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Old 26-04-2003, 01:30 PM
Larry Caldwell
 
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Default GM Cotton a big success in Africa

More news from the Third World. I think the European resistance to GM
crops is going to get steamrollered by the advantages of a very powerful
technology. Note that these are not trials, they are actual on-farm
results.

http://www.newscientist.com/hottopic...?id=ns99993473

Note that New Scientist is careful to report the anti-GM FUD.

------------------------------------
KwaZulu farmers boosted by GM cotton

Children work and play in cotton fields sprayed with pesticide (Image:
Yousouf Ismael)

The first genetically-modified crop to be grown commercially in sub-
Saharan Africa has proven a great success, scientists have told New
Scientist.

The GM cotton boosted the yields of black farmers in South Africa's
KwaZulu-Natal province by between 50 and 89 per cent compared to its
conventional counterpart, the researchers found. The yield per kilogramme
of seed was even higher, with increases up to 129 per cent, as fewer
seeds are needed for the GM variety. In addition, labour and pesticide
poisonings were reduced.

"This was the first study in sub-Saharan Africa. It's not trial data,
it's real farm data," says Stephen Morse, at the University of Reading,
UK. "We were not expecting differences as big as this. The farmers were
glowing, they were very happy."

However, environmentalists remain unconvinced. Elfrieda Pschorn-Strauss,
of Biowatch in Cape Town, says the GM variety used matures earlier in the
season than the conventional variety, meaning that late flooding in 2000-
2001 exaggerated the yield difference.

High relative yields of GM cotton have also been reported recently from
India, though the South African yields are higher. Yield increases in the
developing world now appear to be many times higher than the 10 per cent
for GM cotton seen in the developed world.


Farm records


The GM cotton used was "Bt cotton". It contains a gene for a bacterial
toxin that kills bollworms, a major cotton pest in the developing world.
Morse and colleagues, funded by their university, studied the records of
1300 farmers in the Makhathini region, as well as carrying out individual
interviews

The farmers, 60 per cent of whom are women, typically have between one
and three hectares. The farmers buy all their supplies from the Vunisa
Cotton company, which also buys the cotton produced. Use of the GM
variety grew from only 0.1 per cent of farmers in 1997/98 to over 90 per
cent of farmers by 2001/02.

As well as increasing yields, the GM cotton reduced the need for
pesticide spraying. This saves substantial labour, the team calculated,
important in a region ravaged by HIV/AIDS.


Solely reliant


The number of pesticide poisonings also fell. In 1997/98 there were 51
reported cases. If all farmers use Bt cotton, the number would fall to
two a season, say the researchers.

But Pschorn-Strauss argues: "It's a short term strategy, it may work for
three or four years but then [bollworm] resistance would develop."

She also notes that Bt cotton seeds are twice the price of conventional
cotton seeds and that small farmers who become solely reliant on the Bt
strain would be particularly vulnerable to changes in market conditions.

Morse agrees that reliance on a single company restricts farmers: "Bt
cotton is not going to address these things, but so far the message is
very positive."




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