Call for Africa to accept GM crops

Africa must “seize” the opportunity offered by controversial genetically modified food, a conference in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa heard on Tuesday.

Biotechnology can boost food production and cut back environmental degradation, Kingsley Amoako, who heads the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), told a three-day conference on sustainable development.

“Not enough attention has been paid to impacting the daily lives of ordinary people,” he told delegates from around the continent.

“It is therefore important that we now focus on exploring the ways in which science and technology can empower the poor to make beneficial changes in their own condition.”

Amoako noted that a “famine” on the continent had put 38 million people at risk of starvation, but it had helped focus attention for a permanent and sustainable solution.

He said new technology had a vital role to play in the agricultural sector of the continent – but so far it was sadly lacking.

Gebremedhin Belay, Ethiopia’s deputy agriculture minister, said “incentives” must be offered to encourage science and technology in the agricultural sector.

Participants in the conference, hosted by the ECA, said that while biotechnology was not the single answer to the continent’s food crisis it should be “embedded” in future strategies.

They said the potential risks of biotechnology were outweighed by the benefits it could offer the continent.

“The biggest risk would be to do nothing and let the biotechnology revolution bypass the continent,” said an ECA report on harnessing technology. “Africa must seize the day as other regions – particularly Asia – are rushing to catch up."

“Africa, which depends so heavily on agriculture, stands to benefit from technologies that can increase the production of food, enhance its nutritional quality and minimise the exploitation of forests and marginal lands,” the report stated.

Officials at the conference are urging African governments to boost investment in biotechnology research and establish national institutions for risk assessment.