The Savanna Agriculture Research Institute (SARI) of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) based at Nyankpala in the Northern Region has expressed optimism in a new dawn for cowpea farmers.
Over the years, the cultivation of the cowpea plant, known in local parlance as beans, has been hampered by the presence of a legume pest known as maruca vitrata, which has so far built resistance to the farmers’ preferred variety of the legume.
As a result, CSIR-SARI, together with the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has developed a genetically-modified bean variety that is resistant to the maruca pest.
Addressing a press briefing on the success of the trial phase, a scientist with the PBR Cowpea Project at CSIR-SARI, Dr. Jerry Nboiyne, explained the prospects of the new variety.
“We are not saying that chemicals are totally, bad but it is the excessive use of them that have a negative effect. So when we conducted these experiments, we realised that if we have a Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) cowpea, farmers will now have to spray a maximum of two times to control other insects that visit to attack the cowpea; as compared to the ten times that farmers will have to spray for the non-Bt cowpea.
What this simply means is that, if the farmer on the average is spending GHc 40.00 on a litre of insecticide, and the farmer should spray ten times, it means that the farmer is spending about GHc 400.00 just to control insect pest in the season. But if you have this Bt material, the farmer just has to spray two times, which is GHc 80.00 to control the same pest. So what it simply means is that we are helping the farmer to reduce the cost of producing the crop,” he clarified.
When adopted, the Pod Borer Resistant Cowpea variety will be Ghana’s first genetically modified crop; while Ghana will be the second country to approve the open cultivation of genetically modified Bt cowpea after Nigeria. However, there exist many misconceptions about genetically-modified crops. According to the group of scientists on the project, misconstrued attributes such unsafe, unwholesomeness and heavily-chemicalised, amongst others, are slowing the adoption of the PBR cowpea, particularly in Ghana.
Nonetheless, Former Principal Investigator of the PBR Cowpea Project, Dr. Ibrahim D. K. Atokple, explained that the developed variety is safe.
“The food safety of GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) has been established, which means it is not toxic. So when you eat, just as is with the conventional, it passes through your tracts and the nutrients are circulated to all your cells, so you continue growing. So by making the statement that if you are eating GMOs, you’re eating genes or you’re eating DNA, we are displaying our ignorance; I think we should refrain from that. We should not be making such statements; it is not scientific.
At the end of the day, we’re having a farmer preferred variety, Songotra, with all the nutritional, biochemical and functional properties being the same as the non-transformed one, but now with an added gene of resistance to maruca; so there is no change in nutritional value. There’s no issue of toxicity. There’s no issue of allergenicity. All those things have been tested. That is the stage at which we are now,” he told Citi News.
Beyond the reduction in the number of times cowpea farmers will have to apply insecticides to their farms per cropping season, post-harvest loses owing to the uncontrollable damage caused by the maruca pest are expected to dwindle significantly too.
CSIR-SARI is currently awaiting the approval of the Ministry for Food and Agriculture for the open cultivation of genetically modified Bt cowpea after over 7 years of running the project.