Embrace biotechnology to lower cost of unga

Kakamega Mama Watoto Super market attendant Emmanuel Kimtai arranges maize floor on shelves on Feb 23, 2023. [Benjamin Sakwa, Standard]

The last few weeks have seen some citizens and political leaders hit the streets protesting the high cost of food and fuel.

Principally, it is the cost of unga (maize flour). The citizens are unhappy that the government has done little to bring the retail price down to Sh100.

While these may be difficult to achieve in the short term, the cost of unga can be brought down considerably, perhaps to between 150 and 170, in the current economic circumstances. However, doing so will require a united front by our political leaders, the government, farmers and policy advisors.

Kenya is one of the countries that depend mainly on agriculture but have largely remained food insecure. The main staple for Kenya is maize, grown by over 90 per cent of 3.5 million small-scale farmers. However, the annual maize production (approx 2.8 million metric tons) consistently falls below consumption (approx 4 MMT), despite the rising population, constrained by underlying factors such as soil acidification due to unsustainable soil enrichment practices, lack of access to improved seeds, and the impact of maize lethal necrosis disease (MLND).

As such, Kenya faces an annual grain deficit above 1.2 MMT. This is despite deployment of irrigation, fertiliser, organic farming practices and extension services. Without a united political front, robust deployment of modern technologies, awareness enhancement among the farming communities, and a re-assessment of trading policies, the deficit is projected to grow each year as our population races toward the 60 million mark, and the demand for maize increases.

It was a step in the right direction in 2019, when President Uhuru Kenyatta partially lifted a ban previously imposed on all foods derived from genetic engineering (commonly referred to as GMOs), allowing for local cultivation of cotton protected from bollworm, engineered using a gene from a harmless soil bacterium (Bt cotton). Approximately 60 percent of cotton is used as food and feed, and only 40 per cent is used in the textile industry. Again following an outcry by feed millers, another partial lifting was gazetted in July 2022, allowing for the importation of GMO maize for the feed industry. We are particularly happy that both sides of the political divide accepted this, to save out livestock industry that was quickly shutting down.

Currently, however, some political leaders have now been misled to believe these products can cause harm to our health. These beliefs and fears stem from the lack of awareness on these products. Against this background, an attempt by President William Ruto to regularise the full lifting of the ban has been met by a couple of court cases.

GM crops are developed to overcome specific challenges, and there are many variants. The type scheduled for local cultivation in Kenya from 2022, is Bt maize, which been developed locally through a public-private partnership to overcome stem borer pest. Bt is not an abbreviation for biotechnology, but for Bacillus thuringiensis, a common bacterium found in soils. It has been used for more than 30 years to manufacture insecticide spray for crops. Stem borers cost Kenya nearly Sh9 billion from the loss of more than 400,000 tons of maize each year, almost equivalent to the amount Kenya imports.

Three year trials on Bt maize at KALRO farms has showed the inclusion of Bt gene to effectively control maize damage by the two major insect pests affecting maize production in Kenya, the spotted stem borer (Chilo partellus) and the African stem borer (Busseola fusca).

To bring down the price of unga, we have to embrace modern biotechnology, including deployment of Bt maize which has been proven to restore yields, and ease out on import restrictions. Research data show maize is consistently cheaper in countries that predominantly grow GM maize.

The writer is Secretary General of Kenya University Biotechnology Consortium