Abstract
The tools of genetic engineering and modern biotechnology offer great potential to enhance agricultural productivity, food and nutritional security, and livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers in Africa. Large and long-term investments have been made in several countries in Africa to access, develop, and commercialize safe biotechnology crops derived through modern biotechnology. This chapter presents case studies of biotechnology applications and progresses achieved in six countries in Sub-Saharan Africa including Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Sudan, and Uganda targeting to address biotic and abiotic constraints faced by smallholder farmers and malnutrition. Based on the past 20 years of experience, the chapter identifies constraints, challenges, and opportunities for taking safe biotechnology crops to smallholder farmers in Africa.
Highlights
1.1 Smallholders’ agricultural production and productivity in AfricaIn Africa, smallholder agriculture is predominant and agricultural growth and poverty reduction are subjects closely associated with growth in smallholder agriculture for some time to come
Most African countries have not created the necessary incentives for high-end modern biotechnologies to get well integrated in the research and development profile of national programs and create opportunities for new products to get to market
Countries such as Ghana, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Uganda, and Malawi are in process of working on clarifying the biosafety context and developing a guideline for promoting genome-editing technologies in crop improvement [36]
Summary
In Africa, smallholder agriculture is predominant and agricultural growth and poverty reduction are subjects closely associated with growth in smallholder agriculture for some time to come. Poor availability of improved technology packages (improved seeds, irrigation, fertilizers, and pesticides) makes it hard for millions of smallholder farmers to produce surplus and escape the subsistence type of life Successful mitigation of these biotic and abiotic constraints and institutional limitations affecting agricultural growth is a task that requires political will and sustained commitment by country governments in Africa, and a stronger global collaborative effort to realize enhanced applications of modern technologies to complement and transform the conventional interventions efforts underway. It presents case studies of agricultural biotechnology uses and progresses in six countries in SSA focusing on the use of safe biotechnology crops to solve key biotic and abiotic constraints faced by smallholder farmers in the respective countries
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