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 Center 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.
 

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