How Kenya's delays on GMO are hurting farmers

For the last 30 years, James Migwi has been growing cotton. As Chair of the Lamu Cotton Farmers Cooperative Society, he has witnessed on first-hand, the struggles and rewards of cotton farming in Kenya.

For most of his farming career, Migwi cultivated conventional cotton, which was frequently plagued by pests and diseases, leading to reduced yields and increased input costs.

“With conventional cotton, I would harvest about 10,000 kilograms of cotton per acre,” Migwi recalls.

In 2020, Migwi switched to Bt cotton, a genetically modified crop resistant to the destructive bollworm pest. The results were transformative. “Since I started planting Bt cotton, I’ve seen a big improvement. I now harvest more than 3,306 tonnes of cotton per acre,” he says.

He also reports a sharp decline in the use of pesticides, “With conventional cotton, I would spray six to eight times before the crop matured. But with Bt cotton, I only spray about twice.”

Since pesticides are so expensive, Migwi used to spend more on agrochemicals in growing conventional cotton than he uses now with the Bt cotton.

Migwi’s story is echoed by farmers across Kenya who’ve adopted Bt cotton. However, millions more, particularly those growing staple crops like maize and sweet potatoes, have not enjoyed similar gains due to delays in adopting these biotechnologies.

A new report “The Cost of Delay” by the Breakthrough Institute in collaboration with the Alliance for Science, the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), and the International Potato Center (CIP), reveals that Kenya lost an estimated Sh20.4 billion between 2019 and 2023 due to delayed commercialisation of genetical modified (GM) maize, cotton and potato varieties. The staggering loss has hindered efforts to improve food security, boost farmer incomes, and reduce reliance on imports, consequences exacerbated by widespread misinformation about biotechnology.

Dr Daniel Kyalo, Senior Manager, Agribusiness Policy and Commercialisation at AATF outlines the toll crop pests, diseases and climate stresses take on Kenya’s food supply.

Loses to farmers

According to him, Kenyan farmers lose between 15 to 20 per cent of maize yields to stem borers, fall armyworm, and drought; up to 50 per cent of cotton yields to bollworm and, in severe cases, 100 per cent of potato yields can be wiped out by late blight.

The study estimates that GM crop adoption could substantially increase yields, reduce pesticide use, lower food prices, and improve farmer profits.

“This report clearly shows that embracing advanced crop varieties would generate massive economic benefits. Higher yields also protect Kenya’s forests and biodiversity by reducing pressure to convert new land for farming, while helping cut greenhouse gas emissions,” Kyalo, the lead author, explains.

Lower yields mean less food for the family and lower income to pay for essentials such as school fees and healthcare.

In 2024 alone, Kenya imported 309,300 metric tonnes of maize, an amount that could have been produced locally.

In Kitui, farmer Winfrida Mwea shares a similar journey. After years of poor maize harvests, she turned to cotton.

“I would plant maize and harvest nothing. I realised I was making a loss,” she says. “I then switched to cotton, but even then, conventional cotton only gave me about 500 kilos per acre. Pest was the major issue.”

But the Bt cotton which was commercialised in Kenya in 2020, changed that. But the report estimates that had it been introduced five years earlier, Kenya could be producing an additional 650 tonnes of cotton, replacing 12 per cent of imports and saving Sh153.6 million.

“Bt cotton was meant to rejuvenate the sector. Every year of delay is a missed opportunity to create rural jobs and reduce the import bill,” Kyalo says.

Professor Richard Oduor, Chairman of the Kenya University Biotechnology Consortium regrets that as Kenya grapples with ongoing food deficits, misinformation campaigns are actively harming science-based efforts to help local farmers improve yields of staple crops. He says, the resistance to Bt maize in Kenya and across Africa is not rooted in genuine concerns about safety. Instead, it is largely driven by carefully orchestrated conspiracy theories and geopolitical strategies that prey on African cultural fears.

Politicising GMO

“News outlets, social media, and even some political leaders are misleading the public with untrue and irresponsible statements about advanced crop varieties,” he explains.

He likens the resistance of Bt maize to the panic around mobile phones in the late 1990s, when fear-mongering linked phones to cancer.

“People were so afraid that they even bought the so-called ‘anti-radiation’ gadgets. But, despite the scare campaigns, mobile phone adoption surged, because the narrative was eventually exposed as a deliberate attempt to stifle the growth of telephone usage in Africa, a growth that would empower the continent,” Oduor recalls.

He’s optimistic that once Kenyans and other Africans understand the economic impact of emerging technologies, then widespread adoption will follow quickly.

“The truth is, biotechnology crops are safe, and whether we like it or not, we will adopt them, because our agricultural realities demand it. There is no danger, and it is time we stopped politicising science,” he urges.

Oduor adds that Kenyatta University has trained over 20 PhDs and 40 Master’s graduates in biotechnology, developing GMO innovations under nationally approved curricula, a proof of the science’s legitimacy and safety.

Vitumbiko Chinoko, a Manager at the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) programme at AATF, explains that research on three genetically modified crop varieties - Bt cotton, maize and late blight disease-resistant potato - showed that these three crops, due with their superior pest and disease resistance could significantly boost yields and incomes.