News
Kenyan scientist’s relentless crusade against hunger wins her top award
Dr Florence Wambugu inspects a tissue culture banana plantation in the company of a farmer. Photos/CORRESPONDENT
Posted Tuesday, September 9 2008 at 21:32
Besides, she adds, there are many international markets that have not been touched, and these can be tapped through value addition.
The value-addition model has been tested and it is working, says Dr Wambugu.
The banana crop has been turned from fruit into product. “From jam, to juice, crisps and even wine; the banana has become an international product,” she says passionately.
The award-winning Kenyan scientist’s involvement with Monsanto in a “faulty” GMO sweet potato project put her on the spotlight about four years ago.
A newspaper had then reported about that three-year trials on the GM sweet potato developed by Monsanto with the support of United States Agency for International Development (USAid), International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) and the World Bank.
The project had shown the GM sweet potato to be a failure. It had even been outperformed by conventional sweet potatoes.
The project’s failure was also prominently reported in the New Scientist, and was also referred to in other articles, including one in The Guardian.
Dr Wambugu however denied the allegations and insisted that “the GM sweet potato had been a resounding scientific success!”
Anti-GM activists
In her statement at the time, Dr Wambugu attributed criticism of her project to “what anti-GM activists are saying”.
The GM sweet potato has been presented as an agricultural revolution in Africa. To quote an article in Forbes magazine in December 2002, “while the West debates the ethics of GM food, Florence Wambugu is using it to feed her country.”
And perhaps that might be the pointer as to why she is very specific on the Yara Prize. According to her, it is not just for her biotechnology work with farmers to produce more food for Africa, but for her recent work on the GMO banana crop.
The GMO debate has also come home to Kenya. Agriculture minister William Ruto has raised the antennae of some civil society groups with his support for continued research on GM foods by both private companies and State organisations such as the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute.
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Submitted by IreadlinesPosted September 10, 2008 05:53 PM
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Submitted by madhair
i wish there were many women and men with the same kind of heart. now we as kenyans would be miles ahead. keep up doing good doctor! what if the moeny destined for special lanes went to these kind of projects? at least the poor would have their chance at better life.
Posted September 10, 2008 12:49 AM -
Submitted by nani_ngombe
From our satellites, we can see that fly on your nose. From our software programs, we can intercept all your digital communications and even listen to your phone conversations. We have the most extensive disease banks and can unleash viruses,bacteria etc as biological weapon on you anytime we want. We give you Aid and decide what you must do with it. Right now, we want to control what you eat and when you eat it! This is our last and final stroke. You are our prisoner.You saw it coming but could do nothing! Hahahaaa!
Posted September 09, 2008 10:58 PM
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At last something to shame the bloviators. As long scientific due process is followed, we should be able to benefit from science. Ofcourse there is need for caution in embracing GM foods, especially because the western scientific community is with-holding their support for adoption. This could be a sit-and-wait strategy to see if African consumers are affected. But the effort is absolutely good.