Kenya’s hesitation to embrace biotechnology is bleeding its economy — and it’s the smallholder farmers who are paying the highest price.
A new study titled “The Cost of Delay”, produced by the Breakthrough Institute, Alliance for Science, AATF, ISAAA, and the International Potato Center (CIP), reveals that the country has lost an estimated KSh 20.4 billion over the past five years due to delays in approving and commercializing three key biotech crops — Bt maize, Bt cotton, and late blight-resistant potatoes.
If adoption had been fast-tracked, these crops could have added KSh 60.7 billion to Kenya’s economy over the next three decades, the report warns.
Across the continent, momentum for biotech is accelerating. The number of African countries cultivating genetically modified (GM) crops has more than doubled from three in 2018 to eight in 2024. Today, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Sudan, Eswatini, and South Africa have approved at least one transgenic crop — cotton, maize, soybean, or cowpea.
Kenya should be leading that list. Instead, while Bt cotton was commercialized in 2020, three advanced maize varieties remain frozen in Cabinet approval, and the late blight-resistant potato is still in field trials.
“Had we adopted earlier, farmers could have produced an additional 194,000 tonnes of maize, equivalent to 25% of Kenya’s 2022 maize imports,” says Vitumbiko Chinoko, Manager of AATF’s Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB).
The losses are not theoretical. For maize farmers in Trans Nzoia, Uasin Gishu, and Bungoma, fall armyworm and stem borer continue to consume up to 20% of yields annually. Potato farmers in Nyandarua and Meru lose entire fields to late blight, a disease that can destroy 100% of the crop in weeks.
Each delay means more money spent on pesticides — a cost smallholders can’t sustain.“These advanced varieties offer a safe, effective, and affordable alternative to traditional pesticides,” says Chinoko. “They’re tailor-made to help smallholder farmers who form 70% of Kenya’s maize producers and 98% of its potato growers.”
The report pins much of the delay on misinformation campaigns, politicized debates, and lack of government decisiveness.“News outlets, social media, and even political leaders are misleading the public with inaccurate and irresponsible statements about advanced crop varieties,” warns Prof. Joel W. Ochieng, Secretary General of the Kenya University Biotechnology Consortium (KUBICO).He emphasizes that Kenya’s biotech crops are developed locally, tested under strict biosafety laws, and donated royalty-free to support farmers — not corporate profit.
Despite this, Kenya remains trapped in public confusion over GMOs — a confusion that has benefited neither consumers nor producers.
The study finds that Bt maize and cotton could reduce Kenya’s greenhouse gas emissions by 0.2% to 0.7%, by minimizing pesticide production and soil disturbance. Each biotech variety represents not just higher yields, but also reduced deforestation, better soil health, and safer food — since Bt maize varieties naturally resist molds that produce aflatoxin, a carcinogenic toxin linked to liver cancer.“By increasing yields, advanced varieties help protect forests and biodiversity while cutting greenhouse gas emissions,” says Dr. Willy Daniel Kyalo, lead author of the report.
Kenya’s biotech research operates under one of Africa’s most stringent regulatory frameworks — the Biosafety Act — managed by the National Biosafety Authority (NBA). Every crop goes through multi-year trials, public consultations, and environmental impact assessments before release.“We view these findings as an urgent call to action for the Kenyan government,” says Chinoko. “Farmers are ready. The science is ready. Only policy is not.”
The irony, experts say, is that Kenya imports GMO maize and soy as food aid from countries that already grow them — effectively outsourcing its food security instead of investing in it.
Worldwide, 76 countries have adopted biotech crops. 31 nations plant them — including the U.S., China, Brazil, and Spain — while 45 others, mostly in the EU, import them for feed and food processing.
Africa is the new frontier for biotech, but Kenya risks being left behind, despite having some of the best local biotech scientists on the continent.“Every year we delay, we pay — in lost harvests, lost income, and lost dignity,” says Dr. Emma Kovak of the Breakthrough Institute.
anita.nkirote@hortinews.co.ke