Millicent Mwololo
9 September 2008
Nairobi — Dr Florence Wambugu's work in combating hunger in Africa has been recognised globally for many years.
Her work has not been without controversy but the determined biotechnologist has ploughed on with her mission; to ensure there is food on the table for the poorest of the poor.
The Kenyan scientist has just added another feather in her cap by being announced a joint winner of the 2008 Yara Prize.
The prize, awarded by the Yara Foundation which was established in 2005, is an annual recognition of significant contributions to the reduction of hunger and poverty in Africa as a key contribution to the fulfilment of the Millennium Development Goals. The other 2008 winner is Mr Victor Mfinanga from Tanzania.
Dr Wambugu, the founder and CEO of Africa Harvest, has been working with rural farmers in Kenya on the banana plant and sweet potato. She has done numerous tissue cultures on both plants, which she says have increased yields.
Established in 2004, Africa Harvest is a biotech foundation that works with food crop farmers at the grassroots level. It has offices in Kenya, South Africa and USA.
To fight hunger
Dr Wambugu chose the biotechnology route for a simple, powerful reason.
"To fight poverty, hunger and malnutrition. Many children could not access education due to poverty and they were going to school on an empty stomach," she says. "That is why I decided to go the food route, and the banana appealed to me. I managed to culture it into a disease-free species that has vigour and is prolific, as it almost doubled the yields. This I saw as what would get the poor out of poverty due to a sustainable livelihood."
Dr Wambugu has dedicated the Yara Prize to her late mother, whom she says sacrificed a lot to see her get an education.
The award is worth $100,000 (Sh6.8 million) and an honorary diploma in agriculture.
Dr Wambugu said part of the money would go into her agricultural work because "the farmers are the real winners of this prize!"
At a time when there is a global debate on biotechnology and genetically-modified foods, Dr Wambugu's work is not without controversy.
She has over the years been pilloried by international campaigners against genetically-modified foods, particularly because of her association with the Monsanto Corporation which provides much of her funding. Some of her research results have also been called into question.
It is for her specific work with farmers on the tissue culture banana that Dr Wambugu is being honoured. But she explained why the farmers also deserve recognition: "Many that have taken up banana farming have really transformed their lives. Some have won themselves respect and admiration from some quarters."
Indeed, many experts believe that unless Kenya goes back to its roots and encourages the growing of indigenous crops like bananas, cassavas, and potatoes, hunger is here to stay.
At a recent workshop on the role of African women in agriculture, Ms Catherine Bertini, a senior fellow with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said the global food crisis was nothing new to poor people who spend a large part of their income on food. "Rising food prices have even made it worse," she said.
Indigenous crops
But she called the Kenyan food crisis a "matter of urgency," that can only be solved by facing agricultural issues head on.
Her concern is that Kenya, like other African governments, has not given agriculture the attention that it deserves as the backbone of the continent's economy.
Indigenous crops in Africa, Ms Bertini said, had the capacity to withstand harsh climatic conditions, thus they are best designed to stave off hunger.
Ms Bertini also praised the role of the African women in agriculture. "The voices of people in agriculture in Africa are the voices of women," she said.
Women provide 85 per cent of the labour force in African farms, yet they themselves do not own land.
The men control the land, machinery and the marketing of the produce, she said. And due to this land ownership issue, many women, though active in agriculture, do not have access to property.
Credit institutions also bar many women from getting funding as they have no title deeds under their name.
This has contributed to the cycle of poverty and hunger. Her sentiments are echoed by former nominated MP, Prof Ruth Oniang'o, who believes that there is need to empower women farmers.
As for other solutions to the food crisis in Kenya, Dr Wambugu says the Government should come up with policies conducive to food crop farming, as it has done for cash crops.
She adds that the Ministry of Agriculture should not just be concerned with research, but also the deployment of the research product to farmers.
"We also need to change our approach to farming. It is not just about telling a farmer to grow this and that. But where would she sell it?"
She states that creating new markets for agricultural products would help about 10 per cent of Kenyans who depend on food aid each year.
Besides, she adds, there are many international markets that have not been touched, and these can be tapped through value addition.
The value-addition model has been tested and it is working, says Dr Wambugu.
The banana crop has been turned from fruit into product. "From jam, to juice, crisps and even wine; the banana has become an international product," she says passionately.
The award-winning Kenyan scientist's involvement with Monsanto in a "faulty" GMO sweet potato project put her on the spotlight about four years ago.
A newspaper had then reported about that three-year trials on the GM sweet potato developed by Monsanto with the support of United States Agency for International Development (USAid), International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) and the World Bank.
The project had shown the GM sweet potato to be a failure. It had even been outperformed by conventional sweet potatoes.
The project's failure was also prominently reported in the New Scientist, and was also referred to in other articles, including one in The Guardian.
Dr Wambugu however denied the allegations and insisted that "the GM sweet potato had been a resounding scientific success!"
Anti-GM activists
In her statement at the time, Dr Wambugu attributed criticism of her project to "what anti-GM activists are saying".
The GM sweet potato has been presented as an agricultural revolution in Africa. To quote an article in Forbes magazine in December 2002, "while the West debates the ethics of GM food, Florence Wambugu is using it to feed her country."
And perhaps that might be the pointer as to why she is very specific on the Yara Prize. According to her, it is not just for her biotechnology work with farmers to produce more food for Africa, but for her recent work on the GMO banana crop.
The GMO debate has also come home to Kenya. Agriculture minister William Ruto has raised the antennae of some civil society groups with his support for continued research on GM foods by both private companies and State organisations such as the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute.
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