It must be hard for an African farmer to understand the debate currently raging in Europe about the use of modern biotechnological methods in agricultural research. Health and environmental risks may dominate discussions up north, but she wonders why they don t discuss the enormous possibilities that biotechnology offers. In Africa, prolonged drought is slowly killing the farmer s maize and cassava crops. Vicious insect attacks took a heavy toll on last year s crops. She is aware of chemical pesticides, but she has heard they carry a serious health risk, and they cost more than she can afford anyway.
Weeds are also a big problem.
One weed called striga entwines itself with the maize plant so that her children cannot pull it up without uprooting the maize plant too. And using chemical weed killers would kill both the striga and the maize. Even in a good year when the rains come at the right time and in sufficient quantities and when the insects are not too hungry, the yields of maize and cassava are scant, because the soil is deficient in nutrients. Every year she removes more plant nutrients from the soil than she puts back. Although she adds plant residues, animal manure, and other organic materials to the soils, she knows she needs to add chemical fertilizers as well, but the price is high.