Burkina Faso phasing out GMO cotton temporarily, but not giving up on biotechnology

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The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis.

Burkina Faso made headlines in 2009 when it ditched the conventional, insect-plagued cotton and adopted the genetically modified organism variety, Bt cotton. . . .

The West African nation was widely touted as an African success story in biotechnology . . . But . . . Burkina Faso is abandoning Bt cotton. Cotton manufacturers. . . say the Bt variety produces shorter, less desirable fibre. The shorter length . . . means a lower price on the international market.

Farmers are not affected by the poor lint quality because they sell their cotton at a guaranteed price, set by the government. However, because cotton manufacturers supply seeds and input to farmers, they can unilaterally phase out Bt cotton.

Star’s John Muchangi spoke to Burkina Faso’s immediate former Agriculture minister Dr Jeremy Tinga Ouedraogo about the true story of the country’s Bt cotton adoption. . . .

. . . .

Your country is now phasing out Bt cotton crops. Why?

They are not yet fully phased out. . . . Bt cotton was developed to control insect resistance. This is still effective. The fibre length has nothing to do with the insect-resistant gene, but it’s an economic and financial constraint. So to me the solution should be for scientists to quickly fix that constraint. . . .

Is the country going for a complete return to non-GM cotton?

The advantages of the Bt cotton are so high that we cannot simply abandon it like that. . . .

What is being done to address the problem of short fibre length?

The national cotton research team is working on it with Monsanto. . . . But I’m sure Burkina Faso will not abandon biotechnology. Even cotton manufacturers do not want to run away from GM cotton.

Read full, original post: Profits to losses: Has Burkina Faso’s GMO bubble burst?

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