Source: EIU Viewswire via Agnet September 22/06

Two foreign agro-industrial companies will be permitted to expand testing of genetically modified (GM) cotton during the 2006/07 farming season, according to Zourata Lompo, the director of the Agence nationale de biosécurité.

US-based Monsanto of the US and Switzerland's Syngenta were chosen from an initial list of four companies offering a total of 14 varieties of cotton; the two firms will plant six strains of GM cotton. Local civil and environmental groups have expressed concerns about the planting of GM varieties, and Ms Lompo emphasised that the country has not yet decided to release GM seeds into the general farming system, and that these plantings will be part of a process of testing and experimentation that has been under way for two seasons.

Strict security conditions are being demanded at the test stations to guard against GM seeds reaching regular farms. If those conditions are not met or the companies provide inaccurate information, authorisation may be withdrawn. Under new legislation that entered into force in April, violation of biological security regulations are punishable by prison terms of up to 15 years and fines of up to CFAfr5bn (US$9.7m).

The Union nationale des producteurs de coton du Burkina, which has been closely monitoring the testing process, reports that 663 farmers have so far planted test fields of genetically modified cotton, on a total of 316 hectares of land in several parts of the country.

Burkina Faso is a leading proponent of biotechnological research within the regional Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine, and the francophone grouping is backing its efforts with the equivalent of US$24m in financial support. If Burkina Faso's experiment is successful a number of its neighbours are likely to be interested in following a similar course.