Kenyan Peasants League: GMOs and Hybrid Seeds Trap Peasant Women in a Cycle of Debt and Depression
Kenyan farmers won a significant legal victory on March 7, 2025, when the Court of Appeal granted a conservatory order in their case against the government’s decision to lift the ban on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). The court ruled that the Kenyan government cannot proceed with GMO imports while the appeal is still underway.
Rooted – a magazine that shares stories of agroecology and food sovereignty from around the world – recently interviewed Susan Owiti of the Kenyan Peasants League about the impact of GMOs and hybrid seeds on peasant women.
“European biotech companies like Bayer AG have been selling pesticides in Kenya that are banned in the EU due to their risks to human health,” says Susan, who is also a member of the International Coordination Committee of La Vía Campesina.
“GMO and hybrid seeds pose similar threats to the physical health of farmers and farmworkers. They also trap Kenyan farmers in cycles of debt. We have already experienced the negative effects of hybrid seeds and do not want to face the added burden of GMOs.”
According to the Kenyan Peasants League, multinational corporations often target peasant women through so-called development projects that claim to promote women’s empowerment.
Susan says it’s all a facade.
“Companies that sell GMO and hybrid seeds, along with the associated chemical fertilizers, are capitalizing on this trend of ‘empowering’ peasant women. They offer loans for seeds under the guise of empowerment, and some of our women sign documents they don’t fully understand. They make us believe that they’re helping our families escape poverty, but in reality, it traps us in a cycle of debt and hardship. If we can’t repay the loans, we may lose their land, their livestock, or even the crops we had saved to feed our families.”
In contrast, she notes that women engaged in agroecology often manage their own seed banks.
“I have my own seeds, so when I want to plant, I can choose from different varieties. I know each one—how it grows and what it yields. Through agroecological practices, we conduct our own research. Agroecology empowers us: we have our own seeds, our own knowledge, and that makes it harder for companies to deceive us.”
Read the complete version of this report by Sophia Wathne on Rooted-Magazine’s website.