Agricultural biotechnology for poverty alleviation: one more arrow in the quiver!

Agriculture is the largest contributor to the economies of many African countries, generatingmore than half of the annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for many of these countries. Thelivelihoods of most rural and low-income communities in these countries are to a large extentbased on agriculture. While global availability of food has increased, 35% of the 800 millionpoor of the world live in Africa, and face food insecurity. And yet agriculture constitutes, for themajority of these poor, the primary means of survival and livelihood sustenance. Agriculturalbiotechnology, which comprises a wide range of biological disciplines, offers enormous potentialto speed up the development of plant varieties with pro-poor traits such as drought tolerance,pest resistance or tolerance, higher yields, increased nutritional value, among others. Similarlyin animal production there is substantial opportunity for development of vaccines and diagnosticstargeting diseases which constrain livestock production in developing regions of the world. Inaddition, genetic markers can aid breeding of livestock for important traits such as diseaseresistance, improved product quality as well as improved productivity. However, to date, theinnovation essential to achieve these improvements has largely remained a technology of theNorth. While biotechnology does not provide the ‘silver bullet’ for poverty alleviation, it doesenhance the effectiveness of other disciplines such as plant breeding, integrated pest and nutrientmanagement, and livestock breeding, feeding and disease management. Importantly, because useof these technologies, as any other, is associated with risks, African scientists need to have accessto the knowledge and scientific infrastructure to assess these risks and to contribute to betterinformed public discussions of the opportunities and challenges of these technologies. Shouldbiotechnology be a preserve for the rich? Can developing nations afford to ignore the potential ofbiotechnology? Rather than debate on whether biotechnology can meet the needs of the poor,this paper argues that being just one aspect of a complex set of inter-related interventions requiredto enhance the contribution of agricultural development to poverty alleviation, discussions shouldbe had on how best to take advantage of the opportunities and manage the risks associated withthese technologies, for the benefit of the poor. There is need to explore new ways to build thecapacity of the public sector - notably national governments in developing countries anddevelopment partners, as well as to tap into the resources of the private sector - to enable thecontinent come up with African solutions to the problem of poverty alleviation. This will requirecloser collaboration and transfer, between the North and the South, of appropriate biotechnologyand the management of bio-safety issues. Thus, risk assessment has to be an integral part ofbiotechnology research and development. Africa missed out on the ‘Green revolution’, and shouldnot miss out on the ‘Gene revolution’ as well.