The adoption of Genetically Modified (GM) cotton in South Africa's Makhathini Flats in 1998 was heralded as a case in which agricultural biotechnology could benefit smallholder farmers, and a model for the rest of the continent to follow. Using historical, political economic and ethnographic data, we find the initial enthusiasm around GM technology to be misguided. We argue that Makhathini's structured institutional framework privileges adopters of GM technologies through access to credit and markets. The adoption of GM cotton is symptomatic not of farmers’ endorsement of GM technology, but a sign of the profound lack of choice facing them in the region.

Surveillance data are gathered by plant protection services in the whole farmland. The advisory board unifies data of plant state, number and quality of insects and other organisms with plant damaging capability in a special network.Separate to this from inauguration and now particially close connected is the long-term soil surveillance containing a network of dense regional recording stations. The objective is to detect the effect of immissions of active substances, related stress conditions and the influence of climatic events. Our aim should be to link up all available data on an area-related farm-plot level with the demand of General Surveillance. The data offering organisations are thought to agree to support the control of genetically modified organisms (GMO) and genetically modified plants (GMP).