When Malawi introduced a biotech cotton breed in 2016-2017; the drive-behind was to improve yield and earn substantial income from proceeds of cotton production.
The Genetically Engineered breed had replaced the conventional variety whose potential for high yielding had shrunk for its attraction to bore-worms which find the local variety such a sumptuous meal.
However, in a typical tale of killing two birds with one stone, little did growers know; that the GMO breed was to come with health and environmental gains.
It meant; with the dismal or zero use of pesticides; farmers stood protected from exposure to skin-radiation and in turn stood to enjoy some good health.
For George Jobe – a health rights campaigner; less exposure to toxic chemicals like Cypermethrin, a common pesticide for pests including bore-worms is good development in preventing farmers from respiratory conditions and from skin radiation too.
“This is good news because some of the farmers don’t know how to handle chemicals. Others don’t have protective gear. Now with this variety, that doesn’t require applying pesticides as farmers are safeguarded from such exposures and chemical hazards” observes Jobe.
Echoing Jobe; Saidi Bonongwe a cotton grower in Chikwawa district says: “am asthmatic. Each time I used pesticides I caught an attack. I also used to experience some strange headache. I hardly experience these conditions since I adopted the biotech variety and cut down on exposure to chemicals”.
Equally; Doctor Gondwe a biotechnologist with Chitedze Research Station says the coming-in of the biotech cotton has indeed rescued farmers most of whom used highly toxic pesticides which led to ill-health.
And there’re also environmental gains likely being recorded!
Take the disturbance of the ecosystem to begin with; because the frequent spray of toxic pesticides has in some instances wiped-out the bee and butterfly population wanting to prey on the crop.
“But with the coming-in of this variety; things have changed really … the minimal spray of pesticides have meant a lot good for the bee and butterfly population and the general management of the ecosystem,” said Gondwe.
