Kenyan farmers are losing billions of shillings every year due to delays in adopting genetically modified (GMO) crops that promise higher yields, lower pesticide use, and stronger resilience to pests and diseases, a new study says.
- •According to a report titled “The Cost of Delay,” the country has forfeited an estimated KSh 20.3 billion over the past five years by failing to fully commercialise Bt maize, Bt cotton, and a late blight-resistant potato.
- •Daniel Kyallo, Senior Manager for Agribusiness, Policy, and Commercialisation, links these delays to widespread misinformation about biotechnology, which he says continues to cloud public understanding and stall progress.
- •Kenya has already approved several GM crops, including Bt cotton, Bt maize, and virus-resistant cassava, while trials continue for late blight-resistant potato and bio-fortified cassava in Busia and Nakuru counties.
“The issue is misinformation, not regulatory,” said Kyallo. “We need to bring facts to clarify issues raised around biotech crops. This misinformation has made Kenya lag behind early adopters in the continent such as Nigeria and South Africa.”
The study found that the delayed release of these biotech crops has denied smallholder farmers the chance to boost yields and lower production costs amid growing threats from pests such as fall armyworm and diseases like late blight.
“Kenya stands to inject more than KSh 60.7 billion into its economy over the next three decades if it adopts these improved crop varieties without further delay,” the report notes.
Bt maize, engineered to resist stem borer and fall armyworm, could have been released to farmers as early as 2019. Instead, regulatory hurdles and a decade-long GMO import ban (2012–2022) have cost farmers KSh 8.6 billion in lost production and higher pesticide expenses.
The report estimates that Kenya forfeited 194,000 tonnes of maize, roughly a quarter of the country’s 2022 maize imports. “That’s fourteen times the maize food aid the UN World Food Programme delivered to Kenya in 2023,” it adds.
While Kenya eventually commercialised Bt cotton in 2020, the report says a five-year delay cost farmers and textile processors KSh 155 million in potential benefits.
Potatoes, Kenya’s second most important food crop after maize, have also suffered from delays. The new 3R-gene Shangi variety, designed to resist late blight disease, could yield KSh 32 billion in benefits to farmers and consumers over 30 years.
A five-year delay, however, would slash that value by nearly KSh 11 billion. The improved potato could reduce dependence on imported seed, cut fungicide use, and raise yields for farmers in Nyandarua, Meru, and Nakuru counties.
Beyond direct farm benefits, the study estimates that adopting Bt maize and cotton could lower global greenhouse gas emissions by up to 0.7% of Kenya’s total emissions, mainly through reduced deforestation and pesticide use.
However, multiple court cases have halted commercial rollout despite the Cabinet’s 2022 decision to lift the decade-old ban on GM crop cultivation and importation. Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the decision followed scientific studies confirming Kenya’s readiness to responsibly manage modern biotechnology.
“The government’s commitment to facilitate the adoption of new technologies to transform low agricultural productivity is being derailed by unending litigations,” Kagwe said during the 13th Annual Biosafety Conference.
The government has reiterated its commitment to the safe adoption of GMOs through a robust biosafety framework anchored in the Biosafety Act, the National Biotechnology Development Policy, and related regulations.