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ABSTRACT
Biofortifying staple crops with enhanced nutritional content has been touted as a means of addressing micronutrient deficiency and has emerged as a key component of the Green Revolution for Africa (GR4A). In Uganda, biofortification efforts have centered on utilizing genetic modification (GM) as a means of enhancing the East African Highland Banana, known locally as matooke. This paper draws on three data sets to evaluate whether this technological fix synchs with existing farming systems. We argue that the positive scenario outlined by proponents rests on a number of assumptions related to the health, social and economic contexts facing producers.
Acknowledgements
Funding for this research came from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the John Templeton Foundation. Major contributions came from research assistants based in Uganda (Miiro Tonny and Atwooki Rodgers) and Canada (Alanna Taylor). Sean P. Mackinnon (http://savvystatistics.com) was the statistical consultant for this article and we greatly appreciate his assistance with the data analyses. We’d also like to thank three anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions and comments.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Matthew A. Schnurr is an Associate Professor in the department of International Development Studies at Dalhousie University. He is an environmental geographer with research interests in environment and development, political ecology, agricultural biotechnology and environmental justice. His current research focuses on the implications of new agricultural technologies on intra-household dynamics. Email: [email protected]
Lincoln Addison is an Assistant Professor in the department of Anthropology at Memorial University Newfoundland. He is an environmental anthropologist with research interests in political ecology, political economy, agrarian change, development, biotechnology, labor, gender, migration and religion.
Sarah Mujabi-Mujuzi is an independent researcher based in Kampala, Uganda. She holds a Master’s Degree in Animal Sciences from Makerere University (Uganda), and a Master’s Degree in Natural Resources Management and Sustainable Agriculture from the Agricultural University of Norway. She has more than 15 years of professional experience working with governments, farming communities and non-state actors on issues of agricultural development, food security and nutrition.
Notes
1 Uganda boasts one of the largest experimental programs dedicated to GM crops on the continent. Schnurr (Citation2013) unravels the network of corporate actors, development agencies, policy officials, and research scientists who have aligned to support biotechnology at the expense of other possibilities, which, according to Martiniello (Citation2015), reflects the government’s commitment to developing technological fixes to issues of food insecurity. And yet, this domestic support for agricultural technological interventions remains fractured. The now-ten-year-old Biosafety Bill was finally passed by Parliament in December 2017 and sent to President Museveni for approval. The President declined to sign the bill into law, citing concerns over contamination of indigenous varieties and patent rights. The bill has now been returned to legislators to undertake reviews and amendments.
2 While biofortified version of the sweet banana (known locally as sukalindizi) is also under experimentation, this article deals only with the case of matooke banana.
3 Focus group, Buikwe district, female farmers, 10 December 2012.
4 Focus group, Kyenjojo district, male farmers, 27 November 2013; Focus Group, Ntungamo district, male farmers, 19 November 2013.
5 Focus Group, Wakiso district, female farmers, 13 December 2012; Interview, Male Farmers, Ntungamo, 15 May 2014.
6 Interview, Ntungamo district, male farmers, 15 May 2014.
7 Focus Group, male farmers, Kamuli District, 18 June 2013.
8 Interview, Research Scientist #1, Kawanda Agricultural Research Centre, 2 June 2014.
9 Interview, Research Scientist #2, Kawanda Agricultural Research Centre, 12 May 2017.
10 Interview, Research Scientist #1, Kawanda Agricultural Research Centre, 8 November 2013.
11 Interview, Research Scientist #2, Kawanda Agricultural Research Centre, 12 May 2017.
12 One of the country’s leading banana scientists hypothesizes that there is a direct relationship between the favored characteristics of traditional varieties – especially those landraces with large bunches and long fingers – which makes them less amenable to cell suspension due to exceptionally high rates of sterility (Interview, Research Scientist #4, Kampala, 10 May 2017).
13 Interview, Research Scientist #2, Kawanda Agricultural Research Centre, 17 May 2014.
14 Interview, Buikwe district, female farmers, Kampala, 15 May 2014.
15 Interview, Nakaseke district, male farmers, Kampala, 15 May 2014.
16 Interview, Ntungamo district, male farmers, Kampala, 15 May 2014.
17 Interview, Nakaseke district, male farmer, Nakaseke, 13 May 2017.
18 Focus group, Wakiso district, female farmers, 13 December 2012.
19 Interview with Buikwe male farmer, Kampala, 15 May 2014.
20 Focus group, Wakiso district, female farmers, 13 December 2012.
21 Focus group, Wakiso district, female farmers, 13 December 2012.
22 Focus group, Wakiso district, female farmers, 13 December 2012.
23 Focus group, Buikwe district, female farmers, 10 December 2012.
24 Interview with Buikwe male farmers, Kampala, 15 May 2014.
25 Focus group, Kamuli district, male farmers, 18 June 2013.
26 Interview, Research Scientist #2, Kawanda Agricultural Research Centre, 12 May 2017.
27 Interview, Research Scientist #1, Kawanda Agricultural Research Centre, 5 May 2015.
28 Focus group, Kamuli district, female farmers, 17 June 2013.
29 Interview, Research Scientist #4, Kampala, 10 May 2017.
30 In hindsight, banana breeders reflect that they ‘targeted the wrong consumers’ by focusing on those who consume matooke as their primary staple, and should have instead focused on growers in these outlying regions who are less fickle about the various value-based characteristics such as taste, color and texture (Interview, Research scientist #4, Kampala, 10 May 2017). As the former head of the banana breeding program explained in a local broadsheet: ‘those who say that it is not tasty compare it to the local banana varieties but to a person who has never eaten the local varieties, Fhia is quite tasty’ (Muzaale Citation2013).
31 Interview, Research Scientist #1, Kawanda Agricultural Research Centre, 2 June 2014.
32 Interview, Research Scientist #4, Kampala, 10 May 2017.
33 Focus group, Buikwe district, female farmers, 10 December 2012.
34 Focus group, Buikwe district, female farmers, 10 December 2012.
35 Interview with Buikwe farmer, Kampala, 15 May 2014.
36 Interview, Ago-dealer #1, Kampala, 8 May 2012.
37 Interview, Research Scientist #1, Kawanda Agricultural Research Centre, 5 May 2015.
38 Interview, Research Scientist #1, Kawanda Agricultural Research Centre, 2 June 2014.
39 Focus group, Nakaseke district, male farmers, 12 December 2012.
40 Interview, Research Scientist #1, Kawanda Agricultural Research Centre, 27 May 2016.
41 Interview, Research Scientist #2, Kawanda Agricultural Research Centre, 12 May 2017.