Incoming launch of GMO crop in Ghana: harmers hope for better pest control; activists urge caution
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Transcript
00:00Inside the Savannah Agricultural Institute, SARI, scientists are hard at work in the final stages of what could revolutionize the farming of cowpea, one of Ghana's most popular staples.
00:11Current varieties of the crop usually get eaten by pests.
00:15One of the pests that is a major contributor to the excessive use of insecticides is the one we call the legume pod borer, scientifically known as Maruca vitrata, which attacks the crop at the flowering stage and also when the pods are on.
00:30After screening all those over 15,000 cowpea materials, we couldn't identify anyone within what we call the cowpea gene plasm that could offer that resistance, so we had to opt for the genetic modification approach.
00:45Ghana's cowpea farmers lose more than half of their yearly harvest as a result of challenges with seeds, threatening food security.
00:52This new variety could be a game changer for farmers of the crop, like Hakim, who is reeling from losses of his cowpea farm from the previous season.
01:01Last year, we farmed about six acres, and the six acres, we were even expecting to get like 20 bucks, but because of the insects, we get like 10.
01:16In May 2024, Ghana's High Court threw out a case by activists against the introduction of GMO crops in the country. Some of them maintain the variety poses risk to farmers.
01:27The reason why they think this is good is because it's going to reduce the applications of dangerous chemicals, but the truth is happening in other countries.
01:34You go to Argentina, see where their lands have been burnt by glyphosate. The pink bull worm in India is resistant to GM cotton.
01:43So we don't believe that because they've genetically modified this cowpea, the Maruca pest is going to stay off the cowpea forever.
01:52Sari has now started the process of marketing the seeds commercially to farmers.