Banned in Uganda: While the Irish potato faces disease and climate change, politics stymie farmers eager to adopt still unapproved GM seeds – Genetic…

Its a fivehour drive into the western part of Uganda to Kachwekano Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute (KaZARDI), where GM Irish potatoes are being bred. Visitors are welcomed by healthy looking plants, the centerpiece of the countrys ongoingpotato field trial.

The group of farmers engaged in potato farming and seed production came for a tour at the institute. KaZARDI director Alex Barekye explained to the farmers that the plants are still being researched and are likely to be released next year, but only if the government gives it a green light.

Some of the visiting farmers interrupted him, at times demanding more immediate availability of the genetically-engineered potato seed.Charles Byarugaba, a commercial potato farmer and leader of potato seed multiplication famers in Kabale, Uganda, challenged the scientists.

We want the GMO potato seed right away, he said. You can go ahead to follow those legal procedures but it must not affect us farmers because we are in need of varieties resistant to potato blight. His fellow farmers said that ifthey are not given the resistant seeds, there will be no option but to acquire them illegally.

Unfortunately, the politics of farming in Uganda, particularly when it comes to advanced biotechnology, has all but scuttled the implementation of cutting edge technologies. The countrys farmers face daunting challenges.

Our crops are facing extinction and there are no known ways of effectively dealing with the new pests and diseases other than the use of biotechnology, Dr Wilberforce Tushemeirwe, a prominent scientist, has said. Food crops such as cassava, bananas and sweet potatoes face extinction due to incurable crop diseases. Maize is under attack by the fall army worm. Cotton which is a cash crop has proven difficult to grow in Uganda because of the cotton bollworm pest infestation, which GM technology contains in many other countries.

The Genetic Engineering Regulatory law, formerly referred to as the National Biotechnology and Biosafety billhas twice come close to being signed into law. It would allow for regulated production and use of genetically modified crops in the country,and would pave the way to biotech solutions in use in dozens of other countries, including in other African countries.

However, anti GM groups have been working to ensure the GERA law is not passed. Speaker of Parliament Rebbeca Kadaga supported the law and has on two occasions tried to form a quorum of members of Parliament but to date no action has been taken.

The latest crop under siege is theIrish potato, a food security crop and is grown in the highland areas of southwestern Uganda in Kabale and Kisoro.For communities in this part of the country, it is considered staple food and a primarysource of income.

The country relies on supplies of potato from farmers in the southwest,who contribute 60% of supply, and those in the Eastern highlands of Uganda, who contribute the other 40%.As a result of increased demand from urban areas, production has intensified andis spreading into other areas of Uganda.

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Banned in Uganda: While the Irish potato faces disease and climate change, politics stymie farmers eager to adopt still unapproved GM seeds - Genetic...