Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
crop technology in sub-Saharan Africa are potentially large according to the World
Bank Group (Anderson 2005). The results suggest that the welfare gains are potentially
very large, especially from golden rice (beta carotene-enhanced rice) and nutritionally
enhanced GM wheat and that those benefits are diminished only slightly by the pres-
ence of the European Union's current ban on imports of GM foods. Using the global
economy-wide computable general equilibrium model known as the Global Trade
Analysis Project, Anderson et al. (2005) specifically noted that if sub-Saharan African
countries impose bans on GM crop imports in deference to EU market demand for
non-GM products, the domestic consumer net loss from that protectionism would
be more than the small gain derived from greater market access to the EU (see also
Anderson, this volume).
In December 2012 FAO's Director-General, José Graziano da Silva, noted that food
insecurity in Africa's Sahel region is closely linked to peace and stability, and he stressed
that short-term humanitarian efforts in the Sahel needed to be replaced with longer-
term development (Da Silva, 2012). Apart from the suggested implication of food and
agricultural markets as being one of the trigger factors in catalyzing the “Arab Spring”,
the most recent global food crisis was in 2008 and as noted we may be facing an even
greater one in 2013. During this crisis, which was erroneously laid disproportion-
ately on the shoulders of biofuel production, most especially grain ethanol, the Gates
Foundation announced $306 million in grants to boost agricultural yields in the devel-
oping world, with nearly $165 million to replenish depleted soils in Africa. As noted by
US News and World Report, these efforts are not without controversy as they charge that
critics consider that western philanthropists are violating African “food sovereignty”
and promoting America at the expense of peasant farmers knowledgeable about local
practices (Lavelle et al. 2008). But local practices have yielded scarcity. A farmer in
India grows three to four times as much food on the same amount of land as a farmer in
Africa; a farmer in China, roughly seven times as much.
Florence Wambugu (1999, 16) of Kenya states that the great potential of biotechnol-
ogy to improve agriculture in Africa lies in its “packaged technology in the seed,” which
ensures technology benefits without changing local cultural practices. Golden rice is a
seminal example of this contention. Incorporation of beta carotene into rice cultivars
and widespread distribution of this packaged technology in the seed could prevent
one to two million deaths each year. Wambugu observes that in the past many foreign
donors funded high-input projects, which have not been sustainable because they
have failed to address social and economic issues such as changes in cultural practice.
Ismail Serageldin, former chair of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural
Research, likewise notes that, a priori, biotechnology could contribute to food secu-
rity by helping to promote sustainable agriculture centered on smallholder farmers
in developing countries. Calestous Juma (2012) highlights that Africa's precautionary
approaches to biotechnology are not only misguided but also expose the continent to
long-term political risks. Juma maintains that biotechnology is not simply a matter of
rhetorical debate guided by short-term interests but is also central to how African coun-
tries define their place in the global knowledge ecology.
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