This book brings together experts from within and outside Africa to discuss the current status of biotechnology in southern Africa, the conceptual framework for multistakeholder dialogues, the political and ethical issues surrounding biotechnology, food safety and consumer issues, biosafety, intellectual property rights, and trade involving genetically modified foods.
In this book, Florence Wambugu and Daniel Kamanga of Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International bring together expert African authorities to critique various biotechnology initiatives and project future developments in the field in Africa. For the first time, African voices from multidisciplinary fields as diverse as economics, agriculture, biotechnology, law, politics and academia, demand to be allowed to set the continent’s biotech development agenda. This book argues that there is a great future for biotechnology in Africa which sidesteps western interests that do not match those of the local populace. In these diverse chapters, Africa’s political and scientific leaders demand a greater say in how research and development funds are allocated and spent. They argue that Africa’s political leaders must see both clear benefits and have elbow-room to drive the change required. This is the way that African governments can employ workable policies, suitable biosafety legislation and regulation and respond effectively to public-private partnerships. Wambugu and Kamanga show that biotechnology has the potential to improve food security and standard of living as well as mitigate the detrimental effects of climate change on the African continent.
As development donors invest hundreds of millions of dollars into improved crops designed to alleviate poverty and hunger, Africa has emerged as the final frontier in the global debate over agricultural biotechnology. The first data-driven assessment of the ecological, social, and political factors that shape our understanding of genetic modification, Africa's Gene Revolution surveys twenty years of efforts to use genomics-based breeding to enhance yields and livelihoods for African farmers. Matthew Schnurr considers the full range of biotechnologies currently in commercial use and those in development - including hybrids, marker-assisted breeding, tissue culture, and genetic engineering. Drawing on interviews with biotechnology experts alongside research conducted with more than two hundred farmers across eastern, western, and southern Africa, Schnurr reveals a profound incongruity between the optimistic rhetoric that accompanies genetic modification technology and the realities of the smallholder farmers who are its intended beneficiaries. Through the lens of political ecology, this book demonstrates that the current emphasis on improved seeds discounts the geographic, social, ecological, and economic contexts in which the producers of these crops operate. Bringing the voices of farmers to the foreground of this polarizing debate, Africa's Gene Revolution contends that meaningful change will come from a reconfiguration not only of the plant's genome, but of the entire agricultural system.
This book is a review of the basic problems associated with the implementation of bioeconomic processes. The book contains chapters developed by teams from different countries of the world and therefore the chapters correspond to the degree of advancement of the areas within the bioeconomy in these countries. In selected areas, basic concepts and selected technological processes that create this area of the economy to ensure sustainable development have been characterized.
A challenge of our generation is the creation of an efficient system providing sustainable food and fuel from the land whilst also preserving biodiversity and ecosystems. We must feed a human population that is expected to grow to more than nine billion by mid-century. Agricultural biotechnology is one tool that holds potential promise to alleviate hunger and poverty. However, there are complex and interrelated scientific, social, political and ethical questions regarding the widespread use of biotechnology in the food supply. This edited volume discusses diverse perspectives on sustainable food production systems in terms of challenges, opportunities, success stories, barriers and risks associated with agricultural and food biotechnology. The effects of biotechnology on the environment, ethical and moral issues, potential changes to government policies and economics, and social implications are summarised. This book will interest students, professionals and researchers from the areas of bioengineering, agriculture and ecosystem science to economics and political science.
Improved food security, led by increased productivity among Africa's many small-scale farmers, has been the aim of significant national and international effort in recent decades. It has proved to be one of the most critical challenges facing humankind. This book grew out of a two-year exploration conducted by the food security theme of The Rockefeller Foundation focusing on the potential for crop genetic improvement to contribute to food security among rural populations in Africa. It provides a critical assessment of the ways in which recent breakthroughs in biotechnology, participatory plant breeding, and seed systems can be broadly employed in developing and delivering more productive crop varieties in Africa's diverse agricultural environments. It also presents an analysis of current plant breeding and biotechnology strategies for the key crops in Africa including: maize, sorghum, cowpea, rice, and cassava. The book will appeal to plant breeders, biotechnologists, and seed distributors as well as policy-makers in the area of agricultural development.
This book focuses on food security and safety issues in Africa, a continent presently challenged with malnutrition and food insecurity. The continuous increase in the human population of Africa will lead to higher food demands, and climate change has already affected food production in most parts of Africa, resulting in drought, reduced crop yields, and loss of livestock and income. For Africa to be food-secure, safe and nutritious food has to be available, well-distributed, and sufficient to meet people’s food requirements. Contributors to Food Security and Safety: African Perspectives offer solutions to the lack of adequate safe and nutritious food in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as highlight the positive efforts being made to address this lack through a holistic approach. The book discusses the various methods used to enhance food security, such as food fortification, fermentation, genetic modification, and plant breeding for improved yield and resistance to diseases. Authors emphasize the importance of hygiene and food safety in food preparation and preservation, and address how the constraints of climate change could be overcome using smart crops. As a comprehensive reference text, Food Security and Safety: African Perspectives seeks to address challenges specific to the African continent while enhancing the global knowledge base around food security, food safety, and food production in an era of rapid climate change.
To make innovations work commercially among the target group requires institutional approach that can anticipate and predict users' urgent needs through participation. Conversely, to make innovations work technically requires a pile of junk and good imagination according to Thomas Edison. Biotechnology no doubt is a significant innovation that can enable farmers in developing countries increase productivity and manage their products. Nevertheless, biotech application is surrounded with many controversial debates. These controversies have affected its perception among farmers and consumers alike. Using a mixed method approach, empirical data were gathered from farmers and extension agents in six geopolitical divisions of Nigeria to determine factors capable of ensuring sustainable biotech adoption. Results revealed that the probability of biotech adoption is dependent on a cause and effect relationship.
This book is a compendium of knowledge, experience and insight on agriculture, biotechnology and development. Beginning with an account of GM crop adoptions and attitudes towards them, the book assesses numerous crucial processes, concluding with detai
