IT’S TECHNOLOGY, NOT OCCASIONAL PRICE CUTS, THAT WILL GIVE US FOOD SECURITY

IT’S TECHNOLOGY, NOT OCCASIONAL PRICE CUTS, THAT WILL GIVE US FOOD SECURITY

The raging debate over the food prices in Kenya should now prompt policy makers to seriously think about how we can use biotechnology to address perennial food shortages.

Current food price increases differ from previous by covering nearly all major food and feeds and are predicted to persist for a long time. The concept of food security revolves around the adequacy of food supply or availability, stability of supply, access to food and utilisation. Africa’s food crisis existed before the global food crisis. Statistics indicate that over 25 per cent of African grain needs are met through importation from outside especially from USA and Canada. It is estimated that 20 million of Africa’s population depend on food aid and that 200 million people face food insecurity.

Food insecurity - a lack of access to adequate food to sustain oneself - is, for many in sub-Saharan Africa, a common thing. It is important to note that sub-Saharan Africa is the largest regional recipient of food aid. The causes of declining agricultural production and increasing food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa are many, interrelated and complex. They are the result of socio-political, economic, environmental and technological variables. To meet the increasing demand for food and to enlarge the basis for food security in sub-Saharan Africa productivity increases will therefore be required. This will not be through the expansion of the cultivated area but mainly through improvements in crop yields.

Greater attention must be given to measures that will improve the region’s ability to harness and apply new scientific and technological advances to increase food production. Take for example Kenya, about 80 per cent of the land is classified as ASAL, unless we have drought resistance crops and animals that that can adapt to such environment, production will always be affected.

Biotechnology offers new avenues for increasing food production in sub-Saharan Africa. Biotechnology is a technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives to make or modify products or processes for specific use. It has been around since the New Stone Age when human kind first learned the art of cross breeding plants and animals and of using yeast to leaven bread and ferment alcohol.

Agricultural, medical and environmental biotechnology offers Africa formidable tools to address food security, disease, environmental pollution and poverty. To fight hunger and malnutrition now rampant in Africa and to feed the ever expanding population, biotechnology offers opportunities for safe, abundant and higher quality food supply through sustainable use of Africa’s resources.  The results of the tissue culture banana projects undertaken in Kenya demonstrate that the technology is appropriate for and can be managed by small –scale farmers. The higher banana yields not only satisfy home consumption but also create surpluses for sale in the market place. Income from this activity can do much to reduce poverty and upgrade the social welfare of rural families and communities – hence meeting the MDG’s. The merits of embarrassing biotechnology include pprotecting biodiversity by doubling crop production on same area and saves forests/biodiversity. Reduce the need for external inputs hence saving of million tonnes of pesticides and conservation of soil, and water sustainability.  It can develop drought resistant crop varieties, improve the nutritional quality of such crops as cassava, millet and sweet potato, reduce post-harvest crop losses, improve livestock‘s resistance to diseases and enable farmers to cultivate in saline conditions.

Kenya hears from other countries in both the developed and developing world on how biotechnology application has significantly improved lives and livelihoods of millions of households.

The Government’s vision and commitment towards the promotion and exploitation of biotechnology is well articulated in the National Policy on Biotechnology. The policy provides a clear framework and vision for biotechnological applications in the country. Awareness creation is one of the key priority areas that the policy addresses. Kenya Government also stresses the need to institute adequate Biosafety measures that will ensure maximization of the benefits of the technology in optimal ways while minimsing the risks.

The Kenyan Biotechnology Policy commits to give priority attention to the provision of relevant infrastructure, framework, facilities and other resources for rapid and safe development and application of biotechnology in industry, agriculture, food, environment, health and research. In addition, the Government has committed to making adequate provisions for effective and efficient implementation of the main features of the policy by, among other things, providing appropriate and adequate legal regulatory framework and an enabling environment to attract investors. Through the policy, the Government has committed to partner with national and international development agencies to popularise biotechnology by addressing concerns surrounding it through sustained information, education and communications campaigns.

To move biotechnology forward, African countries must provide funding to implement the many initiatives drawn, train in risk assessment, management and communication, train in biotechnology and provide laboratory infrastructure for product, understand and strengthen Intellectual Property Rights regimes and managing them for national benefits, create awareness and inform the public discourse and formulate and implement biosafety legislations Reducing food prices alone is not enough.

Because we are in a free market economy, it is not possible to determine maize prices for farmers and millers. There are costs of farm inputs, transport, fuel, labour and many others that make the industry players set prices for the essential commodities. Therefore price controls exclusively on food prices is not a viable option when other factors are not looked into that encourage innovations and trade.

So, can we use biotechnology as a modern science, or what we refer as Big Science to alleviate many challenges of food crisis that Africa is facing? Yes we can!