Policy, Investment, and Partnerships For Agricultural Biotechnology Research in Africa: Emerging Evidence

BIOS, a Canadian initiative that assembles information on the global state of GM crops approvals as well as public policy, regulatory, and risk assessment expertise for biotechnology products in different countries [2]; and the International Service for the Acquisition of Agribiotech Applications (ISAAA), which publishes periodic overviews and analyses GM crop adoption worldwide [3]. The data and analyses accompanying these sources suggest a limited number of transformation events and regulatory approvals for GM crops in developing countries, with the least representation coming from Africa. For example, of all the ten developing countries with regulatory approvals for the commercial release of GM crops listed in AGBIOS dataset (Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Korea, Mexico, Philippines, South Africa, Taiwan and Uruguay), South Africa is the only African country listed.