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June, 2008
Source:
Conversations about Plant Biotechnology
Burkina Faso
is one of the poorest countries in the world, with 90 percent of
the population engaged in subsistence agriculture. Where
possible, Burkinabe farmers produce cotton as a cash crop,
despite frequent drought and insect infestations.
Dr. Ouola Traore (photo) discusses the field trials and
evaluations that have been conducted for nearly five years in
Burkina Faso to evaluate the safety and potential advantages of
GM cotton crops for Burkinabe farmers.
RELATED
ARTICLE
Researchers consider advantages of transgenic cotton crops for
farmers in Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso in Western Africa is one of the poorest countries
in the world with 90 percent of the population engaged in
subsistence agriculture. Where possible, farmers are producing
cotton as a cash crop, accounting for more than 50 percent of
all exports in Burkina Faso.
 However,
cotton production in Burkina Faso is susceptible to frequent
drought and insect infestations that can often result in damage
to up to 90 percent of the crop. As a result, cotton production
is highly dependent on insecticide treatments to control these
pests.
“It’s true that we have some varieties that are productive, but
we also have to use a lot of pesticides first to treat the seed,
then to protect the plants until they are virtually mature,”
explains Dr. Ouola Traoré, an agronomist and head of the Cotton
Program the Institute for the Environment and Agricultural
Research (INERA). “At present, the cost of insecticide treatment
means that often we can’t be competitive internationally.”
To provide growers with more options for insect control and
potentially greater productivity in the field, Burkina Faso
began field trials and evaluations with genetically modified
(GM) or transgenic cotton crops in 2003. The advantages of
transgenic insect-protected cotton crops are built-in to the
plant, which contain a protein from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)
that protects against specific lepidopteron insect pests. “The
experiments are intended – with transgenic cotton – to see what
the advantages are. … It’s to see if there is some other
alternative to battling the various pests chemically,” continues
Dr. Traoré.
The objectives of the experiments and tests were to assess the
effectiveness of Bt cotton on the insects that infest fields in
Burkina Faso, to analyze the financial profitability of the Bt
technology for Burkinabe farmers, to analyze the impact of the
technology on the environment, and to assess the composition and
safety of the cotton seed and oil byproducts that are used for
animal feed and human consumption.
“I’m interested in giving the best possible information to the
producer. And it’s not in the interest of others, but in my own
interest – as a scientist,” says Dr. Traoré. “It’s in the
interest of the country, in the interest of the producers –
because I myself am the son of a producer – to convey to them
the right information.”
Researchers at INERA continue to experiment with local varieties
to further assess the advantages of transgenic cotton crops for
farmers in Burkina Faso, while beginning to consider how
Burkinabe growers can produce transgenic cotton crops if the
country chooses to adopt the technology.
If approved for commercial use, Burkinabe farmers are expected
to benefit from less labor, less pesticide spraying and
increased income. In fact, according to a recent report from the
International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech
Applications (ISAAA), the adoption of transgenic crops among
resource-poor farmers in other countries is resulting in
unprecedented advantages that are contributing to the Millennium
Development Goals of reducing poverty by 50 percent by 2015.
“Already you can see the importance of biotechnology, clearly in
West Africa. … Biotechnology has an advantage,” says Dr. Traoré.
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