Kenya turns to GMO to boost food security efforts
NAIROBI— The Kenyan government has lifted the ban on open cultivation of genetically modified crops and importation of food crops and animal feeds.
A cabinet memo says this is part of the measures taken by the government to deal with the long term effects of climate change, that has left millions of Kenyans in dire need of relief food attributed to prolonged drought.
Despite establishing a fully fledged Biosafety Authority to regulate the import and production of GMO foods, Kenya has never allowed GMO foods in the market, with the Cabinet banning GMOs in 2012.
Local millers have been grappling with pricey maize imports due to scarcity of non-GMO maize and cereals in the international market. The high costs of non-GMO maize has been passed on to consumers with a 2kg packet of flour retailing at a high of Ksh 210 in Kenya.
In what the government says is a long term solution to deal with food insecurity in Kenya, the cabinet has lifted the 2012 ban on GMO crops in the country.
While lifting the ban the government says it has considered various expert reports from Kenya national bio safety authority, World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization.
Part of the cabinet dispatch read “In accordance with the recommendation of the task force review matters relating to genetically modified foods and safety and in fidelity with the guidelines of the national bio safety authority on all applicable international treaties including the Cartagena protocol on biosafety, Cabinet vacated its earlier decision of 8th November 2012 prohibiting the open cultivation of genetically modified crops and the importation of food crops and animal feeds produced by bio technology innovations.”
The move comes just months after the government allowed feed manufacturers to import yellow maize with traces of GMO after feed millers failed to import a single non-GMO grain due to scarcity in the international market.
Lifting of the GMO ban follows a 2019 decision by the cabinet allowing commercialization of BT cotton in the country as the government seeks to revitalize the textile and apparel industry in the country. Kenya becomes the fifth country in Africa after South Africa, Sudan, Burkina Faso and Cameroon to approve the use of GMOs.
Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK