible compared with the overall agricultural crop, it ranks SA well ahead of all European countries and many other middle-income developing states.

The US and Argentina are the world leaders in GM crop harvests, according to the figures compiled by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA). The organisation says that during the six-year period 1996-2002, the global area of GM crops increased 35-fold, from 1,7m ha to 58,7m ha.

In the season ahead, agricultural experts expect a further increase in the SA crop. Many small farmers have seen a higher yield from GM seeds, particularly in maize and cotton. The growth in GM crops is also reflected in the increasing number of GM permits approved by the department of agriculture. From a mere three in 1999, the department gave the go-ahead for 233 GM seed permits in 2002. In the first half of this year 81 permits have been approved. The majority of these applications are brought by US-based GM giants Monsanto and Syngenta or their approved licensees. In SA the applications have been focused on maize and cotton seeds that are genetically modified to be resistant to insects such as the stalkborer caterpillar, the most serious pest for maize farmers.

The results have been successful. At a recent conference the University of Venda School of Agriculture released a report showing that 400 farmers of the Makhatini cotton growers' association in SA had yields on average 20% higher than those not using GM crops. Small-scale farmers in the Hlabisa district in northern KwaZulu Natal who planted GM white maize for the first time this season have increased their yields by 220%.

Jennifer Thomson, professor of molecular biology at the University of Cape Town, says SA is the only country in sub-Saharan Africa that has the scientific capacity to monitor the regulation of GM crops. In June SA signed the Cartagena Protocol, an international treaty that allows countries to reject GM crops if they threaten a country's biodiversity. The protocol came into effect last month.

Most other African countries have been reluctant to allow GM seeds, mostly for fear of having their food exports to the EU blocked. Consumer resistance to biotech foods is high in many European countries. Last year Zambia turned away 50 000 t of GM maize despite the famine there. Zimbabwe and Mozambique also refused entry to GM crops. The US has complained to the World Trade Organisation about the EU's stance, but the issue has not been resolved. Some African countries, including Kenya, Malawi, Uganda and Nigeria, have started allowing research into GM crops, though.

Several SA environmental groups, such as Biowatch, have launched a court challenge against the issuing of GM licenses by the department of agriculture. But government remains cautiously in favour of GM technology, a stance reinforced by the positive results achieved by subsistence farmers.

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