Business News of Friday, 16 February 2018
Source: Myjoyonline.com
2018-02-16
Jesus Madrazo, Vice President, Commercial and Global Supply Chain at Monsanto
American agricultural firm Monsanto says it is still open to the possibility of resuming work on GMO crops in Ghana after withdrawing from the country two years ago.
But the company says it will only do that when it is sure the right business environment has been created to allow it operate successfully in the country.
“In Ghana, or in any other African country, if we see respect for intellectual property. A functional regulatory system, respect for private contracts, and ability for us to bring value and be rewarded for the value we create, if we have those four principles, we will always be there to participate.
“That is what creates an interesting business opportunity where everybody benefits,” Jesus Madrazo, Vice President, Commercial and Global Supply Chain at Monsanto told Joy News’ Joseph Opoku Gakpo in an interview.
Ghana’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in 2016 suspended field trials of GMO cotton following the decision of Monsanto to close down its office in Burkina Faso which was providing support for their work.
The closure was necessitated by Burkina Faso’s decision to phase out of the production of GMO over concerns about poor quality of fibre from the novel variety.
The GMO cultivar (Bt cotton) introduced in Burkina Faso in 2008 had been engineered with genes from a soil bacteria, giving it an inherent ability to resist attacks by the bollworm pests which has the potential to destroy up to 90 percent of yield on cotton farms.
The new cultivar helped control pests on cotton farms, reducing the use of pesticides by up to 70 percent. But challenges with a shorter fiber length of the cultivar caused authorities in that country to pull breaks on the continuous planting of the variety in 2015, much to the displeasure of farmers there.
“It has nothing to do with any specific country. It was a business decision. We couldn’t afford to keep on investing and not seeing light at the end of the tunnel. We don’t set the rules, we play by the rules,” Madrazo told the reporter.
He says they will be ready to re-open discussions when the necessary friendly conditions are in place.
“If there is certainty, predictability and respect for product contracts and intellectual property, if there are core principles where we can come in and participate, we will certainly re-visit any decision…at this point in time, it’s not our focus,” Mr Madrazo explained.
“It’s been a little bit disappointing because we have seen the difference that this technology can make to smallholder farmers around the world….and if you look at what happened in Burkina Faso, if you take aside the politics of that, the reality is that 250,000 families benefited from new technology and it was a complete turnaround for cotton farming for Burkina Faso… it is an opportunity that was missed,” Madrazo added.
Monsanto introduced the controversial variety in collaboration with local Burkina Faso scientists. Its Vice President in charge of Technology Dr Robert Fraley told Joy News the move was inspired solely by good intentions.
“Our commitment to Burkina was to enable local breeding organisations to use the Bt technology that we have developed to help protect against some of the challenging insect problems.
“The technology for insect control worked great…Farmers want this technology. When the technology is properly developed, it does amazing things. And farmer, in particular, need these tools,” he said.
With the capacity of the new variety to deal with the pests, cotton yield increased by about 22 percent on the average on Burkina Faso farms over the eight-year period it was grown in that country.
The amount of additional profit gained by farmers averaged about 51 percent in savings on labour for spraying and investments in chemicals.
“When I planted GM cotton in 2014, I made CFA 40,000 (US$80) per hectare. Last year, I made a profit of only CFA10,000 (US$20) per hectare when I planted conventional seeds. In fact, in 2015, the last year we grew GMO, I made a total income of CFA 3 million (US$5,370).
“In 2016 when we grew conventional, I made a total income of 575,000 CFA ($1,029),” Bambio Dambo, a farmer in the Hounde District of Burkina Faso explained.