Peruvian president Ollanta Humala has announced the country will be banning planting of genetically modified crops for ten years in order to protect Peru’s small farmers. The Peruvian government passed a law establishing a moratorium on “cultivation, breeding or of any transgenic production.”

image expired

The government said it made the decision in response to calls from the country’s agricultural producers and general population; President Humala described the ban as an “important step in defence of our biodiversity.”

The moratorium came about when the outgoing government attempted to bring in a law opening the door for GM crops in Peru, however, after a massive backlash which led to the resignation of the then agriculture minister, the incoming government finalised the legislation in June 2011.

The Peruvian ban was issued principally to protect the country’s diverse potato varieties; the potato is native to the highlands of South America. The Peruvian Andes were the heart of the Incan Empire and Peruvians have a strong desire to protect the thousands of types of potatoes grown in the region, which they see as integral to their heritage.

Although the Peruvian ban came into force in December, other South American states are speeding up their approvals processes; Brazil in particular, the continent’s main agricultural power, is accelerating its own approval procedure. In September, Brazil authorised the planting of a new variety of bean resistant to golden mosaic virus; the Brazilian government changed its internal statutes to speed up the approval process for the bean.

However, the Brazilian bean differs greatly from the majority of GM crops; the bean was developed within Brazil, by a company linked to the federal government and is aimed at small producers, who grow around 80 per cent of the Brazilian bean crop. The golden mosaic virus can cause an 85 per cent loss in yield.

Tweet