[00:00.10]From VOA Learning English,
[00:02.13]this is the Agriculture Report.
[00:05.11]Today, we take you to a small banana plantation near Kampala.
[00:10.84]The trees are healthy and green,
[00:14.17]but Andrew Kiggundu does not like what he sees.
[00:18.21]"The disease on the leaves you see right now is not the wilt,
[00:21.84]it is a different disease called black sigatoka.
[00:24.48]It is just killing off the leaves and causing significant yield loss.
[00:29.71]This is a big problem,
[00:31.11]although of course not as much as the wilt,
[00:33.10]because the wilt just destroys the whole plant."
[00:35.04]Andrew Kiggundu works with the National Agricultural Research Organization,
[00:41.47]also known as NARO.
[00:43.36]The Ugandan government agency is developing genetically engineer bananas.
[00:49.14]The new plants are meant to resist black sigatoka
[00:53.71]and banana bacterial wilt,
[00:56.55]which has been destroying a large amounts of the country's banana crop.
[01:01.58]Uganda is the world's top consumer of bananas.
[01:05.92]NARO Research Director Wilberforce Tushemereirwe says
[01:10.72]this is why it is so important to produce healthy plants.
[01:15.46]"The disease keeps on moving around wiping out garden after garden,
[01:20.94]so you will go to areas where you find they have changed
[01:25.27]from banana to annual crops.
[01:28.65]That has already introduced food insecurity,
[01:31.94]because they are not used to handling annual crops."
[01:35.88]The central African nation already permits
[01:39.22]testing of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.
[01:44.59]Lawmakers are considering a bill
[01:47.23]that would permit the development
[01:49.17]and distribution of such organisms through out the country.
[01:53.25]But some activists say genetically modified organisms
[01:58.48]would be dangerous to human health and the environment.
[02:02.42]Giregon Olupot is a soil biophysicist at Makerere University in Kampala.
[02:10.18]"There are a range of options that risk to be wiped [out],
[02:13.97]just by this technology.
[02:15.91]With bananas, tissue culture has worked well to engineer healthy plants.
[02:22.26]You then take these plants to a clean garden and maintain field hygiene.
[02:26.89]Why are we not giving emphasis to that technology?"
[02:30.87]Most genetically modified seeds are patented,
[02:34.51]this means farmers must purchase them after each planting.
[02:39.59]Mr Olupot says, this might be possible for profitable farmers,
[02:44.51]but smaller farmers depend on their own seeds.
[02:48.44]In his opinion, selling genetically modified seeds
[02:52.97]to small farmers could trap them.
[02:55.67]"If you are to go commercial, it has to be on a large scale.
[02:59.40]Now the farmers we are talking about,
[03:01.84]on average, have 0.4 hectares of land.
[03:05.57]It is simply not suitable for our farmers."
[03:08.61]A public institution is developing Uganda's genetically modified bananas.
[03:14.18]NARO says no patent laws will restrict their use.
[03:18.91]But Mr Olupot says this would probably not be true
[03:23.14]with genetically modified crops introduced to Uganda in future.
[03:28.32]Mr Kiggundu says opponents of genetically modified plans
[03:32.89]have been strong in their criticisms.
[03:35.43]He says many farmers are now afraid of GMOs.
[03:40.02]The Ugandan parliament is expected to pass
[03:43.16]the Biotechnology and Biosafety Bill before the end of the year.
[03:49.03]And that's the Agriculture Report from VOA Learning English.