In Africa, many of the cash crops that Monsanto wants to target for improvements through GMO technologies display skewed patterns of ownership and are grown for the purpose of earning foreign exchange. If they are likely to have an impact, it would be for those who are already at an advantage. Given that seed companies reflect a severe lack of understanding of the agricultural context of developing countries, one would be obliged to forgive them. Companies like Monsanto are least interested in these questions and more interested in realising profits from the sale of seeds. More so now, since biotechnology companies are facing the crunch time from investors as they have to demonstrate that GMO technologies are a good investment.
Profit is the bottom-line and nothing more.
Organic agriculture Small-scale and subsistence farming thrives on risk management. GMOs will undo all of this because of their focus on uniformity, the requirements of certain kinds of inputs that go with the distribution of seed and reliance on new types of expertise. The simple fact is that many of the innovations that GMO companies have produced are better suited for large commercial farmers than for small-scale subsistence farming. Associated with the sales of GMO seeds are other hidden costs. Since the mergers between seed producers and providers of farm inputs such as fertiliser and pesticides, seed is now bought with a whole package of goods.