News
US, Brazil seek patent to Tanzania sorghum
There is growing trend where global firms are patenting African food crops like sorghum. Photo/LEONARD MAGOMBA
Posted Monday, February 15 2010 at 00:00
Investigations by The EastAfrican reveal that the two governments have also filed an international patent seeking patents across the World, including Africa.
Reports also show that giant multinationals Dow Chemical and Oji Paper of Japan are expected to invest $110 million in a eucalyptus plantation in Tanzania.
They are negotiating with the US government to license it and buy access to it.
Hani Wassim, the media relations manager for Middle East and Africa of Dow Chemical Company, says the firm is not in a position to comment on the matter. And at Oji Paper, director Susumu Yajima declined to respond to our e-mail.
The patenting of the Tanzania sorghum gene called — the sorghum bicolor multidrug and the toxic compound extrusion transfer (SbMATE) is expected to generate $680 million annually.
The gene is not only useful in sorghum, but also in other crops, including genetically engineered maize, wheat and rice as well GE tree plantations.
The gene IS7173, locally known as Msumbiji from the southern part of Tanzania, works by causing sorghum plants to exude levels of citrates — a form of citric acid — in their root tips that neutralise the toxic effect of aluminium.
With the aluminium neutralised, the plant roots grow and absorb nutrients normally — even in aluminium toxic acid soils.
A gene is the basic unit of heredity in a living organism. Genes hold the information that build and maintain an organism’s cells and pass genetic traits to offspring.
Mariam Mayet, the director of African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) in South Africa told The EastAfrican that the centre has written to the Tanzanian officials that oversee the implementation of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources, urging them to challenge the patent application.
Ms Mayet said the centre has written to those in charge of the treaty at the Food and Agriculture Organisation to form a political and legal front to challenge the application.
Ms Mayet warns that biopiracy by Western corporations is on the rise and points to the Kenyan case in which the country lost a millet patent.
“In terms of US and Dow, well, these companies are interested in sub-licences and will be the financial beneficiaries. The first course of action lies against the patent holders,” she says.
Sorghum, she adds, is an African heritage crop that should be protected from the creeping commercialisation of basic foods that millions of poor people depend on for survival.
The crop is covered by Annex 1 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and the Tanzanian farmers’ variety, which was collected decades ago, is held in trust under the treaty by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics in India.
.
