South Africa embracing biotech crops

While commercialisation of biotech crops in Australia remains frozen by state moratoriums, South African farmers are following their peers in China, India and South American nations in enthusiastically embracing the new age of agriculture, according to a South African industry leader.

Dr Hinner Koster, managing director for Scinetic, a new agricultural biotechnology centre established by the South African agricultural services conglomerate Agrfri, said South Africa has not experienced the virulent opposition to GM crops seen in wealthy nations like Britain, Germany, France and Australia.

Koster said South Africa had anti-biotech organisations like BioWatch that occasionally ran negative campaigns, but opposition was not as concerted and fierce as in developed nations.

He said there was "absolutely rapid' uptake of GM crops like cotton, maize and soy, by both large- and small-scale farmers in South Africa.

"A good example is the pest-resistant maize demonstration plots planted in South Africa by AfricaBio, which does tremendous work. [AfricaBio is a pan-African organization involved in developing and promoting new cropping technologies].

Koster said the transgenic maize, which contains a Bt toxin gene that protects against a major pest, the maize stalk border, delivered yield increases up to 40 per cent in the trial plots, relative to conventional maize planted as refuge crops to minimise the risk of insect pests becoming resistant.

"So there are significant opportunities for small farmers to increase their yields and income at the same time," he said.

"AfricaBio is really creating such a positive vibe for biotech crops through its work."

That 'positive vibe' is spilling over into South African consumers - Hinner said a recent government survey found that 65 per cent of South Africans regarded biotech crops as safe, and more than 70 per cent were aware they had eaten foods from biotech crops.

About 50 per cent of South Africa's soybean crop now carries a transgene conferring tolerance to the herbicide glyphosate; around 8 per cent of white maize, and 25 per cent of yellow maize, and 80 per cent of South African cotton, is now transgenic.

Researchers in South Africa, and other African nations, are now working on improved, transgenic forms of traditional crops like cassava, millet, sorghym, sugarcane, cowpea and bananas.

"A lot has already been done to improve yield and disease resistance in African staple crops like white maize, and now there is a drive to engineer crops to improve their nutrient content, and to counter specific deficiencies .

"As has been done with 'golden rice', we're looking to improve the vitamin A and iron content of white maize, which is a dietary staple in Africa.

"All maize is naturally deficient in lysine, and there are many projects underway to increase lysine content -- not just for human consumption, but to reduce the cost involved in adding expensive ingredients to animal food formulas to increase their lysine content."

Hinner believes that transgenic animals may meet with more opposition, but South African researchers are not working in this area yet. Instead, they are applying DNA marker technology to identify gene loci associated with traits such as productivity in harsh conditions, the ability to cope with harsh fodder, disease resistance.

South African livestock species had much to offer the world in terms of identifying genes associated with these traits, and transferring them to other livestock breeds through hybridisation.