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I appreciate and cite your work. But I’m afraid that this tweet overstates the empirical record of #GMO crops in Africa - which is much more mixed, and did not achieve the ‘great value’ asserted here (THREAD) @MatinQaim https://twitter.com/MatinQaim/status/1199586474515206145
One point: field trial data often don’t reflect what happens when farmers adopt GM crops, much less what the returns are several years after adoption. Let see how this worked in the two places where GM crops have been adopted for small farmers: South Africa + #BurkinaFaso /1
Initial results of Bt #cotton in South Africa were promising. But soon - due to a collapse of the social institutions necessary for GM crops to work for small farmers (e.g. credit) - essentially no ‘small farmers’ currently reap the benefits from Bt cotton /2
In Burkina initial field trials showed ~30% yield ⇧ for small farmers. But recent gment data over several years showed an average income ⇧ of only 13% - 1 year only achieved a yield ⇧ of 5%. This is important since royalty payments were based on the 30% projected yield ⇧ /3
Important ⇩ in insecticide use in Burkina Faso are clear. But it is unclear whether this would continue with secondary pests + pest resistance to the #Bt toxin. Indeed plans to introduce herbicide tolerance would have spiked overall chemical use /4
Importantly, due to the inferior lint quality of the Bt cotton, Burkinabe cotton companies lost $85 million, causing significant financial issues for a vital agricultural sector /4 https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article-abstract/115/458/161/2195205
And unlike Pakistan, it’s unclear that women accrued any or a substantial portion of Bt cotton benefits. Most were likely accrued by men - both any income ⇧ + reductions in unpaid labor. Any paid labor ⇧ for women are likely offset by an ⇧ in unpaid labor /5
Finally, I have seen this assertion that the EU is influencing African governments, but I have yet to see solid empirical work done on this subject. I know that Paarlberg makes this assertion. But I didn’t find much empirical support for this assertion in his book /6
Rather, I find it much more plausible that big biotech companies + the US government have provided important support + incentives for African governments to begin GM crop research + adopt GM crops- substantiated empirically by a number of scholars + Wikileaks /7
In sum, based on this uninspiring record, I believe that African gments + international agencies are prudent to show caution towards GM crops. Indeed, it was the hastiness of Burkina’s adoption which likely led to problems with Bt cotton lint quality /FIN https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/monsanto-burkina-cotton/
