The challenge of food security
Food deficit in Nepal is mainly the result of insufficient inputs in the production process, conversion of food grain into animal feed, erratic rainfall, delayed monsoon and poor land husbandry. The crop yield data show big yield gaps (the gap between attainable yield and the national average yield). The gap is three tons per hectare for wheat, three tons per hectare for maize and two tons per hectare for rice. Thus, over a million hectares of cultivable land yield below average. Agro scientists in Nepal often complain that there is not enough money for research and awareness programs aimed at farmers, which would be of enormous help in reducing these gaps. Unavailability of quality seeds, fertilizers and plant-protection chemicals for the crops are other important factors. Moreover, the government does not have enough space to store all of the food grain produced in the country; instead traders across the border store Nepali harvest, thus leading to seasonal shortages. If the farmers are supported with proper inputs in time and storage facilities are improved, we can attain the goal of food sufficiency in a not too distant future. Also, if the farmers could store rainwater during monsoon for its use in the dry season, millions of tons of additional yield can be achieved. None of these measures require genetic manipulation of seeds, which is Monsanto’s forte.
Recent surveys in the US indicate that the Americans are wary of Genetically Modified food. Europeans have left the choice to the consumers, but food products there need to be labelled as ‘genetically modified’. The labelling has been made mandatory because in some European countries cow milk was found to contain the unique signature of the DNA of GM plants. The signature has also been evident in chicken feed.
Most of the cotton grown in the US is genetically modified. These GM cotton varieties are immune to all pests. Genetic Modification has also been linked with higher volume of oils from the cotton seeds. These oils are used as preservatives and in cookies, peanut butter and as cooking oil. In the US, 85 percent of soybean, which is the main constituent of animal feed, is genetically modified. So yes, the GM food has its advantages, but people also need to be made aware of its medical side effects.
Businessmen often ignore environmental hazards in search of fast bucks. As governments have failed to foresee the long-term effects of GM crops, the reach of GM food is expanding around the globe.
Let us see how GM food can be harmful to flora and fauna. When pollen grains from GM maize, which is resistant to pests, are blown away by the wind and deposited on milkweed plant, the monarch caterpillar which feeds on milkweed dies. This not only risks, on the one hand, the wipeout of the monarch caterpillar species, but also, on the other, development of greater resistance in the insect against all pesticides. Thus GM is a great threat to biodiversity.
There is also a growing concern that introducing a new gene into a food plant may result in unexpected negative impact on human health. Often, the effect might only be visible only in the long-run. More and more children in the US and Europe are developing life threatening allergies to GM peanuts and other GM food products. There is a possibility that the introduced gene might give rise to new allergens. Because of this fear, the US and Australia have banned the transfer of genes from Brazilian nuts altogether. Likewise, genetically modified potato has been found to cause significant anatomical changes in the intestinal tract of mice as compared to the tracts of the mice fed normal potato. The analogy might hold true in human case as well. If something similar were to happen to humans, GM would be an unfortunate experiment, to say the least.
We can’t predict the outcome of the introduction of GM food in Nepal. What is for certain is that since GM foods are modified, their interaction with our bodies will be very different to the interaction between normal food and our bodies. What is also certain that consuming GM plants will have higher concentration of harmful chemicals. Since there are ample opportunities to increase crop yield in Nepal through natural means, we do not need GM crops.
The writer is a retired scientist from the Nepal Agricultural Research Council
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