GMOs will play role in feeding our world

At the start of my classes in genetics at the University of Nairobi, the professor’s first words were a quote from Jonathan Swift: “And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country than the whole race of politicians put together”.

This was, and still is, great wisdom. This is exactly what plant and animal geneticists spend their careers trying to do — increase the yield of food from a finite amount of resource.

The increase is not just from the literal yield, but even more importantly, from minimising the vulnerability of a plant or animal to extraneous factors. These could be diseases, parasites, climate, and so on.

Animal and plant geneticists have worked tirelessly over the years to develop technologies to overcome these impediments. Although the bulk of the improvement has been via the use of selective breeding (artificial selection) techniques, other genetic technologies are becoming ever more important.

An example is genetic engineering that enables the production of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

The debate in Kenya about the safety and acceptability of GMO crops has in the most part been driven by “fear of the unknown”. It has been a case of little, or even lack of knowledge of what the technology is all about or what its value is in feeding an increasing world population — now at 7 billion and expected to exceed 9 billion by 2050.

If we assumed that every human being has enough to eat, this means world food production would need to increase by 30 per cent. However, that is far from reality.

According to the WHO, 850 million people (about one in nine) do not have enough food to lead a healthy active lifestyle, and the vast majority of these people live in the developing countries, where 13.5 per cent is undernourished.

GMOs WILL HAVE A BIG ROLE

WFP reports that sub-Saharan Africa has the highest prevalence of hunger with one person in four malnourished. The estimate is that to provide adequate nutrition to the entire world’s population, food production will need to double by 2050.

At the same time due to the rising population the amount of land available for food production is declining. To increase food production, GMOs will have a big role.

A GMO is one that has had its genetic (DNA) make-up altered. This could entail either removal of genetic material (deletion), addition of from outside the species (insertion), or change in form via use of different agents (mutation).

The primary use of genetic modifications is to give plants an ability they did not originally have. A good example is GMO crops that allow farmers to spray their crops with herbicides without harming them.

Other uses have been the development of crops resistant to certain diseases or pests, crops with improved nutritional profiles, and so on. When it comes to food crops, the end result is that for a given amount of land, the yield is higher and at lower costs.

This reduces the overall costs of production and hence food prices, and even more important increases the availability of food.

Dr Charagu is a senior geneticist with Hendrix Genetics, a global leader in livestock genetics.