BiosafeTrain

At Makerere University

Against the rambling hills that make up Kampala, we are in the leafy garden at Makerere University's guest house. It's evening and there is a mad rush for students to go home, hostel buses drive up the hill empty and down again, full of students. Amid the constant hooting of buses and yammering of students, there are few who opt to stay behind and play tennis on the school court.

As I watch them, Gerald ambles in, arms laden with course notes, joins me and orders a fresh fruit juice, which he drinks with gusto. It had been a hot and rather humid day.

"Can we start?" he asks. The 26-year-old, six foot tall, dark and rather reserved Gerald Kyalo is a full time MSc student in Crop Science at Makerere University, and we met to discuss his MSc project related to genetically modified crops. It turns out that Gerald is another strong supporter of the use of genetically modified crops.

Striga: a notorios weed in Africa

Gerald, a civil servant, currently on study leave, is on a scholarship from BiosafeTrain Project, funded by Danida, that aims to build up capacity to cope with the challenges of introducing genetically modified crops in East Africa. His project title is "Striga control with imazapyr resistant (IR) maize: A model for risk assessment of transgenic herbicide resistant maize".

"Striga is a notorious weed", says Gerald. "It affects about 40% of the arable land in Africa's savanna, threatening the livelihoods of more than 100 million people who depend on cereal crops for food and income.

Need for new control measures

Although a variety of control measures have been developed for the control of Striga, no single methodology is adequate. Peasant farmers have not universally adopted the available technologies because either they are too costly or laborious. Thus, there is an immediate need for cost effective mechanisms meeting two criteria: controlling Striga itself, so that crop adequate yields can be achieved; and depleting the Striga seed bank in the soil to allow cultivation of crops. A new development is that a herbicide resistant maize dressed with herbicide can effectively control Striga. When herbicide is sprayed, the maize survives but Striga plants, which attach to the maize roots, die off."

Concerns about new resistance traits in crops

There are, however, several concerns about the consequences of development and deployment of herbicide resistant and insect resistant crops, particularly when these traits have been inserted through methods of genetic engineering. The potential transfer of genes from resistant crops to other plant genomes, adverse effects on ecological processes and non-target organisms are some of these. Assessment is required to determine what risks they pose to the environment, whether they may be introduced, and whether or not they are likely to bring expected benefits to the farmers and/or the environment.

IR maize

"I have got tissue culture-derived maize that is resistant to a herbicide, imidazopyr, this is called IR maize ,"he says. "At the moment in East Africa we are introducing IR maize to control the weed. IR maize has a gene which is resistance to the herbicide, so maize is coated with the herbicide then the seed is planted which is later diffused in the soil and kills the weed through the root before it germinates to affect the plant." .

Even though we would like to control Striga, he admits there is a problem with genetically modified crops . "There is a need to find out what would happen if we had transgenic maize in East Africa to replace conventional maize." "We would want to avoid contaminating other varieties, in this case local maize in East Africa." He thoughtfully says and adds. " Since IR maize is used to control Striga, we'd like to know if, and how, other weeds are affected by IR maize . My study would to the question whether transgenic plants would affect other plants other than the intended ones." He asserts.

Gerald's project

Gerald has recently attended a biosafety course organised by the BiosafeTrain Project. He thinks the course was very helpful. "I even had a pending experiment on gene flow from IR maize to other varieties and through this course I was able to find a solution to my experiment, so it was really relevant to me," he says with an elfin smile.

"IR maize has not been introduced in Uganda unlike in Kenya and we really need to keep up with them," he now becomes serious. "So far I have done three experiments: one was the effect of IR maize in controlling Striga the second one was the effect of IR on other weed species . And finally, determining the gene flow of IR maize to local (existing) maize varieties." He is using the field of the National Research Organization (NARO) to do his experiments, as so far they are the only ones in Uganda who have the IR maize seed.

First season's experiences

"My first season of sowing showed significant control of the weed in some locations so the method is likely to work but I need more sowings to get a proper conclusion," he says as he rummages through some of his notes to show me his results. "This study thus intends to evaluate the efficacy of biotechnologically derived IR maize in controlling Striga in Uganda. We can also use the IR maize to study gene flow through pollen to other cultivars and assessing the reaction of other weeds other than Striga. Because the genes in tissue culture derived and transgenic crops act by the same mechanism, information from biotechnologically derived IR maize will be used to infer about transgenic herbicide resistant maize."

The future

When asked what does he foresee as the future of IR maize in Uganda. "I am positive that it will be accepted." He says, though admits that will take some time. As in this case IR is a very reliable way of controlling the weed. "We will be able to use IR maize to conclude whether the transgenic maize will have an impact, either positive or negative... Will it pose serious problems? What are the advantages?" He muses as we watch the students playing on the tennis court.

"So what Danida is doing through BiosafeTrain is important. East Africa is moving toward the GMO age and we want to be in the picture of what is going on," he adds.

What will he do after finishing his thesis? "I would like to further my studies and get a job as a researcher in biosafety" he says.

At this point his hostel bus comes, he excuses himself, stuffs his notes in his bag and proceeds to it.

By Joy Owango, November 2006.