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GM Cotton Improves Lives of African Farmers
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For three years, small farmers in the Makhatini plains in northeast South Africa have been planting genetically enhanced, insect resistant cotton. As a result, they now use only a fourth of the amount of insecticide they previously used, saving both time and energy, and are still getting substantially more yield per acre than ever before.
Asked about the environmental and health risks so feared in Europe, one African farmer replies, "In the West, people have the luxury of being afraid of biotechnology, but for us it's a question of life or death."
When Absalum Tumedi needs to spray his cotton field against insects, he has to go three kilometers on foot to the nearest watering hole to fill up his small backpack-spraying device and then walk the same distance back. "I end up going dozens of hard kilometers this way and have to spend several days just to cover my two hectare plot," he says.
But since using genetically enhanced seed, this task has been greatly reduced. "I only do two sprayings a year now, instead of eight, as I did, on average, with traditional seeds. The yield is better and I earn more money to feed and raise my family."
Thembitsha Joseph Buthelezi, chairman of the Ubongwa association that represents several thousand small farmers in Makhatini explains, "In the beginning, most of us were skeptical [about planting modified cotton.] The first year, only five farmers tried it. But last year, half of the cotton in this area was genetically enhanced."
"In the GM cotton fields of South Africa,"
Source:
lefigaro.fr
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