One of the ways to increase food security with concomitant improvement of the agricultural environment is to adopt genetically modified (GM) crops. This method is used when crops cannot be improved by conventional breeding. Apart from the currently available suite of crops, mainly maize, soybean, cotton and canola resistant to insects and/or tolerant of herbicides, there are many more in the pipeline specifically adapted for use in less-affluent countries. These include nutritionally enhanced rice and sorghum, virus-resistant maize and canola, bacterial- and fungal-resistant bananas, insect-resistant cowpeas and eggplant, and drought- tolerant maize. Though these technologies have great promise, their deployment will require political will. Government, the private sector, academics and farmers’ groups will have to be involved in order to allow countries to profit from these crops. Concrete steps that can be taken to further this technology include the development of bioeconomy policies, promulgation of biosafety acts, fast-tracking proven crops (such as herbicide resistant soybean), establishing public understanding of biotechnology platforms, encouraging the development of farmer- assistance organizations including extension officers, and using economists to determine losses due to the nonacceptance of GM crops.

This paper was debated at the ISGP conference Food Safety, Security, and Defense: Focus on Food and the Environment, convened in partnership with Cornell University in October 2014.