Warnings of “climate genes” biopiracy in Africa

Western corporations’ attempts to patent crops with “climate-ready” properties indigenous to Africa could lead to the loss of ownership of the continent over its genetic resources, a new report warns

Chee Yoke Heong

Corporations and institutions are rushing to patent “climate-genes” that can withstand environmental stresses, with some of these genes originating from crops grown in Africa, thus igniting fears of potential “biopiracy” of the continent’s resources.

Syngenta, Monsanto and others are positioning themselves to further penetrate African markets clutching the climate change banner,” said a new report by the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB). This involved appropriating key African food crops to produce genetically modified (GM) climate crops.

According to the report, biotechnology is being used to identify “climate genes” in African crops plants, which can withstand stresses that are likely to become prevalent as the world’s climate changes and companies are patenting them to strengthen their hold on the seed market for GM crops.

Monsanto has obtained permits from the South African regulatory authority to conduct field trials on four events of its abiotic stress corn over a three-year period.

(An “event” refers to a particular modification of an organism.)

The multinational corporation is also conducting studies on drought tolerant soybean and cotton for commercialization.

Together with strategic partners, Monsanto is in the forefront of patenting parts of key African food crops such as sorghum, maize, peanut, cotton, wheat, manioc, sugar cane and banana for their “climate” properties including stress tolerance, biomass accumulation and drought tolerance.

An Israeli company, Evogene, partially owned by Monsanto, is claiming more than 700 climate-related gene sequences in a single patent application. The claim extends to the use of the gene sequences in key African crops such as maize, peanut, cotton, wheat, manioc as well as a number of economic plants such as ornamentals and teak species.

Another Monsanto ally, US-based Ceres Inc., which calls itself “the energy crop company”, has filed patents on numerous climate-related genes for both agrofuels and food crops of importance to Africa such as sorghum, maize, millets and rice.

Switzerland-based Syngenta, another multinational corporation, has also lined up climate change-related patent claims on genes related to drought and agrofuels that have implications for Africa. Some of these patent claims include development of GM plants that are resistant to saline soil and drought.

In an earlier report, the ETC Group in 2008 identified over 500 patent applications on climate genes around the world and since then many new applications have been filed.

Apart from focusing on specific crops, the patent claims also extend to genes and biotechnology techniques that could be used on a large variety of plants.

According to the ACB report, Africa is constantly under pressure to extend the patent rights of the multinational seed industry which, together with its supporters as well as private funders, believe that mass adoption of genetically engineered “climate-ready” crops is the answer to dealing with the impact of climate change on African agriculture.

This is despite the fact that this “solution” poses serious biosafety risks as well as a threat to the continent’s food sovereignty, cautioned the ACB.

The activity of the multinational seed and agrochemical companies in African national markets is currently variable, depending on the country and its dominant crops.

Their presence is currently felt more strongly in the temperate regions of Southern Africa where maize is grown on a large scale than in the central African rainforests.

According to the report, through pressure to expand their intellectual property rights over plants, these companies hope to strengthen their African presence in their search for greater profits. The report also highlights the players behind the development of the “climate-ready” crops and who seek to control them through patents.

It noted that while large seed and agrochemical companies often forge research alliances among themselves or with smaller companies involved in “gene recovery” relating to climate change crops, such alliances also extend into public sector plant breeding and research programmes through collaborative agreements often funded by multinationals and private philanthropy in the West. - Third World Network Features