What Kenya can learn from Burkina Faso’s cotton production dip

During a dialogue on biotech crops and the Big Four agenda at the University of Nairobi On April 24, critics of biotechnology misrepresented the facts about Bt cotton farming in Burkina Faso.

The truth of the matter is that cotton production in Burkina Faso is continuing its downward slide three years after the country phased out the use of pest-resistant genetically modified (GM) cotton. Last April, the Inter-professional Cotton Association of Burkina (AICB), an industry body comprising farmers and other sector players, set a production target of 800,000 tonnes for the 2018-19 cotton season. But the country produced just 436,000 tonnes — despite offering farmers a record $27.4 million in incentives in the form of subsidies on insecticides, fertilisers and irrigation facilities.