Representatives from Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda support the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to improve food security and industrial development. This stands in contrast to other partners in the East African Community (EAC), who oppose the use of GMOs in the region. The EAC Secretariat hopes that dialogue will help reach a common position, with member states agreeing to the process. Opposition to GMOs stems largely from associated risks. An EAC report on the issue states that countries such as South Sudan “prefer to utilise their arable land and animals to have food sufficiency without GMOs.” Speaking to the East African, Jane Nalunga, the Executive Director of the Southern and Eastern Africa Trade Information and Negotiations Institute in Uganda, offers an alternative explanation for the country’s opposition. “The reason that they are giving in is because we are hungry. But we are hungry because of climate change, lack of rain, our farmers are not getting the right seeds, and their soils are degraded. We need to agree as a region and fix the challenges in food production without falling back to GMOs, certainly because we know our problems.”
