Even though GMOs have been scientifically proven to be safe and would be an invaluable component of Uganda’s food security strategy, they continue to be a target of attack by politicians and civil society groups.
Science advocates in Africa and Asia reject claims that genetically modified (GM) crops have been hijacked by big companies from the West to promote “a
Daily Monitor
Friday May 07 2021
Farmers water tomatoes at a garden in Awach Sub-county, Gulu District, last month. Some Civil Society Organisations have cancelled their participation in the United Nations Food Systems Summit. PHOTO/TOBBIAS JOLLY OWINY
Summary
According to them, large-scale agriculture also requires major investments in the form of machinery, grains and seeds meaning that poorer farmers in many African countries are excluded from the advantages of intensive agriculture.
In March 2018, delegates under the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) converged at a high-level UN summit in Rome, Italy, to drum up support for Agroecology in Africa.
Advertisement
Agroecology in Africa: Silver bullet or pathway to poverty?
09
Agroecology in Africa: Silver bullet or pathway to poverty?
A MODEL of agroecology that limits farming inputs in Africa to solely indigenous materials is meeting resistance from farmers and others who worry it will most likely force even more people on the continent into poverty and hunger.
By Joseph Opoku Gakpo
“The agroecology promoters will use terms like indigenous foods, indigenous crops, indigenous everything. Like we want to exclude new varieties that are coming. But even the corn we eat today is not from Africa. It’s from America,” observed Pacifique Nshimiyimana, a young farmer and agricultural enterpreneur from Rwanda.