Author(s): Lenjisa Direba Balcha
Crops improved through biotechnology have been widely adopted by farmers around the world wherever farmers have been able to secure access to the seeds and where they do not fear the loss of export markets. However, governments in some regions have created significant impediments to farmers’ use of GMO-improved seeds, most conspicuously in Europe, which has exported restrictive regimes wherever they can, with particular success in sub- Saharan Africa. African farmers’ access to biotech-improved seeds has been severely and directly limited by threats from Europe to close their access to export markets; and by regulatory barriers to innovation erected through a global effort by EU and member states to create regulations in other countries that block farmers’ access to biotechimproved seeds. And on top of that, a wide array of NGOs, more interested in pursuing an anti-corporate agenda than a pro-development agenda, have worked to convince nations to ban or otherwise limit productivity-enhancing GMOs. Consequently, in most cases, seeds for GM versions of African crops simply don’t exist. Even in the few cases where biotech-improved seeds do exist, it is difficult or impossible for farmers to gain access. Despite the strongly positive track record of biotech-derived crops for farmers, consumers, and the environment, unexploited opportunities for additional, widely shared benefits are considerable. We estimate the economic value forgone in Africa from restrictive regulation at $1 billion in 2013. If such regulations continue to restrict and suppress innovation in agriculture, the cumulative costs to low- and lower-middle-income countries worldwide will be approximately $1.5 trillion by 2050. Because of the unprecedented demands to increase agricultural production and productivity over the next 30 years, such restrictive regimes must be rolled back everywhere as rapidly as possible.
