Soon Kenya might join them. In 2022 its government lifted a long-standing ban on GM crops, including Bt maize. On November 7th a judge threw out lingering legal challenges from activists which had blocked cultivation. The ruling is the latest skirmish in a long struggle to bring GM crops to Africa, which both sides frame in Manichean terms. Enthusiasts say genetic wizardry could feed a hungry continent. Sceptics warn of a sinister plot by multinational corporations to ensnare unwitting African farmers.
Neither claim is quite right. The most striking fact about GM crops in Africa is that they are hardly sown at all. Only in South Africa have they really taken off (see chart). Until recently an insect-resistant cowpea in Nigeria was the only GM food crop being grown elsewhere. Varieties of maize are now being introduced in Nigeria, and cowpea in Ghana. Eight countries cultivate GM cotton. But after decades of costly research that is a modest harvest.
The scientists behind GM crops blame prohibitive regulation. Only 11 of Africa’s 54 countries have ever officially approved their cultivation. Some politicians repeat myths, such as claims that eating GM food will make men grow breasts and women grow testicles. Other critics focus on how big business might exploit small farmers. Mariam Mayet of the African Centre for Biodiversity argues that GM crops “entrench a certain industrial model of agriculture” that undermines local seed systems and harms the planet. Debates about GM are really about rival visions of African farming. One is high-input, high-tech; the other favours a more organic eco-ideal.
GMOs and genetic engineering are wildly misunderstood
But profits matter just as much as politics. It is difficult to make money by serving small farmers, so the crops they grow can be overlooked. “If we waited for big biotech companies to research and develop cassava, we could wait for ever,” says Francis Nang’ayo of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), which brokers the transfer of technology into African markets.
Crop development therefore relies on a constellation of interests. The world’s biggest biotech firms hold patents on the genetic know-how behind certain “traits”, such as drought tolerance or insect resistance. In one approach, they agree to share this technology under licence with the aatf. The Gates Foundation, the American government and other donors stump up money for research. New crops are developed with African scientists and sub-licensed to local seed companies, often royalty-free. The biotech firms participate not only because it is “the right thing to do” but also with an eye to growing markets for the future, says Mark Edge of Bayer, one of the biggest such companies.
In practice collaborations are hard to make work. A project might falter if a donor cuts funds or a company pulls out. In 2016 Burkina Faso suspended the cultivation of insect-resistant cotton that had been developed by local scientists and Monsanto (now Bayer), which was taking a royalty. The reason was not anti-GM activism, but that the fibres were too short and cotton firms were losing
money.
