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Author: Matthew A. Schnurr
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0228000459
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 277
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Book Description
As development donors invest hundreds of millions of dollars into improved crops designed to alleviate poverty and hunger, Africa has emerged as the final frontier in the global debate over agricultural biotechnology. The first data-driven assessment of the ecological, social, and political factors that shape our understanding of genetic modification, Africa's Gene Revolution surveys twenty years of efforts to use genomics-based breeding to enhance yields and livelihoods for African farmers. Matthew Schnurr considers the full range of biotechnologies currently in commercial use and those in development - including hybrids, marker-assisted breeding, tissue culture, and genetic engineering. Drawing on interviews with biotechnology experts alongside research conducted with more than two hundred farmers across eastern, western, and southern Africa, Schnurr reveals a profound incongruity between the optimistic rhetoric that accompanies genetic modification technology and the realities of the smallholder farmers who are its intended beneficiaries. Through the lens of political ecology, this book demonstrates that the current emphasis on improved seeds discounts the geographic, social, ecological, and economic contexts in which the producers of these crops operate. Bringing the voices of farmers to the foreground of this polarizing debate, Africa's Gene Revolution contends that meaningful change will come from a reconfiguration not only of the plant's genome, but of the entire agricultural system.
Author: Matthew A. Schnurr
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0228000459
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 277
Get Book
Book Description
As development donors invest hundreds of millions of dollars into improved crops designed to alleviate poverty and hunger, Africa has emerged as the final frontier in the global debate over agricultural biotechnology. The first data-driven assessment of the ecological, social, and political factors that shape our understanding of genetic modification, Africa's Gene Revolution surveys twenty years of efforts to use genomics-based breeding to enhance yields and livelihoods for African farmers. Matthew Schnurr considers the full range of biotechnologies currently in commercial use and those in development - including hybrids, marker-assisted breeding, tissue culture, and genetic engineering. Drawing on interviews with biotechnology experts alongside research conducted with more than two hundred farmers across eastern, western, and southern Africa, Schnurr reveals a profound incongruity between the optimistic rhetoric that accompanies genetic modification technology and the realities of the smallholder farmers who are its intended beneficiaries. Through the lens of political ecology, this book demonstrates that the current emphasis on improved seeds discounts the geographic, social, ecological, and economic contexts in which the producers of these crops operate. Bringing the voices of farmers to the foreground of this polarizing debate, Africa's Gene Revolution contends that meaningful change will come from a reconfiguration not only of the plant's genome, but of the entire agricultural system.
Author: Falck-Zepeda, José Benjamin
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN: 0896297950
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 266
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Book Description
A variable climate, political instability, and other constraints have limited agricultural development in African countries south of the Sahara. Genetically modified (GM) crops are one tool for enhancing agricultural productivity and food security despite such constraints. Genetically Modified Crops in Africa: Economic and Policy Lessons from Countries South of the Sahara investigates how this tool might be effectively used by evaluating the benefits, costs, and risks for African countries of adopting GM crops. The authors gather together studies on GM crops economic effects and impact on trade, how consumers view such crops, and other issues. They find that GM crops have had, on average, a positive economic effect in the nations where they were used and identify future steps for enhancing GM crop adoptions positive effects. Promising policy initiatives include making biosafety regulations that do not make GM crop development prohibitively expensive, fostering intraregional trade in GM crops, and providing more and better information about GM crops to consumers who might currently be skeptical of them. These and other findings in Genetically Modified Crops in Africa indicate ways biotechnology can contribute to economic development in Africa south of the Sahara.
Author: Jennifer A. Thomson
Publisher: Juta and Company Ltd
ISBN: 9781919713571
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 210
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Book Description
Jennifer Thomson separates fact from fiction and explains why and how GM crops can help us combat poverty, starvation and disease in the developing world, in a safe and responsible way. She explains the technology and looks at the differences and similarities between genetic modification, conventional plant breeding, and natural processes such as cross pollination and mutations. There are chapters devoted to controversial issues such as food safety (for GM crops and organically grown food), patents labelling, regulations and controls, and a section dealing with frequently-asked questions. It ends with a focus on Africa and possible future developments in GM technology. Technical terms are explained and appendices provide additional information on testing for allergens, horizontal gene transfer, and international food safety assessment documents. For those who wish to explore the subject further, it also provides a list of more than 60 web sites dealing with issues related to the GM debate.
Author: José Falck-Zepeda
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780896298323
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
Author: Chambers, Judith A.
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 146
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Book Description
The African Development Bank (AfDB), in commissioning this report to be prepared by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), highlighted the need for a comprehensive, evidenced-based review of agricultural biotechnology in order to better understand its current status, issues, constraints, and opportunities for Africa. Agricultural biotechnology comprises several scientific techniques (genetic engineering, molecular marker-assisted breeding, the use of molecular diagnostics and vaccines, and tissue culture) that are used to improve plants, animals, and microorganisms. However, in preparing this desktop analysis, IFPRI has focused on genetic modification (GM) technologies in particular and on the agricultural context in which they are being applied, because GM technologies are at the center of the controversy about biotechnologys role in Africa. In addition, because we have attempted to focus our review on peer-reviewed evidence and documented examples, the preponderance of data presented in the report is focused on genetically modified (also abbreviated GM) crops in use and under development, although we recognize the potential of the technology for livestock, fisheries, and forestry.
Author: John Komen
Publisher: Center For Strategic & International Studies
ISBN: 1442224762
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 38
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Book Description
Agricultural biotechnology holds great promise in contributing to Africa’s socioeconomic development. This is confirmed by a growing body of literature analyzing the positive economic effects at the farm level, and also for a growing number of farmers in Africa. However, with the exception of Burkina Faso, Egypt, and South Africa, the African countries have been slow adopters of biotechnology crops for cultivation. Trade concerns are often cited in sub-Saharan Africa as a reason for taking a precautionary approach to genetically modified (GM) crop adoption, which may result in forgone benefits for farmers and society at large and have a negative impact on a country’s food security situation. This study aims to evaluate the barriers that the adoption of GM crops by the East African countries poses for their trade with neighboring countries, with their other trade partners in Africa, and with their international trade partners. It is based on a literature review of recent studies analyzing the actual and potential trade implications of adopting GM crops, with a particular focus on the East African countries. This literature review is complemented by an analysis of recent agricultural trade statistics. In addition, the perspectives of key stakeholders and policymakers in East Africa have been included vis-à-vis the trade implications of adopting GM crops.
Author: Joeva Sean Rock
Publisher: MSU Press
ISBN: 1628954698
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 197
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Book Description
This critical text is a timely ethnography of how global powers, local resistance, and capital flows are shaping contemporary African foodways. Ghana was one of the first countries targeted by a group of US donors and agribusiness corporations that funded an ambitious plan to develop genetically modified (GM) crops for African farmers. The collective believed that GM crops would help farmers increase their yields and help spark a “new” Green Revolution on the continent. Soon after the project began in Ghana, a nationwide food sovereignty movement emerged in opposition to GM crops. Today, in spite of impressive efforts and investments by proponents, only two GM crops remain in the pipeline. Why, after years of preparation, millions of dollars of funding, and multiple policy reforms, did these megaprojects effectively come to a halt? One of the first ethnographies to take on the question of GM crops in the African context, We Are Not Starving: The Struggle for Food Sovereignty in Ghana blends archival analysis, interviews, and participant observation with Ghanaian scientists, farmers, activists, and officials. Ultimately the text aims to illuminate why GM crops have animated the country and to highlight how their introduction has opened an opportunity to air grievances about the systematic de-valuing and exploitation of African land, labor, and knowledge that have been centuries in the making.
Author: Robert Paarlberg
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674041745
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 268
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Book Description
In Starved for Science Paarlberg explains why poor African farmers are denied access to productive technologies, particularly genetically engineered seeds with improved resistance to insects and drought. He traces this obstacle to the current opposition to farm science in prosperous countries.
Author: Danny Watson
Publisher: Scientific e-Resources
ISBN: 1839471905
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 324
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Book Description
Genetically modified crops are plants used in agriculture, the DNA of which has been modified using genetic engineering methods. In most cases, the aim is to introduce a new trait to the plant which does not occur naturally in the species. Examples in food crops include resistance to certain pests, diseases, or environmental conditions, reduction of spoilage, or resistance to chemical treatments, or improving the nutrient profile of the crop. Recently rapid advances in the development and commercialization of transgenic crops across the world have been witnessed both in terms increased crop coverage and economic benefits. Genetically modified foods are foods derived from genetically modified organisms have had specific changes introduced into their DNA by genetic engineering techniques. The main aim of genetically modified crops is to produce a food that is able to survive even if any harmful chemicals or pesticides or herbicides are sprayed. Other benefit of genetically modified crops is to make food stay fresh for a long time. Some of genetically modified crops and food are corn, tomato, beets, potatoes, sprouts and alfalfa. It involves the insertion or deletion of genes. Examples in non-food crops include production of pharmaceutical agents, biofuels, and other industrially useful goods, as well as for bioremediation. This book covers those facets, from the source of the gene, compositions of a gene construct, method of gene delivery, and result of gene integration and expression, to effects of the transgene on plants and the ecology.
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309437385
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 607
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Book Description
Genetically engineered (GE) crops were first introduced commercially in the 1990s. After two decades of production, some groups and individuals remain critical of the technology based on their concerns about possible adverse effects on human health, the environment, and ethical considerations. At the same time, others are concerned that the technology is not reaching its potential to improve human health and the environment because of stringent regulations and reduced public funding to develop products offering more benefits to society. While the debate about these and other questions related to the genetic engineering techniques of the first 20 years goes on, emerging genetic-engineering technologies are adding new complexities to the conversation. Genetically Engineered Crops builds on previous related Academies reports published between 1987 and 2010 by undertaking a retrospective examination of the purported positive and adverse effects of GE crops and to anticipate what emerging genetic-engineering technologies hold for the future. This report indicates where there are uncertainties about the economic, agronomic, health, safety, or other impacts of GE crops and food, and makes recommendations to fill gaps in safety assessments, increase regulatory clarity, and improve innovations in and access to GE technology.
