5TH ANNUAL NATIONAL BIOTECH CONTEST 2017

NAME: KAHWA IVAN

INSTITUTION: MBARARA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND

TECHNOLOGY

PROGRAM: BACHELOR OF SCIENCE WITH EDUCATION

(CHEMISTRY AND MATHEMATICS)

ADDRESS: P.O. BOX 1410, MBARARA, UGANDA.

YEAR OF STUDY: THIRD YEAR

TOPIC: Biotech crops can improve soil, true or false? Explain your answer.

GENDER: MALE

CONTACTS: 0785458826/0750955100

EMAIL: kahwaivanny@gmail.com

SKYPE:chasnovivan@outlook.com

COLLABORATING LECTURER: DR. KEMEZA IMELDA

CONTACTS OF THE COLLABORATING LECTURER: +256 772398823 /

+256 703007055

EMAIL OF THE COLLABORATING LECTURER:

ikemeza@must.ac.ug, imeldakemeza@yahoo.com

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Biotechnology is defined as a set of tools that uses living organisms (or parts of living organisms)
to make or modify a product, improve plants, trees or animals or develop microorganisms for
specific uses.

Biotechnology is a broad term used to describe the process of using living things to create or
change products—such as harnessing yeasts to brew beer and make bread.All living organisms
have the ability to improve themselves through natural means in order to adapt to changing
environmental conditions.

One of the least understood areas in the environmental risk assessment of genetically modified
crops is their impact on soil and plant associated microbial communities. The recognition that
interactions between them could change microbial biodiversity and affect ecosystem functioning
has initiated a limited number of studies around the world.

Soil is a natural body of loose materials which constitute the top most layer of the earth’s surface
OR soil can be defined as the natural top most layer of the earth’s crust. Soil is formed is formed
during a gradual process which occurs over a long period of time including a series of physical,
chemical and biological processes. Soil is composed of the following components or constituents
such as: air, water, inorganic matter (mineral particles), organic matter (humus) and living
organisms.

For us to live a healthy life, we need a healthy soil, full of nutrients, that grows healthy food crops.
Biotech crops do not provide us with any of these. Organic farming is proven to be healthier, have
higher yield and because it does not use any toxic pesticides, there are no poisons being ingested
by the soil, by the plant, by insects and animals, or by us, mankind. This calls for protection of the
soil which feeds both the animals and plants on earth, therefore the concept of agreeing that biotech
crops improve on soil is not actually true due to the reasons explained below;

The Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) toxin being introduced into crops for pest resistance
indiscriminately kills microorganisms, this would hinder the important microbial processes in the
soil structure carried out by the microbial organisms. These microbial organisms otherwise help
in creating holes within the soil structure which improves on the process of soil aeration,
permeability of the soil water which maintains soil fertility.

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Biotech crops are contaminated and the microorganisms with in them are wiped out, this leaves
the soil without nutrients. This is because the soil microorganisms responsible for the
decomposition of the organic matter produced by such crops are denatured or killed. The organic
matter contains all the nutrients required for crop growth. Therefore biotech crops contain less
nutrients.

Genetically made crops (biotech crops) deplete soil minerals. Genetically modified crops have
been modified such as tomatoes and mangoes, organisms made to produce high yields. This makes
them absorb a lot of nutrients and minerals from the soil compared to the un- modified crops grown
on soils.

Since nothing like organic mulching is done in the growing of biotech crops, the soil physical
properties are all destructed, for example soil texture. The soil texture and humus helps in the soil’s
capability to absorb heat which could maintain the soils temperature at optimal condition and
therefore favoring most of the microbial processes to take place.

Biotech crops grown in most cases do not provide the plant cover compared to when local crops
are grown which require just organic manure in order to prevent the necessary process for soil loss
to occur. These include soil erosion which involves carrying away of the top soil which includes
the loam soil, hence reducing the fertility of the soil.

Since biotech crops are resistant to weeds due to the chemicals inserted in them for example
Roundup, so the weeds do not surface at the plants’ surface and there is reduced tilling of the soil.
This leads to reduced penetration of water into the different soil layers since there is no weeding
which takes place, which could help in tilling the soil to allow it to be loose or less compact. This
leads to the reduction in soil fertility.

Biotech crops increase the use of herbicides, which is found to persist in the soils which
contaminates the whole soil structure through transmission by water to the different layers of soil.
This has led to the massive destruction of the important microbes in the soil which help in
decomposition of organic matter to improve on the soil fertility.

The extensive use of herbicides and insect resistant crops (biotech crops) could result in
the emergence of resistant weeds and insects. This has often occurred as a consequence of
conventional herbicide and insecticide spraying. Several weed species have developed resistance

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to specific herbicides which are extensively used in combination with herbicide-resistant
genetically modified crops. Insect-resistant Bt-crops similarly could lead to the emergence of Bt-
resistant insects. This tends to create competition among the weeds and the crops grown causing
loss of nutrients at a higher rate.

The scenario that would seem most likely to occur when biotech crops are continuously grown is
the accumulation of vector DNA in the soil micro biota with repeated GMO cultivation. This
would enable horizontal transfer between unrelated species, leading to a cumulative loss of soil
biodiversity over repeated harvests. Diversity has been found to be important for soil fertility.

However, Africa is a continent rich in natural and human resources. More than 900 million people
live here, two-thirds in small towns and villages scattered throughout rain forests, deserts and vast
grasslands. Yet it is also a place where, because of famine, disease and growing populations,
almost 200 million people are undernourished and 33 million children go to sleep malnourished
and hungry every night. More than 60% of malnourished Africans live in Eastern Africa. Parts of
West Africa have shown decreases in the prevalence of malnutrition in recent years, biotech crops
do not only cause soil infertility but to some extent it also leads to improvement of the soil in the
following ways;

Since the crops introduced through the knowledge of biotechnology are resistant to weed growth,
therefore less tilling of the soil is required which could have made the soil lose its compactness
hence soil erosion occurring, leading to loss of soil nutrients.

The effect of leaching of crop nutrients does not occur simply because, the soil maintains its
compactness throughout the duration of its existence or prevalence.

Biotech crops grown can help in improving soil, by increasing on the amounts of nutrients, since
they can be inserted in the plant varieties to fit any kind of situation of the soil. For example the
nitrogen fixing bacteria in the root nodules of the leguminous crops, like ground nuts can be
controlled.

Therefore in my conclusion, I contend that repeated use of biotech crops in an area may result in
cumulative effects such as those resulting from the buildup of toxins in soils. For this reason, risk

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assessment studies not only have to be of an ecological nature in order to capture effects on
ecosystem processes, but also of sufficient duration so that probable accumulative effects can be
detected. The application of multiple diagnostic methods will provide the most sensitive and
comprehensive assessment of the potential ecological impact of biotech crops.

© 2017