ZAAB reject African Union Seed and GMO Guidelines
Chilinya said ZAAB want all related processes currently underway suspended until consensus is reached
By Francis Maingaila
Lusaka (06-09-21) – A network of Zambian, Civil Society under the umbrella name of the Zambia Alliance for Agroecology and Biodiversity (ZAAB), farmer and faith-based organisations, environmentalists and scientists, have rejected the draft African Union (AU) recommendations on the development of harmonized seed and biotechnology guidelines for the Continent.
FIAN Zambia Country coordinator Vladimir Chilinya who read the statement for and behalf of ZAAB members told journalists at a virtual media briefing that the drafter of the Guidelines for the use of biotechnology to enhance agricultural productivity for food security and nutrition in Africa, including Guidelines for the harmonisation of seed regulatory frameworks in Africa did not consult the beneficiaries mostly smallholder farmers, CSO’s, and other rights-holders whose lives will be seriously affected by the decision.
According to Chilinya, the draft guidelines in their current framing do not represent the demands and interests of not only the smallholder farmers and people of Zambia but also across the globe.
He said African farmers are the backbone of the African food system and the core rights holders in the AU process.
He regretted that there has been a serious lack of democratic inclusivity in discussion on the AU’s seed and particularly biotechnology harmonisation efforts.
While farmers and diverse African constituencies have been absent, Chilinya observed representatives from the seed industry, including the International Union for the Protection of New Plant Varieties (UPOV), the African Seed Trade Association (AFSTA) and others have featured prominently, particularly in the validation meeting held in August.
“This raises questions o the vested interests in the development of these guidelines, how appropriate they are to the needs and desires of the African people, and the legitimacy of the process itself,” Chilinya observed.
ZAAB’s overarching concern with the guidelines is the reflective fact that the AU seems to have pre-decided not only formalization and privatization but also industrialization of the African food system.
In the eyes of ZAAB and its general membership, Chilinya suggested, this is not only corporate capture but also an entrenching of destructive but also extractive practices that will drive environmental degradation, biodiversity loss and eventually soil infertility, climate change.
The result of this negative aspect of land grabbing, Chilinya suggested, is not only hunger but also malnutrition.
Already Chilinya observed, not only Zambia but also the whole content is facing the negative effects of the climate.
He said this has not spared the food and agriculture sector, including livestock, fisheries, wild-foods harvesting, processing, retail which provide livelihoods for the majority of the people in Zambia.
He explained that the AU draft guidelines that will be proposed for national harmonization, are orientating local seed, agriculture and resultant food systems to serve foreign companies and corporations, not the people of our continent, and particularly our youth who we have to prioritize.
He advised that AU not be seen promoting the industrial and top-down models.
Instead, the AU should be advocating for the opening of the space for people-centred and locally rooted solutions to be developed, from the ground up.
He said the draft guidelines should be proposing ways to regulate GMOs based on biosafety and the precautionary principle, which was so hard fought for by African leaders in the development of the Cartagena Protocol.
Shockingly, Chilinya regretted, the current proposed AU draft report openly leads towards promotion and facilitation of modern biotechnology (genetic engineering technologies) and GMOs including ‘new breeding technologies (NBTs), without reflecting on whether this is what Zambian agriculture needs and what African farmers and consumers want.
He indicated that the draft also contains biased selective citing of references, misrepresentations, and unscientific and unsubstantiated claims.
He further observed that the entire biotechnology harmonization proposal reflects extractive and profit-making interests of the corporations and the biotech industry.
If allowed to pass, Chilinya observed, the proposed guidelines will fundamentally undermine national sovereignty and human rights, particularly farmer’s rights and the Right to Food and Nutrition for all.
He said Zambia has a long history of actively participating in matters concerning governance of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and modern biotechnology; nationally, regionally and internationally. We do not agree with and reject the development process, the content, framing and the entire existence of a harmonized continental guide on GMOs.
He said the ZAAB, along with the African counterparts called on national agencies, to ensure that any proposed processes for the further development of these two sets of guidelines that process around seed on the Continent must be driven by farmer constituencies, not by and for the interest of the corporate seed industry.
In particular, Chilinya noted, any process aimed at farmer-managed seed systems must ensure the full realisation of farmers’ rights as human rights, and ensure adequate geographical representation from smallholder farmer organisations from across the Continent from the start.
ZAAB also want all related processes currently underway to be immediately suspended until this is put in place.
He urged the African Union to immediately desists from any continental efforts of harmonisation and promotion of the use of modern biotechnology but rather ensures that the precautionary principle is upheld and that African rights holders are fully represented in all discussions, genesis and policy processes related to decision making around modern biotechnology.
He explained that the processes related to the seed and food system futures of the continent are subjected to thoroughly democratic procedures in which relevant constituencies are meaningfully consulted and positioned as the key drivers of any related efforts.