With the onset of rains, farmers in Ethiopia are set to plant genetically modified (GM) cotton seedlings. This is part of the government’s strategy to boost textile and garment exports.
Ethiopia has embarked on an ambitious five-year economic plan to boost textile and garment exports to meet a target of $1 billion by 2015. Ethiopia exports both cotton fabric and cotton garments.
The hope is that GM cotton will achieve higher yields than conventional varieties. GM crops are also supposed to be more resilient in the face of climate change. In some instances GM crops have not shown to have any negative ecosystem or environmental impacts. But there are activists who oppose the use of genetically modified technology in food production. They say conventional R&D can improves the productivity of locally adapted crops. They say conventional breeding programs can be devised to produce robust improved seed with greater genetic tolerance to heat stress, colder temperatures, drought and water logging. Bt cotton growers in India, in Tamil Nadu in particular, have suffered major losses from a new, unknown disease that has attacked their crops.
