An article in The Africa Report, published by the Rockefeller Foundation, outlines several good news stories achieved “with not a petri dish-induced genetic manipulation in sight”. While one may quibble with the details — how many engineered genes can you actually see — one cannot fault the conclusion: old-fashioned breeding is more likely to deliver the goods than GMOs. The article is at pains to point out that the early emphasis of the Rockefeller Foundation and Bill Gates on biotechnology was “slow and expensive”. Conventional breeding, by contrast, has resulted in fast-growing disease-resistant cassava and better bean varieties. ((“Roughly half the beans grown on the continent are eaten by weevils, not by people.” That’s astonishing.)) The article also stresses the need for investment in agriculture:
There is broad agreement among economists that countries like India, China and Vietnam all kick-started their economies by accumulating an agricultural surplus, which not only created healthier and more productive workforces, but also released manpower that would otherwise have been devoted to farming.
No argument on that score. In other respects, though, I’d have to say that the “new” approach doesn’t go quite far enough. For example, it contrasts Africa’s variable landscape with the “uniform” coastal plains of Asia that responded to “the high-yield variety of paddy rice”. Professor Mark Laing, the expert quoted to support that view, goes on:
[I]n Asia … you are able to use a single superior variety suitable for this habitat. This can’t work in Africa, because it doesn’t have these coherent zones. For example, between South Africa and Zimbabwe you need four different varieties of soybean.
Four whole varieties! Africa’s farmers deserve better. They deserve a rich diversity of crops and a rich diversity of varieties. While old-fashioned breeding, suitably beefed up with better training for African breeders, is a good start, making full use of farmers’ own expertise as participants in the breeding process would be even better.
So we discussed this thing among ourselves, and decided that we would both have a more enjoyable rest if we put this blog to rest too. Temporarily. That way we won’t be fretting about connections and internets and all that technology. Just about over-eating, our solemn duty at this time of year.