Access to and utilization of scientific information on Genetically modified food crops among maize farmers in Western Kenya

Abstract

The rising challenge of food insecurity occasioned by changing weather patterns, crop pests, and diseases has inspired research initiatives among scientific communities, leading to the development of Genetically Modified (GM) food crops. Whilst these new farming technologies have been adopted in many countries, a polarizing public debate rages in Kenya regarding the safety of GM foods. There seems to be a lack of scientific facts informing this debate, begging the question, what is the nature of the communication of scientific information about GM food crops to the public? This study aimed to explore the crop scientists‘ communication of GM food information to maize farmers in Western Kenya and its impact on their attitudes toward GM food crops. The study sought to answer four research questions: How do the scientists conceptualise and frame the communication of GM food crop information to the farmers in Western Kenya? What information is available to farmers in Western Kenya about GM food crops? How do farmers in Western Kenya access and make sense of information on GM food crops? How does the accessible information influence the farmers‘ attitudes toward GM food crops? This study was guided by the four models of science communication – the deficit, contextual, lay expertise, and public participation. It adopted a mixed methods approach and a convergent mixed methods design, concurrently generating and integrating quantitative and qualitative data. A purposive sampling technique was used to select Uasin Gishu and Trans- Nzoia counties. Three sub-counties were purposively sampled from each county, and a systematic random sampling technique was used to sample 298 farmers from the resulting six sub-counties. The snowball sampling technique was also used to identify eight key informants from crop scientists researching GM food crops in Kenya. A semi-structured questionnaire and interview guide were used to collect data from maize farmers and crop scientists, respectively. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistical analysis, whereas the qualitative data were thematically analysed. Findings reveal that crop scientists applied direct and indirect communication approaches to communicating with farmers to achieve three key objectives: enhancing farmers‘ awareness and knowledge of GM food crops, addressing farmers‘ concerns and questions about GM crops, and debunking misinformation surrounding GM food crops. Farmers were found to have inadequate knowledge of GM food crops, owing to access to limited and sometimes misleading information. Farmers access information from multiple sources, often with conflicting messages, making them skeptical about GM food crops. Findings further revealed that 51% of the farmers often failed to understand the information they accessed, 60.7% were not satisfied with the amount of the information, whereas 80.2% shared the same information with others, possibly contributing to further misinformation and uncertainty among farmers. Nevertheless, the information accessible made farmers more optimistic (63.1%) than negative about GM food crops. I argue that the negative perception associated with GM food crops among maize farmers in Kenya is largely attributed to the scarcity of correct scientific information and the inadequate engagement between crop scientists and farmers. It is recommended that crop scientists develop a community engagement framework as a vehicle for sharing accurate scientific information with farmers and general society to address misinformation/disinformation associated with the genetic modification of food crops.