Genetically modified crops in Africa: Economic and policy lessons from countries south of the Sahara

 Ekin Birol (e.birol@cgiar.org) is the head of the Impact and Policy Unit at HarvestPlus Division of the International Food Policy Research Institute. Her related research includes the following co-authored publications: “Bi-modal Preferences for Bt Maize in the Philippines: A Latent Class Model” (AgBioForum, 2012), “A Latent Class Approach to Investigating Developing Country Consumers’ Demand for Genetically Modified Staple Food Crops: The Case of GM Banana in Uganda” (Agricultural Economics, 2011), and “Investigating Heterogeneity in Farmer Preferences for Milpa Diversity and Genetically Modified Maize in Mexico: A Latent Class Approach” (Environment and Development Economics, 2009).

José Falck-Zepeda (j.falck-zepeda@cgiar.org) is a senior research fellow in the Environment and Production Technology Division of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and leader of the polity team in IFPRI’s Program for Biosafety Systems. His relevant publications include the following co-authored articles: “Estimates and Implications of the Costs of Compliance with Biosafety Regulations in Developing Countries: The Case of the Philippines and Indonesia” (GM Crops and Food: Biotechnology and Agriculture in the Food Chain, 2011) and “Socio-Economic Considerations in Biosafety and Biotechnology Decision Making: The Cartagena Protocol and National Biosafety Frameworks” (Review of Policy Research, 2011). Falck-Zepeda is the author of “Socio-Economic Considerations, Article 26.1 of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety: What Are the Issues and What Is at Stake?” (AgBioForum, 2009) and is co-editor of the 2011 special
issue of AgBioForum “Farmers and Researchers Discovering Biotech Crops: Experiences Measuring Economic Impacts among New Adopters.”

Marnus Gouse (Marnus.gouse@up.ac.za) is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development of the University of Pretoria, South Africa. His related research includes the following co-authored publications: “A GM Subsistence Crop in Africa: The Case of Bt White Maize in South Africa (International Journal of Biotechnology, 2005), “GM Maize as Subsistence Crop: The South African Smallholder Experience” (AgBioForum, 2012), “Ten Years of Bt Cotton in South Africa: Putting the Smallholder Experience into Context” (Biotechnology and Agricultural Development: Transgenic Cotton, Rural Institutions and Resource-Poor Farmers, 2009).

Guillaume Gruère (ggruere@gmail.com) was a senior research fellow in the Environment and Production Technology Division of the International Food Policy Research Institute. His related research includes the following co-authored publications: “Refining Opportunity Cost Estimates of Not Adopting GM Cotton: An Application in Seven Sub-Saharan African Countries (Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 2011), “GM-Free Private Standards and Their Effects on Biosafety Decision-making in Developing Countries” (Food Policy, 2009), “Will They Stay or Will They Go? The Political Influence of GM-Averse Importing Companies on Biosafety Decision Makers in Africa” (American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 2012).

Daniela Horna (jdhorna@fastmail.fm) was a postdoctoral fellow in the Environment and Production Technology Division of the International Food Policy Research Institute. She has co-authored “Farmer Willingness to Pay for Seed-Related Information: Rice Varieties in Nigeria and Benin” (Environment and Development Economics, 2007), Insecticide Use on Vegetables in Ghana: Would GM Seed Benefit Farmers? (IFPRI discussion paper, 2008), and “Betting on Cotton: Potential Payoffs and Economic Risks of Adopting Transgenic Cotton in West Africa” (African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 2008).

Enoch Kikulwe (ekikulw@gwdg.de) is a postdoctoral fellow, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Georg-August University of Göttingen, Germany. His related research includes the following co-authored publications: “A Latent Class Approach to Investigating Demand
230 CONTRIBUTORS
for Genetically Modified Banana in Uganda” (Agricultural Economics, 2011), “Attitudes, Perceptions, and Trust: Insights from a Consumer Survey Regarding Genetically Modified Banana in Uganda” (Appetite, 2011), and “Rural Consumers’ Preferences for Banana Attributes in Uganda: Is There a Market for GM Staples?” (in J. Bennett and E. Birol, eds., Choice Experiments in Developing Countries: Implementation, Challenges and Policy Implications, 2010).

Miriam Kyotalimye (m.kyotalimye@asareca.org) is a program assistant at the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa, Entebbe, Uganda.

Robert Paarlberg (rpaarlberg@wellesley.edu) is a professor of Political Science at Wellesley College and adjunct professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School in Massachusetts. He is the author of Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know (2010) and Starved for Science: How Biotechnology Is Being Kept out of Africa (2008).

Carl E. Pray (pray@aesop.rutgers.edu) is a professor in the Department of Agriculture, Food and Resource Economics at Rutgers University, United States. Co-authored publications include “Addressing Micronutrient Deficiencies: Alternative Interventions and Technologies” (AgBioForum, 2007), “Insect-Resistant GM Rice in Farmers’ Fields: Assessing Productivity and Health Effects in China” (Science, 2005), and “GM Cotton and Farmers’ Health in China: An Econometric Analysis of the Relationship between Pesticide Poisoning and GM Cotton Use in China” (International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 2004).

John P. Rheeder (john.rheeder@mrc.ac.za) is a senior scientist in the Programme on Mycotoxins and Experimental Carcinogenesis Unit at the Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa. He has co-authored the following related publications: “Production of Fumonisin Analogs by Fusarium species” (Applied Environmental Microbiology, 2002), “Toxicity, Pathogenicity and Genetic Differentiation of Five Species of Fusarium from Sorghum and Millet” (Phytopathology, 2005), and “Guidelines on Mycotoxin Control in South African Foodstuffs: From the Application of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) System to New National Mycotoxin Regulations” (Medical Research Council Policy Brief, www.mrc.ac.za, 2009).

Theresa Sengooba (t.sengooba@cgiar.org) is East African Regional Coordinator, Program for Biosafety Systems (PBS), International Food Policy Research Institute, Entebbe, Uganda. She is the co-author of the following relevant publications: Assessing the Potential Impact of Genetically Modified Cotton in Uganda (PBS Policy Note, 2009), Analysis of the Biosafety System in Uganda (PBS Uganda Country Study, 2005), and “Biosafety Education Relevant to Genetically Engineered Crops for Academic and Non-academic Stakeholders in East Africa” (Electronic Journal of Biotechnology, 2009).

Gordon S. Shephard (gordon.shephard@mrc.ac.za) is chief specialist scientist in the Programme on Mycotoxins and Experimental Carcinogenesis Unit of the Medical Research Council, Tygerberg, South Africa. His publications include “Risk Assessment of Aflatoxins in Food in Africa” (Food Additives and Contaminants, 2008) and co-authored publications “Fumonisin Mycotoxins in Traditional Xhosa Maize Beer in South Africa” (Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, 2005) and “Exposure Assessment for Fumonisins in the Former Transkei Region of South Africa” (Food Additives and Contaminants, 2007).

Idah Sithole-Niang (isn@iwayafrica.co.zw) is a molecular biologist at the University of Zimbabwe’s Department of Biochemistry, Technical Advisor for south of the Sahara Africa to International Food Policy Research Institute’s Program for Biosafety Systems, and is chair of the Board of Trustees of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation. She is author of the following publications: Regulatory Requirements and Technology Adoption: The Case of Biotech Cotton (2009), Transgenic Horticultural Crops on the African Continent (2011), and Genetic Engineering for Resistance to Viruses (2011).

David J. Spielman (d.spielman@cgiar.org) is a senior research fellow in the Environment and Production Technology Division of the International Food Policy Research Institute. His co-authored publications include “Intellectual Property Rights, Private Investment in Research, and Productivity Growth in Indian Agriculture: A Review of Evidence and Options” (Journal of Agricultural Economics, 2010), “Public–Private Partnerships and Developing-Country Agriculture: Evidence from the International Agricultural Research System” (Public Administration and Development, 2010), and “Private-Sector Investment in R&D: A Review of Policy Options to Promote Its Growth in Developing-Country Agriculture” (Agribusiness, 2010).

Yvette Volkwyn [née Yvette Manuel] (yvette.volkwyn@mrc.ac.za) is a senior research technologist in the Programme on Mycotoxins and Experimental Carcinogenesis Unit of the Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa. Her related co-authored publications include “Immunoglobulin Gene Rearrangements of B-cell Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Types in Paraffin Embedded Tissue Using PCR” (European Journal of Haematology, 1997), “Detection of t(14;18) Translocation in Follicle Center Cell Lymphomas in South African Ethnic Groups Using PCR” (Leukemia and Lymphoma, 1998), and “Fumonisin B1 and Risk of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Two Chinese Cohorts” (Food and Chemical Toxicology, 2012).

David Wafula (wafuladavid@yahoo.com) was the Kenya Coordinator for the Program for Biosafety Systems. His publications include “Science and Governance of Modern Biotechnology in Sub-Saharan Africa—The Case of Uganda” (Journal of International Development, 2005), “Implications of GMOs on Market Access and Imports in Eastern Africa (Biotechnology: Eastern African Perspectives on Sustainable Development and Trade Policy, 2007) and the co-authored “GM Crops and Food: Biotechnology in Agriculture and the Food Chain” (Landes Bioscience, 2012).

Justus Wesseler (justus.wesseler@wzw.tum.de) is professor of Agriculture and Food Economics in the Department of Agriculture Economics, Center of Food and Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universtät München, Germany. His related research includes the following co-authored publications: “The Maximum Incremental Social Tolerable Irreversible Costs (MISTICs) and Other Benefits and Costs of Introducing Transgenic Maize in the EU-15” (Pedobiologia, 2007), “Economically Optimal Timing of Crop Disease Control under Uncertainty: An Options Approach” (Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 2010), and “Benefits and Costs of Biologically Contained GM Tomatoes and Eggplants in Italy and Spain” (Sustainability, 2011).

Liana van der Westhuizen (liana.van.der.westhuizen@mrc.ac.za) is a specialist scientist in the Programme on Mycotoxins and Experimental Carcinogenesis Unit of the Medical Research Council, Tygerberg, South Africa. Her related publications include the co-authored “Biomarkers of Exposure: Mycotoxins—Aflatoxin, Deoxynivalenol and Fumonisins” (in L. Knudsen and D. F. Merlo, eds., Biomarkers and Human Biomonitoring, 2012) and “Fumonisin B1 as a Urinary Biomarker of Exposure in a Maize Intervention Study among South African Subsistence Farmers” (Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, 2011).

Patricia Zambrano (p.zambrano@cgiar.org) is a senior research analyst in the Environment and Production Technology Division of the International Food Policy Research Institute. Her related co-authored publications include “Unweaving the Threads: The Experiences of Female Farmers with Biotech Cotton in Colombia” (AgBioForum, 2012), “A Case of Resistance: Herbicide-Tolerant Soybeans in Bolivia” (AgBioForum, 2012), and “The Socio-Economic Impact of Transgenic Cotton in Colombia” (Biotechnology and Agricultural Development: Transgenic Cotton, Rural Institutions and Resource-Poor Farmers, R. Tripp, 2009).