Food is an emotional topic for us all - we care about not only what we eat, but also how it's grown. But is our stance a balanced one? Are the safeguards we put into place sufficient to protect us while still allowing to us to benefit from technological innovation?
Today, innovations involving Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are at the frontier of agriculture, science, and engineering. GMOs include crops, fruits and vegetables which are developed by combining desirable genes from various species to create new genetically-altered species that offer enhanced nutritional, productive, and ecological value. A better understanding of the science behind genetic modification may improve adoption rates and offer sustainable solutions to ending extreme poverty and hunger in low-income Bangladeshi households. Stakeholders in the agriculture sector, particularly those at the fringe like marginal farmers, are often swayed by popular sentiments and anecdotes. This has regrettably led to a policy framework in many countries which is at best ambivalent towards GM agriculture technologies.
As with all new technologies, the potential risks and benefits must be identified and quantified. Over the years, considerable independent research has been undertaken, around the globe, to evaluate the risks and benefits to animal or public health and the environment from GMOs. A recent EU report, based on more than 130 research projects, covering a period of more than 25 years of research, and involving more than 500 independent research groups, concluded that biotechnology, and in particular GMOs, are not significantly riskier than conventional plant breeding technologies.
The growing scientific consensus that Genetically Modified (GM) crops are as safe to human health as traditional ones, may have led to a steady rise in the cultivation of GM crops both in developed and developing countries in the past few years. The acreage of GM crop cultivation has grown from 2.0 million hectares in 1996 (the first year of commercial planting) to about 175 million hectares in 2013. In 2013, more than 18 million farmers in 27 countries across the world made independent choices to grow biotech crops.
However, adoption rates of GM crops are still far from satisfactory, particularly, if one takes into account of GM crops' potential to contribute towards the problem of food security as well as nutritional and ecological welfare.
Recent research experiments demonstrated how GM seeds can guarantee higher yields and hazard-resistant crops in countries prone to climate hazards as drought and floods. A study by the African Development Bank and the International Food Policy Research Institute in 2012 concluded that under ideal conditions, the use of GM crops grown by smallholder farmers could improve gross margins by 114 per cent, reduce pesticide costs between 60-90 per cent, and improve yields by 18 to 29 per cent.
Researchers in Mozambique and Philippines have successfully experimented with GM varieties of rice and potatoes that can withstand submersion under water for extended periods. GM fortified crop variety can also address crucial lack of essential nutrients. In the Philippines research trials on Golden Rice (developed by the International Rice Research Institute) shows potential for addressing vitamin A deficiency which could protect millions of children and pregnant women globally from blindness, growth and immunity impairments.
The writer is Country Economist, Bangladesh International Growth Centre (IGC). [email protected]
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