Status of Crop Biotechnology in Africa

Introduction Agriculture contributes over 25% of GDP and employs above 70% of the labor force in most African countries’ economies (UNECA, 2009). Agricultural productivity is constrained by a many factors including abiotic and biotic stresses. The challenge is to develop technologies that can overcome these limiting factors, and can be utilized by small-scale farmers who use minimal external inputs. Such technologies can include use of biotechnology products.

In Africa, biotechnology tools used in agriculture include tissue culture, molecular characterization, marker assisted selection, molecular diagnostics and genetic modification (GM). Currently tissue culture is applied in many countries for rapid multiplication of planting materials for vegetatively propagated crops such as coffee, banana, pineapple and root crops. However, few countries have adopted GM for crop production improvement, and for agricultural research and development (Table 1).

Table 1. Status of Genetically Modified (GM) Crops in Africa
(Modified from absafrica.org)

Application stage	No. of Countries	Country Names
Commercial production	3	Burkina Faso; Egypt; South Africa
Confined field testing	11	Burkina Faso; Cameroon; Egypt; Ethiopia; Ghana; Kenya; South Africa; Uganda; Nigeria; Malawi; Swaziland
Contained research	At least 16	Burkina Faso; Cameroon; Egypt; Ethiopia; Ghana; Kenya; Mali; Mauritius; Namibia; Nigeria; South Africa; Tanzania; Tunisia; Uganda; Zimbabwe; Malawi; Swaziland
Developing capacity for research and development	At least 28	South Africa; Burkina Faso; Egypt; Kenya; Morocco; Senegal; Tanzania; Uganda; Zambia; Zimbabwe; Benin; Cameroon; Ghana; Malawi; Mali; Mauritius; Namibia; Niger; Nigeria; Tunisia; Algeria; Botswana; Ethiopia; Madagascar; Rwanda; Burundi; Sudan; Swaziland

The GM crops that are under commercial production in Africa are cotton (South Africa, Sudan and Burkina Faso), maize (South Africa) and soybean (South Africa) (James, 2014) while various crops and traits are under research and development (Table 2).
Table 2. GM Crops and Traits under Research and Development in Africa
(Modified from Karembu et al., 2009).

Country	Crop	Trait	Stage of development
Burkina Faso	Cow pea	Insect resistance	Confined field trials (CFT)
	Cotton	Insect resistance + Herbicide tolerance	CFT
	Sorghum	Nutrient enhancement	Regulatory approval
Kenya	Maize	Water efficient	CFT
	Cotton	Insect resistance	CFT
	Cassava	Brown streak virus resistance	CFT
		Mosaic virus resistance	CFT
	Sweet potato	Virus resistance	CFT
	Sorghum	Nutrient enhancement	CFT
Uganda	Cotton	Insect resistance and herbicide tolerance	CFT
	Banana	Bacterial wilt resistance	CFT
		Fungus resistance	CFT
		Nematode resistance	CFT
		Nutrient enhancement	CFT
	Cassava	Mosaic virus resistance	CFT
		Brown streak virus resistance
	Sweet potato	Virus resistance	CFT
	Maize	Insect resistance	CFT
	Maize	Water efficient	CFT
	Rice	Nitrogen efficiency and drought tolerance	CFT
	Potato	Late blight Fungus resistance	Pending approval
Nigeria	Cassava	Nutrient enhancement	CFT
		Mosaic virus resistance	CFT
		Brown streak virus resistance	CFT
	Sorghum	Nutrient enhancement	CFT
	Cowpea	Insect resistance	CFT
	Rice	Nitrogen-use, water-efficient and salt-tolerance	Permit granted but trial yet to commence
Malawi	Cotton	Insect resistance	CFT
	Cow pea	Insect resistance	CFT
Ghana	Cowpea	Insect resistance	CFT
	Cotton	Insect resistance	Multi-location trials (MLT)
		Herbicide tolerance	CFT
		Herbicide tolerance x Insect resistance (Stack)	CFT
	Rice	Nitrogen efficient and salt tolerance	CFT
South Africa	Maize	Drought tolerance	CFT
		Herbicide tolerance	Field trials (FT)
		Insect resistance	FT
		Insect resistance and herbicide tolerance	FT
		Viral resistance	CFT
	Sorghum	Nutrient enhancement	CFT
	Cassava	Starch enhancement	GHT
	Cotton	Herbicide tolerance	FT
		Insect resistance and herbicide tolerance	FT
	Potato	Insect resistance	FT
	Sugar cane	Alternative sugar	FT
Egypt	Maize	Insect resistance	FT
	Cotton	Salt tolerance	GHT
	Wheat	Drought tolerance	FT
		Fungus resistance	GHT
		Salt tolerance	Lab
	Potato	Virus resistance	FT
	Banana	Virus resistance	Lab
	Cucumber	Virus resistance	FT
	Melon	Virus resistance	FT
	Squash	Virus resistance	Lab
	Tomato	Virus resistance	Lab
Swaziland	Cotton	Insect resistance	FT

Many African countries have developed or are in the process of developing regulatory systems for modern biotechnology application (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Status of Biosafety Regulation in Africa

Source: ABNE

To date, July 2015, 49 African countries have ratified the Cartagena Protocol of Biosafety. For more information about the biosafety systems and enabling environment in Africa, please see Legal Section link . A number of initiatives have been taken by various players including:

• United Nations Environment Programme – Global Environment Facility (UNEP-GEF),
• African Union (AU) Biosafety Project, New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)
• Africa Biosciences Initiatives and African Biosafety Network of Expertise (ABNE),
• Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA),
• West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF/WECARD),
• Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA)- African Biotechnology Biosafety Policy Platform (ABBPP),
• African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF),
• Program for Biosafety Systems (PBS),
• Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project II (ABSPII), and
• NGOs like AfricaBio, International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA)- AfriCenter, African Biotechnology Stakeholders Forum (ABSF) and Africa Harvest Biotechnology Foundation International (AHBFI) to facilitate development and safe application of GM crops in Africa.
• Biosafety Resource Network (BRN)
• Biosafety South Africa