On Thu, 2 Mar 2000 14:40:03 +0100, Momodou Camara
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Title: DEVELOPMENT: Africa And The Biotechnology Debate
>
>By Judith Achieng'
>
>NAIROBI, Mar 01 (IPS) - Undeterred by the growing negative
>campaign in Europe regarding genetically modified organisms,
>GMO's, African scientists say biotechnology is the key to solving
>the continents' food shortage problems...


Jaajef Momodou,

Thanks for this posting on biotechnology. The ppoints made are well taken,
however there are a number of points which were not raised in your
forwarded posting which I think are important to raise.

(1 9 If Africa is to go "full-swing" into biotechnology, who will control the
patents? Recently there has been a lot of debate in India and other
countries about this. Some of the biotechnologies involve a "killer-gene"
which renders the seeds from Genetically modified crops sterile, thereby
ensuring that farmers become totally dependant on purchasing seeds each
season.

(2) What about payments to farmers who have been using a traditional method
of biotechnology (seed selection) over generations...will they get any
benefits from patents? There is a tendancy for biotech companies to seed
seeds and crop varieties as purely "natural" phenomenon, belonging to
nobody, ignoring the fact that many of the species that are used by
traditional farmers have evolved through selection and breeding for
generations to the point that they have aquired their current properties.

(3)Will this lead to a scenari
o like the one I showed in a previous posting,
where in India a company actually owns the patent to the Neem tree, thereby
excluding farmers from commerciallising the by-products without paying
royalities.

(4) What will be the economic effects of biotechnology on exports to Europe
and elsewhere? At the moment in Europe organic, non-GM food products carry a
high premium. Exporting GM food products to Europe will mean a harder
marketting exercise at lower prices.

It is easy to see biotechnology as being a "technical fix" to problems in
African agriculture, but these technical solutions do nothing to resolve the
underlying political/social/economic reasons behind non-development. Past
examples of "technical fixes" have not proved successful, except to the
suppliers of the inputs who have always made big profits. Yes, on one hand
Africa does not have to follow the policies of the West, but on th
e other it
does not have to become the testing ground or Guinea-pig for technologies
which are rejected on health & safety grounds from other countries. After
all, long after asbestos production was banned in Europe, factories were
still producing and selling the product in Africa (example: SENAC in
Sebikotane, Senegal), whilst their parent companies were paying out millions
in compensation to workers whose health had been damaged by the product.

Yeenduleen ak jaama

Tony

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