In a significant announcement, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, backed by the Gates and Rockefeller Foundations, has ruled out the use of genetically modified crops to fight hunger and poverty on the continent, according to the group’s chairman Kofi Annan, in a report in the Kenyan Business Daily.
"We in the alliance will not incorporate GMOs
in our programmes. We shall work with farmers using traditional seeds
known to them,” he (Annan) said. Mr Annan said poor pricing of commodities, and
not type of seeds, keeps African growers away from their farmlands
despite spiralling food insecurity and poverty on the continent.
“We
need to get the right seeds into their hands by strengthening research
partnerships with local universities and other institutions,” he said.
Mr Annan said insufficient infrastructure such as roads, poor storage
facilities and  weak market structures were to blame for Africa’s
continued dependence on food aid.

High-yield seeds were at the center of the former Green Revolution […]

Original post by Samuel Fromartz and software by Elliott Back

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 at 4:00 am and is filed under GMO. You can follow responses to this entry through the Comments RSS Feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your site.