At the opening of the 23rd Nigeria Economic Summit in Abuja, FCT on Tuesday, October 10 2017, Shell Companies in Nigeria received an august when Vice President, Prof. ‘Yemi Osinbajo, paid a visit to the oil giants.
Chairman, Nigeria Economic Summit Group, Bukar Kyari, accompanied the Vice President.
The Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF has embarked on waste management advocacy campaign activities in 20 communities in Eti-Osa Local Government Area, Lagos State, following its receipt of the Aspire Coronation Trust (ACT) Foundation grant to advocate for actions that promote proper waste separation, management and disposal in selected communities of Lagos, and geared towards making the environment sustainable and habitable for future generations.
The selected communities are Sangotedo, Idado, Gbara, Elegushi, Iru/Victoria Island, Agungi, and Olugborogan, the host community to NCF.
The project is being carried out over a period of six months, commencing from September 2017. It has been divided into five major phases: Community Entry; Community & School Sensitisation; Clean up Exercise; Monitoring & Evaluation; and Post Project Supervision.
The number of obese children and adolescents (aged five to 19 years) worldwide has risen tenfold in the past four decades. If current trends continue, more children and adolescents will be obese than moderately or severely underweight by 2022, according to a new study led by Imperial College London and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The study was published in The Lancet ahead of World Obesity Day (October 11). It analysed weight and height measurements from nearly 130 million people aged over five years (31.5 million people aged five to 19, and 97.4 million aged 20 and older), making it the largest ever number of participants involved in an epidemiological study. More than 1,000 contributors participated in the study, which looked at body mass index (BMI) and how obesity has changed worldwide from 1975 to 2016.
Obesity rates in the world’s children and adolescents increased from less than 1% (equivalent to five million girls and six million boys) in 1975 to nearly 6% in girls (50 million) and nearly 8% in boys (74 million) in 2016. Combined, the number of obese five to 19 year olds rose more than tenfold globally, from 11 million in 1975 to 124 million in 2016. An additional 213 million were overweight in 2016 but fell below the threshold for obesity.
Food marketing, policies, pricing behind obesity rise
Lead author Professor Majid Ezzati, of Imperial’s School of Public Health, says: “Over the past four decades, obesity rates in children and adolescents have soared globally, and continue to do so in low- and middle-income countries. More recently, they have plateaued in higher income countries, although obesity levels remain unacceptably high.”
Professor Ezzati adds: “These worrying trends reflect the impact of food marketing and policies across the globe, with healthy nutritious foods too expensive for poor families and communities. The trend predicts a generation of children and adolescents growing up obese and at greater risk of diseases, like diabetes. We need ways to make healthy, nutritious food more available at home and school, especially in poor families and communities, and regulations and taxes to protect children from unhealthy foods.”
More obese than underweight 5 to 19 year olds by 2022 but underweight persists in poor regions
The authors say that if post-2000 trends continue, global levels of child and adolescent obesity will surpass those for moderately and severely underweight youth from the same age group by 2022. In 2016, the global number of moderately or severely underweight girls and boys was 75 million and 117 million respectively.
Nevertheless, the large number of moderately or severely underweight children and adolescents in 2016 (75 million girls and 117 million boys) still represents a major public health challenge, especially in the poorest parts of the world. This reflects the threat posed by malnutrition in all its forms, with there being underweight and overweight young people living in the same communities.
Children and adolescents have rapidly transitioned from mostly underweight to mostly overweight in many middle-income countries, including in East Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. The authors say this could reflect an increase in the consumption of energy-dense foods, especially highly processed carbohydrates, which lead to weight gain and poor lifelong health outcomes.
Dr Fiona Bull, programme coordinator for surveillance and population-based prevention of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) at WHO, says: “These data highlight, remind and reinforce that overweight and obesity is a global health crisis today, and threatens to worsen in coming years unless we start taking drastic action.”
Solutions exist to reduce child and adolescent obesity
In conjunction with the release on the new obesity estimates, WHO is publishing a summary of the Ending Childhood Obesity (ECHO) Implementation Plan. The plan gives countries clear guidance on effective actions to curb childhood and adolescent obesity. WHO has also released guidelines calling on frontline healthcare workers to actively identify and manage children who are overweight or obese.
Dr Bull adds: “WHO encourages countries to implement efforts to address the environments that today are increasing our children’s chance of obesity. Countries should aim particularly to reduce consumption of cheap, ultra-processed, calorie dense, nutrient poor foods. They should also reduce the time children spend on screen-based and sedentary leisure activities by promoting greater participation in physical activity through active recreation and sports.”
A Federal High Court, Lagos on Wednesday, October 11, 2017 ordered the permanent forfeiture of 56 houses situated in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja valued at $21,982,224 (about N3.3 billion) allegedly linked to a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke, to the Federal Government.
The trial judge, Abdul-Azeez Anka, made the order in response to a motion by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) seeking the permanent forfeiture of the property.
The anti-graft agency while urging the court to grant the motion argued that the property sought to be attached are reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities.
Having listened to the submissions of EFCC’s counsel, Anselem Ozioko, Justice Anka granted the motion as prayed.
The forfeited properties include 21 mixed housing units of eight numbers of four bedroom penthouse apartment; six three-bedroom apartments; two three-bedroom apartments and one four-bedroom apartment, all ensuite and located at 7, Thurnburn Street and 5, Raymond Street, Yaba, valued at N937 million and bought through Chapel Properties Ltd.
Others are 16 four-bedroom terraces, located at Heritage Court Estate, Omerelu Street, Diobu GRA, Port Harcourt, River States, valued at N928 million and bought through Blue Nile Estate Ltd; 13 three-bedroom with one room maid’s quarter, situated at Mabushi Gardens Estate, Plot 1205, Cadastral Zone B06, Mabushi, Abuja, valued at N650 million and bought through Azinga Meadows Ltd and six flats of three bedrooms and one boys quarter, located at Plot 808 (135) Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, valued at N805 million and bought through Vistapoint property Development Ltd.
In granting the motion, the judge noted that there was no response to the applicant’s motion on notice for final forfeiture by any of the respondents despite been served with the hearing notice.
Justice Anka said: “I have gone through the affidavit attached to motion for final forfeiture as well as the submissions of the EFCC’s counsel, A. B. C. Ozioko. The court has no option considering the incontrovertible evidence filed by the EFCC than to grant the application.
“The motion for final forfeiture is accordingly granted as prayed. All parties have right of appeal.”
Joined as respondents in the suit are Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke (1st respondent), Donald Chidi Amamgbo (2nd respondent), Chapel Properties Limited (3rd respondent), Blue Nile Estate Limited (4th respondent), Azinga Meadows Limited (5th respondent) and Vistapoint Property Development Limited (6th respondent).
By Chinyere Obia
Justice Abdulazeez Anka of the Federal High Court, Lagos on Wednesday, October 11, 2017 refused to hear a fundamental rights suit filed by suspected kidnapper, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, also known as Evans, seeking N300 million damages for illegal detention.
Justice Anka said the case file would be returned to the Chief Judge for further directive.
The judge had earlier heard the case during the court’s long vacation and adjourned until August 29 for judgment after parties argued it and adopted their addresses on August 16.
But, the Police, through its counsel, Mr. David Igbodo, said another lawyer, Mr Henry Obiazi, who represented the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and the Nigeria Police when the case was heard, did so without authorisation.
The police prayed the court to set aside all the purported arguments made by Obiazi and to set aside the ruling it delivered on August 16 in which he adjourned for judgment.
When the case came up before another judge, Justice Chuka Obiozor during the long vacation, he held that the case was no longer urgent.
Justice Obizor then returned the file to the Chief Judge, Justice Adamu Kafarati, for re-assignment to another judge.
The case was subsequently re-assigned to Justice Babs Kuewemi.
However, Evans’ counsel, Olukoya Ogungbeje, wrote the Chief Judge, informing him that Justice Anka had already adjourned the case for judgment.
Based on the letter, the case was again returned to Justice Anka.
When the case came up before Justice Anka on Wednesday, he expressed displeasure that the case was returned to him when the issue of judgment had been overtaken by events.
The judge said that since the police had filed other applications, the earlier adjournment for judgment had become void, adding that even if he had written the judgment earlier, it meant that a new one would be written.
Police counsel Mr. Chukwu Agwu accused Ogungbeje of “smuggling” the case file back to Justice Anka’s court.
He said: “The case was re-assigned to Justice Kuewumi. How my learned colleague smuggled this case to this court is baffling. He did not avail us with a copy of his letter to the Chief Judge, otherwise we would have reacted.”
But Ogungbeje said he wrote the letter on the basis that since judgment had already been fixed, Justice Anka would deliver it after entertaining the late application filed by the police.
Meanwhile, Justice Anka held that it was not factual to say that judgment had been reserved “when it’s not”, adding that the court was obliged to hear the fresh applications by the police.
He said the case was not adjourned for judgment but for hearing, adding that Ogungbeje’s claim that the case was for judgment was not the true position.
Ruling, he said: “The case was made for hearing of the motion of first and second respondents.
“The court shall therefore cause a letter to be written to the Adminstrative Judge to explain the true position of the case, which is for further hearing and not judgment.
“Parties shall therefore await the decision of the Admin Judge, either to re-assign the case or for this court to maintain the case in its causelist.”
Evans has since been arraigned before Justice Hakeem Oshodi of the Lagos State High Court.
While Evans and two others pleaded guilty to the charges, the remaining defendants pleaded not guilty.
The prosecution said that the defendants between February 14 and April 12 along Obokun Street, Ilupeju, Lagos, armed with guns and other dangerous weapons, captured and detained one Mr Duru Donatus.
He said that the defendants allegedly collected a ransom of 223,000 Euros to release Donatus.
In his fundamental rights suit, Evans is claiming N300 million against the police as damages for alleged illegal detention and rights violation.
By Chinyere Obia
The Director General/CEO, National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Dr. Rufus Ebegba, has assured Nigerians that the agency will continue to work to ensure the safety of Nigerians with regards to Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).
Dr. Ebegba, who said this while receiving the Mallam Aminu Kano Award of Excellence bestowed on him by the Northern Youth Anti-Corruption Ambassadors of Nigeria in Abuja on Wednesday, October 11, 2017 encouraged Nigerians to support the government in fighting corruption.
“The award conferred on me today shows that Nigerians are watching the actions of the government and the establishment of the Northern Youth Anti-Corruption Ambassador group gives hope to the future of Nigeria,” he said.
Dr. Ebegba dedicated the award to the Federal Government as a symbol to fight corruption and thanked them and assured them that the agency would do better.
While presenting the award of recognition for safety management, youth empowerment, financial discipline and social transformation, the National Coordinator, Northern Youth Anti-Corruption Ambassadors, Idris Goga, commended the DG/CEO for his hard work, high performance, sacrifice, selfless service and outstanding leadership in ensuring that the agency efficiently carries out its mandate.
Globally, more than 20,000 girls are married every day below the minimum age permitted by national law, according to new research from Save the Children and the World Bank, marking the International Day of the Girl.
In all, about 7.5 million girls are married illegally every year. In addition, close to 100 million girls are not protected against child marriage under the laws of their countries.
A growing number of countries are raising the legal age of marriage or eliminating exceptions under the law that allow early marriage with parental consent or court consent. However, implementing such laws is challenging.
More than two thirds of all child marriages are still taking place below the minimum age permitted by national law, showing the difficulty in ending the practice.
While some of these marriages are informal as opposed to formal unions, most would likely still be illegal under the law. Weak enforcement and a disconnect between national, customary, and religious laws are part of the issue. Deep-rooted traditions and beliefs mean that traditional leaders in communities still too often support the practice.
Helle Thorning-Schmidt, CEO of Save the Children International, said: “We will not see a world where girls and boys have the same opportunities to succeed in life until we eradicate child marriage. When a girl gets married too young, her role as a wife and a mother takes over. She is more likely to leave school; she may become pregnant and suffer abuse.
“Laws banning the practice are an important first step. But millions of vulnerable girls will continue to be at risk unless child marriage is tackled head on. We need to change attitudes in communities so that we can end this harmful practice once and for all.
“The longer a girl stays in education, the more likely it is that she grows up healthy, secures a livelihood and has healthy and educated children of her own.”
The findings come ahead of an African-led conference on ending child marriage to take place in Senegal later this month. The West and Central Africa High Level Meeting on Ending Child Marriage (October 23-25) will see government leaders, traditional, religious and other influential leaders, child rights organisations, youth, and UN agencies, come together to discuss solutions to end this harmful practice.
“From this meeting, we hope to have an important understanding of child marriage, its consequences, drivers, and solutions. We’ll look at policies and legal frameworks surrounding child marriage, and we intend to build a platform where we will be sharing our successes and challenges in the implementations of policies and programmes in ending child marriage,” said the First Lady of Sierra Leone, Sia Koroma.
West and Central Africa is home to many of the countries with the highest rates of child marriage globally. In this region alone, 1.7 million child marriages are taking place below the national minimum age every year—one of the highest proportions globally. Some countries in the region are also affected by high rates of teenage pregnancy outside of formal marriages, too often a result of gender-based violence or exploitative relationships—which generally go unpunished.
Fatmata, 16, from Sierra Leone, was married last year. “I was 15 years old when I met my husband. Right now, I’m not very happy because I didn’t have the chance to do what I wanted to do in life and now I’m pregnant,” she laments
The analysis by Save the Children and the World Bank is calling for urgent action to tackle child marriage at both the national and international levels. Legal reform to set the minimum age for marriage at a minimum of 18 and eliminating exceptions are needed. But, in addition, national strategies with well-designed targeted interventions are also needed, especially to enable girls to remain in school as a viable alternative to marriage.
At the World Bank the study is part of a work programme that benefits from support from the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and the Global partnership for Education, Data on the legal age of marriage are from the Women Business and the Law initiative.
A recent study conducted by Save the Children UK reveals that child marriage is both the cause and a result of poor education outcome in Nigeria. (Nigeria Girls’ Education Research, 2017) In Nigeria, over 10.5 million children are out of school, the highest number globally. Nearly 6.3 million of this number are girls. Furthermore, Violence against Children in Nigeria Survey (VACS, 2015) reports that one in every five girls in Nigeria has experienced sexual violence and a third of this number are between age 14 and 15.
In Nigeria, child marriage negatively impacts girls’ education outcomes as they are at increased risk of pregnancy and drop-out. This leads to a recurring cycle of illiteracy, poverty, lack of economic opportunity and entrenched gender gaps.
Therefore, says the organisation, there should be a renewed commitment and immediate action to ensure the right of every girl for education is respected, protected and fulfilled; and national and state level investment on education is increased with an aim to improve the quality and accessibility of an affordable primary and secondary education, including increasing number of female teachers, reinforcing teachers’ code of conduct, improving accessibility of text books and ensuring that the teaching-learning environment is safe and free from all forms of violence against the girl child.
In commemoration of the 2017 International Day for Disaster Reduction, Achim Steiner (Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme), Patricia Espinosa (Executive Secretary of UN Climate Chang) and Robert Glasser (UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction and head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction) emphasise in this treatise that the climate change phenomenon has become a threat to rich and poor alike, and that management of climate risk should be integrated into disaster risk management as a whole
From Miami and Puerto Rico to Barbuda and Havana, the devastation of this year’s hurricane season across Latin America and the Caribbean serves as a reminder that the impacts of climate change know no borders.
In recent weeks, Category 5 hurricanes have brought normal life to a standstill for millions in the Caribbean and on the American mainland. Harvey, Irma and Maria have been particularly damaging. The 3.4 million inhabitants of Puerto Rico have been scrambling for basic necessities including food and water, the island of Barbuda has been rendered uninhabitable, and dozens of people are missing or dead on the UNESCO world heritage island of Dominica.
The impact is not confined to this region. The record floods across Bangladesh, India and Nepal have made life miserable for some 40 million people. More than 1,200 people have died and many people have lost their homes, crops have been destroyed, and many workplaces have been inundated. Meanwhile, in Africa, over the last 18 months 20 countries have declared drought emergencies, with major displacement taking place across the Horn region.
For those countries that are least developed the impact of disasters can be severe, stripping away livelihoods and progress on health and education; for developed and middle-income countries the economic losses from infrastructure alone can be massive; for both, these events reiterate the need to act on a changing climate that threatens only more frequent and more severe disasters.
A (shocking) sign of things to come?
The effects of a warmer climate on these recent weather events, both their severity and their frequency, has been revelatory for many, even the overwhelming majority that accept the science is settled on human-caused global warming.
While the silent catastrophe of 4.2 million people dying prematurely each year from ambient pollution, mostly related to the use of fossil fuels, gets relatively little media attention, the effect of heat-trapping greenhouse gases on extreme weather events is coming into sharper focus.
It could not be otherwise when the impacts of these weather events are so profound. During the last two years over 40 million people, mainly in countries which contribute least to global warming, were forced either permanently or temporarily from their homes by disasters.
There is clear consensus: rising temperatures are increasing the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere, leading to more intense rainfall and flooding in some places, and drought in others. Some areas experience both, as was the case this year in California, where record floods followed years of intense drought.
TOPEX/Poseidon, the first satellite to precisely measure rising sea levels, was launched two weeks before Hurricane Andrew made landfall in Florida 25 years ago. Those measurements have observed a global increase of 3.4 millimeters per year since then; that’s a total of 85 millimeters over 25 years, or 3.34 inches.
Rising and warming seas are contributing to the intensity of tropical storms worldwide. We will continue to live with the abnormal and often unforeseen consequences of existing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, for many, many years to come.
In 2009, Swiss Re published a case study focused on Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties, which envisaged a moderate sea level rise scenario for the 2030s which matches what has already taken place today. If a storm on the scale of Andrew had hit this wealthy corner of the US today, the economic damage would range from $100 billion to $300 billion. Now the estimates suggest that the economic losses from Harvey, Irma and Maria could surpass those numbers.
Reduce disaster risk now; tackle climate change in the long-term
Miami is working hard on expanding its flood protection programme; $ 400 million is earmarked to finance sea pumps, improved roads and seawalls. Yet, this level of expenditure is beyond the reach of most low and middle-income countries that stand to lose large chunks of their GDP every time they are hit by floods and storms.
While the Paris Agreement has set the world on a long-term path towards a low-carbon future, it is a windy path that reflects pragmatism and realities in each individual country. Thus, while carbon emissions are expected to drop as countries meet their self-declared targets, the impacts of climate change may be felt for some time, leaving the world with little choice but to invest, simultaneously, in efforts to adapt to climate change and reduce disaster risk. The benefits of doing so make economic sense when compared to the cost of rebuilding.
This will require international cooperation on a previously unprecedented scale as we tackle the critical task of making the planet a more resilient place to the lagging effects of greenhouse gas emissions that we will experience for years to come. Restoring the ecological balance between emissions and the natural absorptive capacity of the planet is the long-term goal. It is critical to remember that the long-term reduction of emissions is THE most important risk reduction tactic we have, and we must deliver on that ambition.
The November UN Climate Conference in Bonn presided over by the small island of Fiji, provides an opportunity to not only accelerate emission reductions but to also boost the serious work of ensuring that the management of climate risk is integrated into disaster risk management as a whole. Poverty, rapid urbanisation, poor land use, ecosystems decline and other risk factors will amplify the impacts of climate change. Today on International Day for Disaster Reduction, we call for them to be addressed in a holistic way.
Stakeholders in the agriculture and health sectors of the Nigerian economy have canvassed for the fortification of micronutrients in staple foods to stem the ugly effect of hidden hunger.
They made the call on Tuesday, October 10, 2017 during the maiden international conference on Food Security and Hidden Hunger organised by the Faculty of Agriculture, Federal University Ndufu-Alike Ikwo (FUNAI), Ebonyi State with the theme “Hidden Hunger Dynamics: Opportunities and Challenges for Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.”
Declaring the conference open, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Chinedum Nwajiuba, noted that the era of oil boom was over and advised governments at all levels to invest massively in Agriculture in order to mitigate the incidence of poverty and hunger in the country.
He maintained that Agriculture has a strategic role to play in Nigeria’s quest for economic stability, food security and employment generation for the youths. The Professor of Agricultural Economics further stated that the university established a Faculty of Agriculture in order to help its host community in particular and Ebonyi State in general achieve their agricultural prospects.
He further said: “Our Faculty of Agriculture was established to give practical skills to the students in order to make them employers of labour and contributors to the growth of our nation’s economy on graduation”, stressing that the faculty would be different in many ways as students would be exposed to the rudiments and dynamics of modern farming.
Delivering the lead paper of the conference entitled “Hidden Hunger Dynamics: Opportunities and Challenges for Meeting the Sustainable Goals”, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt, Prof. Ndowa Ekoate Sunday Lale, said: “Hidden hunger means inadequate consumption of nutritious food bearing in mind that the psychological use of food is within the domain of nutrition and health, adding that “food preparation and packaging affect its nutritional contents.”
He noted that no nation has achieved food security despite the notable increase in food production in different parts of the world, stressing that 60% of the world’s hungry were women while in every 10 seconds a child dies from hunger-related diseases.
He therefore canvassed for increased intake of nutritional and fresh food and the shunning of processed ones and the invigoration of the school health programmes in order to mitigate the negative effect of hidden hunger on people like malnutrition, obesity, wasting and the likes.
In his presentation on “Full But Not Healthy: Assessing the Policies Cum Programmes to Support Food Security and Fight Hidden Hunger in Nigeria”, the former Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, opined that both the quality and quantity of food were important in tackling micronutrients deficiency in food consumption.
He lauded the federal government initiative of fortifying salt with vitamins A, calling on agencies of government charged with implementation and monitoring to go the extra miles to secure compliance from all stakeholders. He maintained that for hidden hunger to be curtailed in the country, government should enforce the fortification of all stable foods with essential nutrients like it is being done with salt.
The Professor of Medicine further advised the ministries of heath and agriculture and its agencies to work in synergy, also urging them to work directly with the people for the government policy on food security to have consummate impact on the citizens.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee for the conference, Prof. Dr. Jonny Ogunji, and the Acting Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, Dr. Christiana Igberi, spoke on the rationale for hosting the conference and the benefits to be derived from it by all stakeholders.
Ogunji noted that preventing hidden hunger in all its forms was essential for achieving almost all the Sustainable Development Goals, stressing that the goals were to assess efforts made towards food security realisation, stimulate debate on hidden hunger, improve diets and raise levels of micro-nutrition among others.
Igberi on her part noted that the establishment of a Faculty of Agriculture in the university was one of the greatest achievements of the present University Management, adding that the consequences of hidden hunger on people were long term and profound. And called on all relevant stakeholders to have a re-think in the issue of food security especially nutrition.
The opening ceremony of the conference was chaired by the Chief Medical Director of the Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki (FETHA), Dr. Emeka Onwe Oga.
A Soil Association report has revealed how genetically modified (GM) cotton grew to almost obliterate all other cotton production in India, and how the promised GM success rapidly turned to failure, with disastrous, even lethal, results for some of the world’s poorest farmers. The report, launched at the Textile Exchange Sustainability Conference in Washington D.C., reveals how alternative, more sustainable cotton production is now successfully replacing GM.
GM cotton was introduced to India in 2002 by Mahyco Monsanto (India) Ltd. The initially promising performance of GM cotton proved short-lived as crops experienced severe pest attacks. Production costs rose threefold due to the more expensive pesticides needed to control problem insects and widespread crop failure.
This led to huge debts for small-scale cotton growers, which represent most of India’s cotton producers. A spate of suicides followed. In just one region of Maharashtra province, factors linked to the cultivation of GM cotton are reported to have led to 7,992 farmer suicides between 2006 and 2011.
One of the ministers responsible for introducing GM cotton to India was recently quoted as saying, “In the 1990s, I introduced GM cotton in India. Twenty years later, I regret…I am responsible for suicide of thousands of cotton farmers.”
Peter Melchett, Policy Director at the Soil Association, said: “Many people assume that GM crops will work miracles when, more often, the harsh reality is that GM creates nightmares. That is what GM cotton is doing in many countries, none more so than in India, the largest cotton producer in the world. Some of the poorest farmers in the world have been subject to a crude GM experiment that has gone disastrously wrong – and many have paid the price with their lives. Thankfully, with Indian government support, non-GM and organic production is now in a positive position, offering lower production costs and supporting healthier agricultural, environmental, and social outcomes.”
The report makes clear that the problems caused by pests were entirely predictable. GM cotton is engineered to ward off pests, but nature is quick to get around this: just four years after GM cotton was introduced to India, the pink bollworm, the pest the plants were design to resist, became immune to GM cotton in Western India. In many areas, other pests took advantage of the disrupted ecological balance caused by GM cotton, leading to massive crop losses. In Punjab in 2015, whitefly destroyed two-thirds of the cotton crop, causing an estimated loss of $629 million, leading to the suicide of 15 farmers.
GM cotton seed dominated the Indian market, to the extent that organic production was threatened. However, many organic farmers have weathered the storm and now both government support and local initiatives are changing the story of cotton in India. These include projects to improve the availability of good quality organic seed and Government-supported chemical-free zones, where farm management approaches are adopted by multiple smallholder farmers across wide areas to maximise the benefits of sustainable farming practices.
Organic cotton, 70% of which is grown in India, offers a more stable, long term solution for farmers. Organic production uses non-GM seed, follows natural approaches such as crop rotation, and makes the most of local resources, all of which allow farmers to grow a variety of crops for food and income alongside cotton. Demand for organic cotton has been growing and reached $15.7 billion in 2015. Momentum is building behind organic cotton: brands and retailers are increasing their support for organic cotton, with important sustainability targets being set by major companies around the world and further commitments are expected to be announced from other multinational brands on 11 October 2017.
The report, titled “Failed Promises: the rise and fall of GM cotton in India”, offers a warning of the perils of relying on GM technology, but also provides reasons to be hopeful as alternative approaches, including organic, are creating a better vision for farming in India and beyond.
