LUKESHNI CHETTY: Extreme weather illustrates the need for climate change resistant crops

Over the course of 2023 the world experienced extraordinary extreme weather events. These events are occurring more frequently and have wide-ranging effects not only on daily life but also longer-term prospects for human health and food security. Extreme weather highlights that both mitigation and adaptation strategies are vitally important to implement now in the global response to climate change.

In terms of food security, there are a number of approaches that can ensure systems are resilient and that farmers can continue to feed populations. Unfortunately, in SA one such important adaptation is currently off the table due to unsuitable regulation. This regulatory misstep is no small matter and could end up jeopardising the country’s food security.

The risk farmers face from climate change is real. From monumental flooding in Libya’s Derna, wildfires in Canada the likes of which have not been noted in recorded history, to extreme heatwaves during this year’s summer in the northern hemisphere — the effects of climate change are being felt by all. In SA a heatwave in November broke temperature records for the month in several provinces. These are the conditions our farmers, and those across the globe, will increasingly need to contend with.

Recognising this reality, the African Development Bank announced at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) held in the UAE this month that it would be seeking to mobilise $1bn in concessionary financing, high-risk capital and grants. This financing is set to support the African insurance sector to assist more than 40-million African farmers who are at risk from the severe effects of climate change.

One of the vital adaptation options open to farmers comes from innovations in plant breeding. Gene-editing technology is being increasingly used to breed new crop varieties which could provide heat and drought resistance and/or have improved yields and disease resistance. The development and use of these new varieties will support farmers the world over to continue producing food in the context of rising temperatures and drought. However, in SA there is a serious regulatory hurdle that is threatening farmers’ ability to access these varieties.

A body appointed in terms of the Genetically Modified Organisms Act (of 2007), announced that all products derived from new breeding technologies (NBTs) would be regulated under the act as genetically modified organisms (GMOs), which is not the international norm, thus posing serious trade implications. The result of this decision will be that accessing new climate-resilient crops and the seeds needed to grow these crops, bred using NBTs, will be made far more difficult, leaving SA decades behind in agriculture, especially considering many African countries have also adopted the international norm.

Adaptation to climate change is a necessity, and technological improvements that can help farmers continue to produce crops despite the immense pressures from a changing climate must be implemented wherever possible. It goes without saying that the products produced as a result of the use of NBTs should be subject to regulation that ensures safety and is based on science as well as international best practice. In line with this imperative, countries introduced regulations for NBTs that review the products these technologies produce on a case-by-case basis, rather than erroneously lumping them with GMOs.

NBTs describe a number of techniques, including gene editing. Plants bred with gene editing could mimic the effect of traditional breeding, which favours beneficial characteristics of an organism while removing harmful or unwanted traits. GMOs, by contrast, are created through the insertion of foreign pieces of DNA from other species into a genome.

Countries are not only recognising the need for the appropriate and separate regulation of NBTs, they are also seeing the vital importance of the climate-resilient crops they develop as part of the suite of adaptation strategies available in the global food system. On December 1, at this year’s COP28, 134 countries signed the Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Action. The declaration recognises the vital importance of transforming global food systems in light of climate change and commits global leaders to scaling up adaptation assistance to farmers, among other measures. A speech on the day included an emphasis on the importance of drought- and disease-resistant maize crops as an important example of adaptation.

Professor of climatology and director of the University of the Witwatersrand’s Global Change Institute, Francois Engelbrecht, recently told SA media that we should expect more heatwaves in the next decade. In this context it is clear we cannot unnecessarily delay taking the climate change adaptation measures which are already available to us. Climate-resilient crops and the seeds needed to grow them are a crucial tool to ensure food security. There is no good reason inappropriate regulation should be the factor that is holding us back from using them.

Chetty is GM of the SA National Seed Organisation.