blog

Growing Hope in Africa

June 07, 2010

Be the first to comment

Biotechnology helped farmer Mary Katsonya increase her maize yields after Malawi's devastating drought.

By Produce More Conserve More

Agricultural technology can help increase the food security and income of smallholder farmers. Advancements in biotechnology can help farmers meet challenges and manage risks so that they can achieve self-sufficiency and even prosperity.

Mary Katsonya is one farmer among many in Malawi who benefited from a high-quality hybrid maize seed.

During Malawi’s devastating drought, Katsonya harvested only 10 bags from her field, equivalent to 500 kilograms. In 2007, she reaped 260 bags, or 13,000 kilograms. Following is her story.

Mary Katsonya walks to work down an orange-colored rutted road near Malawi’s capital city of Lilongwe as the sun rises over the horizon on tidy fields of maize, as corn is known in Africa, peanuts, and tobacco. She is 62 years old, a widow, with five orphaned grandchildren to care for. To meet her entire family’s food and income needs, Katsonya has only a small, 2-hectare (4.9-acre) farm.

She wakes early every morning to check her field, carrying a hoe to turn the earth between neat rows of tender maize plants to rid it of weeds. If the harvest is good this year, there will be enough maize to eat, and some to sell. Perhaps she can buy some vegetable seeds. She can make sure her grandchildren have schoolbooks.

If the harvest is not good, there will be hunger and a long wait until Katsonya can plant and tend the next season’s crop, hoping again for plenty. Or at least enough.

Katsonya is just one of millions of farmers in Africa who face some of the most challenging conditions in the world every day. On average, maize fields like Katsonya’s produce only a tenth as much per acre as cornfields in North America and Europe. [2] And those low yields may vary greatly from year to year. In 2005, during Malawi’s devastating drought, Katsonya harvested only 10 bags from her field, equivalent to 500 kilograms. In 2007, she reaped 260 bags, or 13,000 kilograms. What made such a difference in her yields over just two years? Biotechnology.

Find the sources referenced in this article here.

Start a discussion

Related content