An African scientist on Tuesday called for a predictable political commitment towards supporting biotechnology research to boost uptake of the technology in the continent.
Margaret Karembu, Africa’s Director of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) said lack of political support is making it difficult for the continent’s scientists to form working partnerships with their counterparts from the developed world.
“We must speed up our research work to help fight food insecurity through the development of new crop varieties," Karembu said in Nairobi during the launch of Africa's Commercialization of Biotech Crops 1006-2016 Report.
Karembu is optimistic that with the emerging of the South-South partnership in technology access, the continent may make a leap and join China, Brazil, Philippines, Canada and the U.S. in reaping the benefits from the technology.
During the 19 years period, 14 countries that are already growing the crops earned 52 billion U.S. dollars with 3.4 billion dollars being realized in 2015 alone.
