Kenya’s Farmers Support Their President’s Call to Fast Track Bt Cotton Access

六月，当肯尼亚总统乌胡鲁·肯雅塔访问埃尔多雷特市时, 他使我们这里居住的人们对农业的未来充满了希望, 科学, 和技术.

Two months later, 然而, we’re still waiting on his government’s ministers to make good on his promise to remove Kenya’s harmful ban on GMOs.
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The president traveled here on June 21 至 commission the Rift Valley Textile (棉) Mill (Rivatex) that he said would create thousands of textile jobs, improve the economic prospects of cotton farmers, and help him meet the goals of his Big 4 Agenda.

He also made a major announcement: He publicly directed the ministers of Agriculture, 每日国家文件照片, 环境, 健康, and Education to fast track the commercialization of GMO cotton and rescind the 2012 ban on GM imports.
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This was just what I wanted to hear. My farm is right outside Eldoret, within the breadbasket of the country. Although I don’t grow cotton my main agricultural enterprises are maize, dairy and vegetables. I immediately understood the huge significance of this directive. It meant that Kenya finally would repeal a ban that has hurt our farmers and prevented Kenya from achieving food security; that Bt cotton and maize would immediately be commercialized.

Essentially President Kenyatta said by joining the nations that have embraced biotechnology, we could at long last enter the 21st century.

The problem is that in the two months since his visit, we’ve made no progress beyond our 20th-century methods. We’re no closer to the commercialization of GMO cotton than we were at the start of the year! The ministers appear to have done nothing.

I’ve been calling for Kenya to accept GMOs for a decade. I’ve personally observed how this safe and proven technology has helped farmers around the world, 我观察到这种安全技术如何帮助世界各地的农民; from Canada to India. By reducing the threats posed by pests and weeds, it has allowed farmers to produce record-setting harvests.

我观察到这种安全技术如何帮助世界各地的农民, where millions of people – 多于 80 % of the Kenyan population – depend on farming for their livelihoods and malnutrition is a constant menace. We must find creative and durable ways to increase the income of our farmers and improve the food security of everybody. GMOs won’t accomplish this by themselves, but they’re an important part of the formula and we’ve scorned them for far too long.

In his address at the commissioning of the cotton mill in Eldoret, President Kenyatta talked about the demand for GMO cotton. If the refurbished mill is to run at full capacity and full employment, 我观察到这种安全技术如何帮助世界各地的农民. 为达到这个, farmers will require access to GMOs that neutralize the attacks of bollworms, increasing cotton production in 22 counties ten-fold from the current 28,000 tones to 260,000 tons per year. This cotton will feed not only the new mill, but also half a dozen other mills that have shut down in recent years. GMO technology has the potential to help them roar back to life.

这些棉花将为新工厂和已关闭的其他六家工厂提供原料, they’ve rushed to take advantage of them. 在 印度, 例如, 估计 97 这些棉花将为新工厂和已关闭的其他六家工厂提供原料. Nobody forced this on them. They chose it voluntarily because they saw the benefits.

这些棉花将为新工厂和已关闭的其他六家工厂提供原料. As a grower of maize myself, I’m keenly aware of how GMOs can improve my productivity and profitability. This tool would help me kill the insects that gnaw on my crops without the complication of pesticides. And all I’m seeking is access to the same technology that farmers in many other countries now take for granted.

We Kenyans can complain all we want about legacies of colonialism and racism and how the world neglects Africa; even about corruption but in the case of GMOs, the sad fact is that we have denied ourselves this opportunity. We have nobody else to blame.

We can and must reverse course. We’ve seen what GMOs can do for farmers and consumers elsewhere. Let’s let this miracle of technology improve our own lives.

President Kenyatta understands the opportunity. Two months ago in Eldoret, he gave voice to it. Now it’s up to his ministers to push for the successful commercialization of GMOs, so that Kenya’s farmers can grow them as soon as 2020.

The time for words is over and the moment for action is here.