Researchers tout biotech for farming

Dar es Salaam. Researchers are touting the use of advanced biotech in agriculture to realise the potential Tanzania has in producing sufficient raw materials for industrialisation – the plan which the country is implementing.

Agriculture is Tanzania’s economic mainstay accounting for about 30 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

The sector also employs 67 per cent of the country’s workforce and provides 65 per cent of the industrial raw materials.

According to retired researcher Nicolaus Nyange, advanced biotech has a high potential of increasing production and also ensuring the country has sufficient raw materials for industrialisation.

He said that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have proved to increase maize production by at least 35 per cent in areas of drought, thereby not only sustaining a farmer and his family but also empowering them to have adequate production to provide raw materials for industrialisation. Locally developed biotech varieties can also deliver 40 per cent higher yields than conventional varieties when attacked by insects or affected by drought, according to him. “It’s discouraging that despite its potential, data from AfDB 2016 shows that agriculture contributes only 15 per cent to the GDP in Africa,” he said.

He further went on to stress that low agriculture yields is as a result of inadequate use of science and technology, inefficiency in value addition which automatically calls for quick interventions in the sector.

He cited an example of cotton whose conventional seeds led to production of only 150,000 tonnes last year and 200,000 tonnes this year. He noted that things would have been different for cotton farmers if the country was producing cotton through advanced biotech.

He said that the manufacturing sector will benefit more in terms of quality and quantity with biotech seeds instead of importing from outside. Reports show that climate change is expected to reduce maize yields by 13 per cent in the absence of adaptation via strategies such as the adaptation of drought tolerant crops that could lead to poverty and food insecurity.

According to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) paper, farmers will gain massively from biotech crops if they are able to access improved seeds that can resist drought, insect attacks and diseases.

Farmers could earn up to $52.4 billion if they are able to access locally developed biotech varieties.

In another development, another researcher Justin Ringo said they have conducted two researches on GM maize seeds which are drought tolerant as well as drought tolerant and pest tolerant,

“We completed research on drought tolerant maize seeds which proved successful and now we have started the second batch on drought and pest tolerant seeds and initial evidence also shows success,” he said. Biosafety inspector Thomas Chal said that the government needs to identify opportunities afforded by use of biotech in developing the agricultural sector.

He noted that advanced biotech helps farmers in tackling challenges in the form of pests, drought among other challenges that minimise the production of crops.

He said the government endorsed a National Biosafety Framework 2007 and also guided by a risk assessment and risk management manual 2010, GMO Detection Protocol 2010. He said that there are procedures on GM foods including labeling, prior informed consent for importation of GM products but noted that because the government is yet to adopt its use a permit to import baby food was denied.

A recent report on the global status of the commercialised GM crops indicates that planting of the biotech crops increased by three per cent to 189.8 million hectares in 2017.

It is also estimated that 17 million farmers in 24 countries are involved in the biotech crop planting while the US, Brazil, Argentina, Canada and India remain top five GM crop-growing countries.

In Africa, only two countries grow biotech crops. They include South Africa which plants a total of 2.7 million hectares of soybeans, maize and cotton. Sudan also grows only cotton at an area estimated at 0.2 million hectares.

Tanzania has allowed confined field trial for the GMOs carried out at the Makutupora Viticulture Research and Training Centre in Dodoma.