TY - JOUR
T1 - Africa's inevitable walk to genetically modified (GM) crops
T2 - Opportunities and challenges for commercialization
AU - Okeno, James A.
AU - Wolt, Jeffrey D.
AU - Misra, Manjit K.
AU - Rodriguez, Lulu
N1 - Funding Information:
Egypt's efforts to address environmental responsibility for products of biotechnology began in 1992 with the collaborative work between the Agricultural Genetic Engineering Research Institute (AGERI) and the Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project (ABSP), based at Michigan State University with support from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) [26] . During the period 1993–99, the ABSP-AGERI project conducted a series of internships, consultations and workshops to bolster public awareness. A bio-containment greenhouse facility was built and biosafety guidelines for laboratory, greenhouse and field experiments were completed in 1995, paving the way for three ministerial decrees that gave the momentum for biotech R&D and commercialization. Under this regulatory framework, Egypt commercialized IR maize in 2008 and has field-tested numerous crops as shown in Table 3 .
Funding Information:
James A Okeno would like to acknowledge the support of the visiting scientist program at the Biosafety Institute for Genetically Modified Agricultural Products (BIGMAP), Iowa State University .
PY - 2013/1/25
Y1 - 2013/1/25
N2 - High relative poverty levels in Africa are attributed to the continent's under performing agriculture. Drought, low-yielding crop varieties, pests and diseases, poor soils, low fertilizer use, limited irrigation and lack of modern technologies are among the problems that plague African agriculture. Genetically modified (GM) crops may possess attributes that can help overcome some of these constraints, but have yet to be fully embraced in the mix of technology solutions for African agriculture. Cognizant of this, South Africa, Burkina Faso and Egypt are steadily growing GM crops on a commercial scale. Countries like Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda are increasingly field-testing these crops with the view to commercialize them. These countries show strong government support for GM technology. Progress by these first adopter nations provides an insight as to how GM crops are increasingly being viewed as one of the ways in which the continent can invigorate the agriculture sector and achieve food security.
AB - High relative poverty levels in Africa are attributed to the continent's under performing agriculture. Drought, low-yielding crop varieties, pests and diseases, poor soils, low fertilizer use, limited irrigation and lack of modern technologies are among the problems that plague African agriculture. Genetically modified (GM) crops may possess attributes that can help overcome some of these constraints, but have yet to be fully embraced in the mix of technology solutions for African agriculture. Cognizant of this, South Africa, Burkina Faso and Egypt are steadily growing GM crops on a commercial scale. Countries like Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda are increasingly field-testing these crops with the view to commercialize them. These countries show strong government support for GM technology. Progress by these first adopter nations provides an insight as to how GM crops are increasingly being viewed as one of the ways in which the continent can invigorate the agriculture sector and achieve food security.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.nbt.2012.09.001
DO - 10.1016/j.nbt.2012.09.001
M3 - Review article
C2 - 22985799
AN - SCOPUS:84872378532
SN - 1871-6784
VL - 30
SP - 124
EP - 130
JO - New Biotechnology
JF - New Biotechnology
IS - 2
ER -