Farmers Failing to use Biotechnology Will Be Hit Harder By Climate Change
Farmers are missing out on opportunities to integrate proven cutting edge biotechnology tools that would boost yields and mitigate the impact of climate change, a new report says.
According to the report released by the International Services for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) on the global status of commercialised biotech crops, only three out of the 28 countries that grew biotech crops in 2015 were from Africa.
It says between 1996 and 2015, biotech maize was successfully grown globally in 15 countries on 600 million hectares, bringing to the farmers an estimated USD50 billion in revenues.
Releasing the report recently, ISAAA director Dr Margaret Karembu said climate change impacts such as increased prevalence of drought call for urgent measures to accelerate access to drought tolerant crops such as Water Efficient Maize for Africa.
