Starved for Science. Biotechnology and the future of Africa.
It is an acknowledged fact that Africa is endowed with tremendous natural and human wealth that has yet to be harnessed to the benefit of its people.
Sadly, some of this reservoir of resources has been disintegrating and the trend is bound to accelerate unless urgent measures are taken to stop and reverse this drift.
Since farming is the most important source of income and sustenance for about three quarters of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa, there is no doubt that agricultural biotechnology (agbiotech) can make very substantial contributions toward increasing food production by rural resource-poor farmers, while preserving declining resources such as forests, soil, water, and arable land.
The 2014 report, published by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), notes that Africa continues to make gradual progress in the adoption of biotechnology, with Burkina Faso, South Africa and Sudan commercialising Bt cotton, while Egypt, Cameroon, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Malawi, and Uganda have conducted field trials on pro-poor crops such as maize and bananas.
Agricultural experts and policymakers recommends that African governments need to be proactive when applying technology, science and innovation especially biotechnology to address food security challenges facing the continent. This given that next wave of technology development will be green technology including bio-technology, nanotechnology and green chemistry.
We need Africa to invest in life sciences to capture more benefits from this wave of technology development. Africa should not limit itself to the debate whether one favours bio-technology or not, what it should address are issues like shortage of engineers.
John Ouma-Mugabe Graduate School of Technology Management, University of Pretoria says most Countries have policies, however the challenges lies on policy implementation as most countries struggles adapting their policies.
According to him, “Biotechnology is knowledge intensive, industry-science intensive. Without skills, no country can advance and no company can engage.”
Biotechnology is already a multi-billion dollar industry and the associated technical knowledge can be adapted to other sectors, such as health, industry and environment management. The experience gained in adopting mobile technologies and biotechnology will make it easier for Africa to move into other fields, like nanotechnology and new materials.
Biotechnology debate is therefore a strategic battle to position Africa as a global player in the field of new technologies.
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