Zimbabwean Farmers Witness Bt Cotton Trials in Malawi

It is a must for Zimbabwe to consider adoption of Bt cotton to increase production and revive the textile and clothing industry, that is according to farmers' representatives who have attended Bt cotton field trial tour in Malawi. Berean Mukwende of the Zimbabwe Farmers Union said that the Zimbabwean farmers are experiencing massive losses because of bollworm infestation. He thinks that Bt cotton adoption could be a solution to this problem and enhance the profit of farmers.

After seeing the Bt cotton trials at Lilongwe University in Malawi, Garikai Msika of the Zimbabwe National Farmers Union encouraged his fellow farmers to "make a lot of noise to adopt this technology."

"Malawi wants to promote demand driven scientific research," said Dr. Ibrahim Benesi, deputy director of Agricultural Research Services in Malawi. He said that as part of the government, they don't want to block science. "We want to facilitate science for the good of agriculture. If there are good technologies, we want our people to benefit from them provided we follow our biosafety regulations and procedures," he added.

Zimbabwe has not yet approved commercial planting of biotech crops. However, the government has established the National Biotechnology Authority in 2006 to regulate research, transport, import, manufacture, safe handling, and use of genetically modified organisms and products.

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