SPECIAL REPORT BY XINHUA CORRESPONDENT PETER MUTAI
NAIROBI (Xinhua) -- Continued progress on commercialization of biotech crops was witnessed in all three countries in Africa during the 2009 period.
According to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Application (ISAAA), South Africa has increased its hectarage by 17 percent while Burkina Faso increased by 14 percent.
The three countries broader coverage is of strategic importance because it allows more African countries to become practitioners of biotech crops and be able to benefit directly from learning by doing, a practice which has been proved to be very important.
This is a remarkable achievement given that Africa is the continent with the greatest challenge on food production compared to other continents.
As South Africa continue to export their biotech agricultural products such as maize, researchers now say that Kenya too could be on the beneficiary list once it adopts the technology.
With the food insecurity already ravaging most parts of sub Saharan Africa hence forcing countries to import food mainly maize and beans, the application of biotechnology could be of a solution to pest and diseases that wipe out millions of crops yearly. Read More
You certainly get a different perspective about biotechnology in countries where so many people are starving. There are no Michael Pollan’s in Africa and the reason is that many people over there wonder where their next meal is coming from. Having the luxury to choose food that was raised in a certain way is a very foreign concept to people in Africa . Our country has the ability to help feed these people yet we have full-stomached protesters and activists that are trying to stop that from happening. This is why Pollan’s line of thinking is so out of touch with reality, a reality that too many people live with every day.
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