In the Daily Nation newspaper of 29/07/2011, Mr Osoro in his well intended article GMO or not proposed a government policy that facilitates intervention in the food chain, promotion of alternative food crops, sustained research culminated by a proposal on a government funded conference of scientists to discuss GMO and recommend legislative measures.
That cake has a crust that has a big problem on the icing. As he clearly stated our policies have been defined by the Bretton Wood institutions yet existing evidence appalls his theory in that Malawi under the same conditions seems to be doing even better. So how come he blames the said policies yet as an analyst he knows that the country (Kenya) has outdone itself in all areas since 2002 yet most of the policies largely remain unchanged.
What he should otherwise remember is that there are success stories show that policies even the good ones under the wrong hands are a disaster. To blame the policies under the current hunger situation is false largely because the dynamics are large given that one of the reasons why there is a high corn price in the world market is also because of the fact the Russia put an embargo on their maize exports leading to a shortage in the world market.
The government did the economically sound thing and kept out of controlling the market prices. This is because it is self defeating to engage in endeavors that compete with the very farmers that you are trying to compete. One should take the example of Cuba that had been a communist country but upon the demise of the Soviet union that had been her supporter in aid for close to 30 years she had to adapt to a more liberal marketing in order to stay relevant. A good example of new government policy is that HCDA no longer engages in horticulture thus allowing more farmers to develop and fill the gap that it once used. In addition its facilities can be used at subsidized rates.
He further argues that maize farmers are being exploited for their produce while forgetting that the said farmers are getting inputs at subsidized rates. In addition they also get to insure their produce and get weather updates through a well integrated phone application a case that was absent 10 years ago. If that is exploitation then these farmers many of whom now commercialize their produce.
As for the seeds he wants to sight are an issue he forgets that KARI issued a statement after the PEV and drought stating that the seed harvest was impaired. Whilst this was true the same year the farmers in Eastern had a bumper harvest that there was some maize that went bad due to aflotoxin.
Maize is a volatile crop as I will agree with him. But he forgets that the hybrid types from KARI and Kenya Seed has enabled most areas to grow maize up to 2 times in a year. In fact our side is of a higher quality than those of other East African Countries so proposing that Kenyan should go into research for better varieties its a case of been there and done that. Does he know that the potatoes that he is advocating for is even there in hybrid varieties!
He talked of a government sponsored conference, that is so counterproductive given the fact that KEPHIS doesn'teven have the equipment to validate this GMO and that there is already a lot of information in the global domain. Given that Egypt and South Africa are the only countries with the capacity to engineer GMO how would our own have become experts overnight? The best action would have been to form a task force and include in the team experts from these expert countries and also to include the stakeholders of the various disciplines.
Either way Kenya is doing her best.
That cake has a crust that has a big problem on the icing. As he clearly stated our policies have been defined by the Bretton Wood institutions yet existing evidence appalls his theory in that Malawi under the same conditions seems to be doing even better. So how come he blames the said policies yet as an analyst he knows that the country (Kenya) has outdone itself in all areas since 2002 yet most of the policies largely remain unchanged.
What he should otherwise remember is that there are success stories show that policies even the good ones under the wrong hands are a disaster. To blame the policies under the current hunger situation is false largely because the dynamics are large given that one of the reasons why there is a high corn price in the world market is also because of the fact the Russia put an embargo on their maize exports leading to a shortage in the world market.
The government did the economically sound thing and kept out of controlling the market prices. This is because it is self defeating to engage in endeavors that compete with the very farmers that you are trying to compete. One should take the example of Cuba that had been a communist country but upon the demise of the Soviet union that had been her supporter in aid for close to 30 years she had to adapt to a more liberal marketing in order to stay relevant. A good example of new government policy is that HCDA no longer engages in horticulture thus allowing more farmers to develop and fill the gap that it once used. In addition its facilities can be used at subsidized rates.
He further argues that maize farmers are being exploited for their produce while forgetting that the said farmers are getting inputs at subsidized rates. In addition they also get to insure their produce and get weather updates through a well integrated phone application a case that was absent 10 years ago. If that is exploitation then these farmers many of whom now commercialize their produce.
As for the seeds he wants to sight are an issue he forgets that KARI issued a statement after the PEV and drought stating that the seed harvest was impaired. Whilst this was true the same year the farmers in Eastern had a bumper harvest that there was some maize that went bad due to aflotoxin.
Maize is a volatile crop as I will agree with him. But he forgets that the hybrid types from KARI and Kenya Seed has enabled most areas to grow maize up to 2 times in a year. In fact our side is of a higher quality than those of other East African Countries so proposing that Kenyan should go into research for better varieties its a case of been there and done that. Does he know that the potatoes that he is advocating for is even there in hybrid varieties!
He talked of a government sponsored conference, that is so counterproductive given the fact that KEPHIS doesn'teven have the equipment to validate this GMO and that there is already a lot of information in the global domain. Given that Egypt and South Africa are the only countries with the capacity to engineer GMO how would our own have become experts overnight? The best action would have been to form a task force and include in the team experts from these expert countries and also to include the stakeholders of the various disciplines.
Either way Kenya is doing her best.
1 comment:
Good policies in wrong hands i agree doesn't bear much fruits but either way,i support his opinion about policies coz they r the guiding principles to any undertaking however, 'these government funded conferences' never bear much fruit as history has it.
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