Dear Friends and colleagues,

RE: The Truth Behind GM Cotton in the Makhathini Flats

The adoption of GM cotton in South Africa's Makhathini Flats in 1998 was heralded as a success case in which agricultural biotechnology could benefit smallholder farmers, and a model for the rest of the continent to follow.

But a new report concludes that the enthusiasm around GM technology is misguided. The authors argue that the adoption of GM cotton by farmers is driven by the lack of choice facing them and does not reflect farmers’ endorsement of GM technology.

It also debunks the claims by Monsanto that farmers adopt GM cotton because of the higher yields it produces. The report found that yield levels before and after the adoption of GM cotton were more or less constant, thus contradicting the claim that the introduction of GM cotton has increased yields in the region.

With regards to pesticide usage, it was found that while pesticide application to control boll-worm has fallen in the period since the introduction of GM cotton, these reductions have been offset by increased pesticide application to control secondary insects such as jassid, whose appearance has substantially increased since the introduction of GM cotton.

The study is published in the journal, Review of African Political Economy No.109. Some extracts and the conclusion of the paper are reproduced below.

With best wishes,
Chee Yoke Heong
Third World Network
131 Jalan Macalister,
10400 Penang,
Malaysia
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Website: www.biosafety-info.net and www.twnside.org.sg
[Extracts from the report can be found at http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7111 ]