Kenya lost roughly half its maize crop and needs to import more than two million tonnes — yet it refuses the one thing that would solve it: South Africa’s record 17.4 million tonne harvest. The reason? About 85% of South African maize is genetically modified, and Kenya bans GMO maize outright, both growing it and importing it. Wandile Sihlobo, the presidential envoy on agriculture and land, walks Gabriel Makin through the white-vs-yellow maize divide, why the African continent depends on scarce white maize, the politics behind the GMO bans, and what GMO seeds actually did to South African yields: from two tonnes a hectare to seven, while the African average sits at 1.5.