The
year 2020 came with a pandemic which posed a threat to the very survival of human
beings in the planet's face. The pandemic started in china and
spread worldwide like a wind assisted wild fire – reaching every corner of the
world. It caused millions of infections and hundreds of thousands of deaths
throughout the world. It has forced governments to order total lockdowns,
forced events that require public gatherings to be cancelled – including the
famous European sport competitions and the Olympics.
Since its first detection on March 13, 2020, 261 people were infected, with 5 deaths to date, with COVID-19 in Ethiopia. The pandemic caused huge socio-economic problems worldwide, one of which being food production and distribution. This will cause food shortage unless ways are devised to tackle the problem – with safety precautions recommended by WHO practiced to stay safe and productive.
Amides the COVID-19 situation, a report came out in Ethiopia stating that the government approved cultivation and trial of GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) – cultivation of Bt cotton and trial on maize and Ensete (Ensete ventricosum)- an economically important and endemic food crop in Ethiopia. This is a huge change in the agriculture policy of the country which can jeopardise the seed sovereignty and crop genetic diversity. This can be labelled as another pandemic, mainly to the Ethiopian smallholder farmers.
GMOs are introduced as a means to tackle food insecurity problems in poor countries like Ethiopia. But the question is; have our agriculture system done enough to ensure food security with the seeds we have? World Food Program in its 2014 report mentioned 30-50% crop post-harvest loss and USAID in its 2016 report mentioned 40-50% for fresh crops and up 30% post-harvest loss for cereal crops. This in actual number means out of the 100 quintals we are only getting 50 quintals leaving the other 50 quintals in post-harvest. With these figures in mind; why is our agriculture system not working to improve facilities for post-harvest practices to help reduce the loss? Is our agriculture system using innovations and technologies that can help improve food security without bringing in multinational corporates with patented seeds as a means to solve the problem?
In such difficult times, proponents of the seed sovereignty, genetic diversity, human and environmental health need to come together to campaign, with facts and figures, so the government can re-consider such destructive decisions. In line with that, we need to put concerted efforts to make our agriculture and food system resilient to this huge policy change. The Stockholm Resilience Centre once put “resilience in agriculture system involves an ability to deal with everything from climate change and pest outbreak to changes in agriculture policy”. The seeds we have can feed our country and let’s keep our agriculture resilient.
Since its first detection on March 13, 2020, 261 people were infected, with 5 deaths to date, with COVID-19 in Ethiopia. The pandemic caused huge socio-economic problems worldwide, one of which being food production and distribution. This will cause food shortage unless ways are devised to tackle the problem – with safety precautions recommended by WHO practiced to stay safe and productive.
Amides the COVID-19 situation, a report came out in Ethiopia stating that the government approved cultivation and trial of GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) – cultivation of Bt cotton and trial on maize and Ensete (Ensete ventricosum)- an economically important and endemic food crop in Ethiopia. This is a huge change in the agriculture policy of the country which can jeopardise the seed sovereignty and crop genetic diversity. This can be labelled as another pandemic, mainly to the Ethiopian smallholder farmers.
GMOs are introduced as a means to tackle food insecurity problems in poor countries like Ethiopia. But the question is; have our agriculture system done enough to ensure food security with the seeds we have? World Food Program in its 2014 report mentioned 30-50% crop post-harvest loss and USAID in its 2016 report mentioned 40-50% for fresh crops and up 30% post-harvest loss for cereal crops. This in actual number means out of the 100 quintals we are only getting 50 quintals leaving the other 50 quintals in post-harvest. With these figures in mind; why is our agriculture system not working to improve facilities for post-harvest practices to help reduce the loss? Is our agriculture system using innovations and technologies that can help improve food security without bringing in multinational corporates with patented seeds as a means to solve the problem?
In such difficult times, proponents of the seed sovereignty, genetic diversity, human and environmental health need to come together to campaign, with facts and figures, so the government can re-consider such destructive decisions. In line with that, we need to put concerted efforts to make our agriculture and food system resilient to this huge policy change. The Stockholm Resilience Centre once put “resilience in agriculture system involves an ability to deal with everything from climate change and pest outbreak to changes in agriculture policy”. The seeds we have can feed our country and let’s keep our agriculture resilient.
Comments
Post a Comment