A Review on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa, Current State and the Future Prospects

The exploding global population is presenting a new challenge of providing food for further billions of people against the backdrop of the challenges of already existing hunger and malnutrition, climate change, emerging destructive crop and animal diseases and the pressure being exerted on arable lands by several other anthropological demands. Providing food for the world in the faceable future, therefore, require the revolutionization of the agricultural sector as it stands today. Agricultural biotechnology has evolved over three decades and has presented itself as a critical avenue for addressing the perennial food production insecurity situations; particularly in Africa and other food-insecure regions of the world. This study sought to review the agricultural biotechnology in Africa by assessing its current state and the future prospects of the technology on the African continent. The adoption and utilization of biotechnology in African has been faced with serious challenges of ethical, religious, environmental contamination and health risks issues. Adoption of the biotechnology and genetically modified (GM) products has only been achieved in few countries in Africa on small-scale basis and under few selected crops. Inadequate legislation, unenhanced public education and the spread of misconceptions by anti-GM technology activists, remains a strong challenge to navigate around for the smooth adoption of the technology on the African continent. Smallholder farmers in Africa also habour serious apprehension over seed monopoly and erosion of the traditional seed quality with neo-colonial intensions by the developers of the technology. Anti-GM sentiments based on misconceptions are deeply rooted in many African countries, heightening fear for its adoption. Stronger and an elaborate public education strategy that highlights the benefits of biotechnology and assures the people of the risk levels of the technology, and further research to alleviate public anxiety is critical for the adoption of biotechnology and GM products in African.