The introduction of genetically modified (GM) maize to Kenyan farmers is to be delayed, according to the Science and Development Network.
The GM maize is now scheduled to make its debut in 2010 following revised safety regulations for the Insect-Resistant Maize for Africa project.
The project’s first line of the GM maize has been tested in the world-class biosafety greenhouse officially opened in Nairobi earlier this year.
Approval for open field-testing is currently being sought from the government. If obtained, these tests will take place early next year. The changes in regulations now give greater attention to potential threats that GM maize could pose to the environment.
Genes from genetically modified maize imported into Mexico from the United States have entered local varieties, are likely to spread, and will be very difficult to remove, according to a major report released last month. The North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation says there is no evidence that the genes pose threats to human health or the environment, but action should be taken to conserve the biodiversity of maize varieties in Mexico.
“It became clear that regulatory issues were not exhaustively covered in the original project plan,” said Nairobi-based Stephen Mugo, project manager for Irma (Insect-Resistant Maize for Africa).
Mugo said the revised rules will comply with existing Kenyan regulations, which allow research on genetically altered crops but not their sale. The new rules are also stringent enough to anticipate any changes to the law.
A group drawn from the Irma project and the government regulator, the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service, decided on the changes. They also updated plans relating to plant breeding, facilities and permits, and the social and economic implications of introducing GM maize to Kenyan farmers.
The Irma project is a joint venture between the Kenyan government and international research institutes. It aims to develop a variety of maize able to resist attack by stem borers, major insect pests. Each year, stem borers are responsible for crop losses of up to 12%, amounting to $76-million in lost harvests.
The Irma project, which began five years ago, aims to create both conventional and transgenic maize varieties to resist the pest. The GM plants, incorporating genetic material from a bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis, are referred to as Bt maize.
The research is being done by scientists from the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico.
It is expected to cost more than $6-million during the next five years with the bulk of the funding coming from the Swiss-based Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture. The Rockefeller Foundation is also a donor.
The project’s GM maize was initially scheduled to be distributed to farmers by 2008. According to Mugo, widespread distribution will only be achieved by 2011.
Joe DeVries of the Rockefeller Foundation said he hoped extra regulations would not slow the pace of the project. “It is clear that [this type of GM] maize has been tested and proven to work elsewhere hence there is no need for unnecessary regulations,” he added.
When officially opening the greenhouse facility, Kenya’s president Mwai Kibaki endorsed the use of genetically modified crops to increase yields, but warned that guidelines were necessary.
“We have to move quickly and embrace biotechnology in our farming,” said Kibaki, who stressed the financial impacts of crop pests and disease in Kenya. “With judicious application of biotechnology, it is possible to save this country from incurring these losses.”
Masa Iwanaga, director general the International Center for Maize and Wheat Research, says the opening of the greenhouse in Kenya opened up a stream of new opportunities both in research and agricultural progress.
“With this greenhouse opening, and the training of competent staff to manage it, Kenya has positioned themselves to be leaders in sub-Saharan Africa in the use of biotechnology to meet the rapidly growing need to increase food production”, says Iwanaga.
Meanwhile, maize genes continue to amaze scientists. Scientists have moved a step closer to learning the genetic secrets of maize, and using this knowledge to boost crop yields.
Researchers led by Joachim Messing, director of the Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers University in the United States, have published a series of papers providing the most comprehensive picture yet of the crop’s evolution.
“This research will help enable scientists and farmers to make major improvements in one of the world’s most significant crops,” says Messing.
The researchers conservatively estimate that the maize genome — its entire genetic makeup — includes about 59 000 genes, short sequences that code for individual proteins. That is more than any other species whose genome has been sequenced so far. In contrast, the most recent assessment of the human genome, published in the journal Nature, puts the total number of human genes at between 20 000 and 25 000.
Messing said that the research has importance implications for developing countries.
“More nutritious maize is critical for Africa,” he says, adding that it should be possible to boost the crop’s nutritional value because “it already has all the genes necessary”.
According to Messing, the richness of the maize genome means that increasing its nutritive value would not require adding genes from other species, but only changing the way existing genes function.
“One example is amino acids, which are stored as proteins in the seeds that we eat,” says Messing. Some maize varieties have more nutritious proteins, but the genes controlling their production can be ‘silenced’ when the variety is crossed with other strains. Messing anticipates being able to prevent this silencing by moving a short sequence of genetic material called a “regulator” from a gene that is not silenced to the one that is.
The research also revealed that the maize genome is highly complex because many of its genes have moved to different locations on chromosomes during its evolution. This phenomenon — unknown in any other species — has implications for genetic engineering.
According to Messing, it means that fears that genetic modification could lead to instability in a species’ genetic material are unfounded.
Sequencing the entire maize genome is a priority driven by the world’s economic and nutritional needs, says Messing. About $12-million has been spent so far on research laying the groundwork for full genome sequencing, and the US National Science Foundation recently announced a $30-million programme to fund that research.
The Mexican report by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), which was set by the North American Free Trade Agreement and reports to the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States, estimates that 25-30% of maize imported into Mexico for human or animal consumption is genetically modified.
It warns that small-scale farmers could experimentally plant the grain that government agencies have distributed to rural communities. The resulting plants could then pollinate local varieties growing nearby.
However, it notes that it is unlikely that a small number of individual genes could have any “major biological effect” on the genetic diversity of Mexican maize.
It goes on to say that transgenic maize did not appear to have any effect on other plants and animals such as insects found in Mexican maize fields, but that specific studies have still to be conducted.
The CEC’s 16-member panel made a series of unanimous recommendations. The panel said transgenic maize imported to Mexico should be labelled, and milled at the point of entry to prevent genes from spreading to native varieties. The genetic modification of maize to produce pharmaceuticals or industrial compounds that are incompatible with food and feed should also be prohibited, they say.
Efforts to protect Mexican maize varieties should be supported, according to the CEC. To this end it recommends the development of a quality assured seed programme from which farmers could not only acquire seeds but could also have their own seeds tested for presence of foreign genes.
In response, the US Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Trade Representative called the report “fundamentally flawed and unscientific”.
“Key recommendations are not based on sound science, and are contradicted by the report’s own scientific findings,” says the statement. “Implementing many of the report’s recommendations would cause economic harm to farmers and consumers in all NAFTA countries and restrict international trade.” — SciDev.Net