**Abstract**

The tools of genetic engineering and modern biotechnology offer great potential to enhance agricultural productivity, food and nutritional security, and livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers in Africa. Large and long-term investments have been made in several countries in Africa to access, develop, and commercialize safe biotechnology crops derived through modern biotechnology. This chapter presents case studies of biotechnology applications and progresses achieved in six countries in Sub-Saharan Africa including Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Sudan, and Uganda targeting to address biotic and abiotic constraints faced by smallholder farmers and malnutrition. Based on the past 20 years of experience, the chapter identifies constraints, challenges, and opportunities for taking safe biotechnology crops to smallholder farmers in Africa.

**Keywords:** biotechnology, biosafety, genetic engineering, GMOs, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Sudan, Uganda

### **1. Introduction**

### **1.1 Smallholders' agricultural production and productivity in Africa**

In Africa, smallholder agriculture is predominant and agricultural growth and poverty reduction are subjects closely associated with growth in smallholder agriculture for some time to come. An estimated 41 million smallholders [1] are the major source of food for nearly all rural and most urban dwellers in Africa. In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), most smallholders own less than two hectares holding of cultivable land and are challenged by the low productivity and production constraints in the middle of the unprecedented rising need for more food, feed, and raw material for industry. The SSA region alone has a quarter of the world's arable land endowment but produces only 10% of world agricultural output [2]. Unlike smallholders in Asia who dominantly grow few crops such as rice and wheat, African farmers experience diverse farming systems and grow very diverse crops that include maize (*Zea mays*), sorghum (*Sorghum* sp) millet (*Penisetum* sp), wheat (*Triticum aestivum*), and rice (*Oryza sativa*); pulses such as soybean (*Glycine max*), cowpea (*Vigna unguiculata*), beans (*Phaseolus* sp.), groundnut (*Arachis hypogaea*), and other crops such as cassava (*Matnihot esculentus*), sweet potato (*Ipomoea* 


*\* Source: FAO and World Bank, Rome and Washington DC 2006. (Adapted to show more crop-based farming system).*

#### **Table 1.**

*Major farming systems of sub-Saharan Africa.*

*batatas*), potato, (*Solanum tuberosum)*, yam (*Dioscorea* sp), banana (*Musa* sp), cotton (*Gossypum* sp), and sugarcane (*Saccahrum officinarum*) (**Table 1**) [3].

Crop productivity in Africa specifically in the SSA region is below the world average (**Figure 1**) and the region constitutes the highest number of food-insecure population (35.5% of its population) of whom 21.3% are severely insecure [4] rendering the region increasingly dependent on imported food. Due to this and

#### **Figure 1.**

*Change (percent increase) of cereal yield and land used for cereal production. (Data source: Computed from Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. 2019 Report).*

*Crop Biotechnology and Smallholder Farmers in Africa DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101914*

**Figure 2.**

*Yield (t/ha) trends of cereal production in different regions of the world. (Data Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2019 Report).*

other factors about 39 countries of the SSA account for the largest number of food-insecure people: 424.5 million (40.5% of the region's population) in the year 2020 [5]. It can also be seen that during the period 1961–2018, cereal yield in Africa has grown only one fold compared to a 2.5 fold increase in Asia, which had only 26.3% area increase compared to Africa with 1.2 fold increase (**Figure 1**). Therefore, whatever growth there has been in cereal production in Africa, it was largely due to land expansion in contrast to Asia. Food insecurity is forecasted to worsen due to climate change impacts and recurrent drought unless proper and quick measures are implemented [6]. The region will have a shortfall of nearly 90 million metric tons of cereals by the year 2025 if current agricultural practices remain unchanged. Productivity trends do not promise a better future for cereals and roots and tuber crops as can be seen from cereal performance during the period 1961–2018 average yield based on FAOSTAT data 2020 (**Figure 2**).

However, more factors are known to involve in constraining smallholder farmers' crops production and cause yield gaps. Low crop productivity is often related to biotic stresses such as those caused by insect pests, diseases, and weeds as well as the inherent low-yielding potential of varieties, and abiotic stresses caused by soil-related and climatic problems such as moisture stress and drought. The latter is a pronounced problem of vast marginal and drier agriculture areas of SSA. Crops grown in such marginal environments are exposed to frequent severe growing conditions. Each factor is responsible for substantial yield losses annually by smallholder farming. Furthermore, yield gains associated with high-yielding varieties if found much lower in SSA partly due to inadequate inputs, poor infrastructure, and market outlet including weak extension services. Thus, poor availability of improved technology packages (improved seeds, irrigation, fertilizers, and pesticides) makes it hard for millions of smallholder farmers to produce surplus and escape the subsistence type of life.

Successful mitigation of these biotic and abiotic constraints and institutional limitations affecting agricultural growth is a task that not only requires political will and sustained commitment by country governments in Africa, but also a stronger global collaborative effort to realize enhanced applications of modern technologies to complement and transform the conventional interventions efforts underway. Increased investments in agricultural R&D and fast-tracking the use of innovative technologies such as conventional as well as modern biotechnology and proven

useful readily available biotechnology products is extremely needed to solve smallholder farmers' crop productivity problems. As such agricultural biotechnology offers enormous opportunities through innovative ideas, techniques, and processes to drive innovative solutions highly relevant for the needs of smallholder farmers in Africa [7]. Medium to long-term benefits of using advanced techniques of biotechnology that include tissue culture, micropropagation, gene, and marker discovery, genomics, genetic engineering, genome-editing, bioinformatics, and others through enhancing crop breeding including indigenous crop species cannot be overemphasized [8]. This chapter focuses on the deployment of modern biotechnology such as genetic engineering tools and products as well as challenges facing adopting countries in developing Africa. It also presents case studies of agricultural biotechnology uses and progresses in six countries in SSA focusing on the use of safe biotechnology crops to solve key biotic and abiotic constraints faced by smallholder farmers in the respective countries.

### **1.2 Promises of biotechnology to smallholder farmers**

The rapid advancements in the field of biotechnology offer promising alternatives to the approaches of crop improvement. Biotechnology complements and makes the conventional breeding efforts in crops efficient through precise identification and introgression of genes in a much shorter time period. The integration and development of biotechnology research in national research programs is now a prerequisite for current and most of the future science-based sustainable genetic improvement of crops for various purposes including, food and nutritional security, improving post-harvest and industrial qualities of cereals, horticultural and forage crops.

It is clear that smallholder farmers in African countries are currently not benefiting enough from modern biotechnology, which can be applied to transform their crop production and productivity and bring about livelihood improvements. Most national research programs in Africa have not yet acquired research and regulatory capacity and skills to integrate advanced science and cutting-edge technologies in their research portfolio to solve farmers' production problems. Although progress is registered in biotechnology capacity building in some countries, it is far from adequate. Governments' investment in agricultural research and development is generally low [9]. Crop productivity problems under smallholder farmers' conditions are often caused by low-level use of improved technologies and damage to crops caused by biotic and abiotic stresses as described earlier. The biotic and abiotic stresses challenging crop productivity are being tackled by biotechnology globally and several crop varieties with novel traits have been successfully developed and commercialized in more than 25 countries around the world to solve particular production problems of farmers.

#### **1.3 Crop improvement programs in Africa**

Food security and prosperity in Africa depend much on its agricultural performance. Ensuring sustainable development in agriculture is critically dependent on a sustainable technology supply and uptake. Despite the strong need for robust agricultural research, capable of tackling production constraints under challenging agricultural environments, African countries have not shown much progress in their national research capabilities to respond to food security issues and meet the overarching national strategic goals for sustainable development [9]. Strategic measures pursued to realize latecomer advantages in using modern biotechnology to enhance crop improvement and exploiting existing commercialized novel biotechnology products proven safe and impactful, is weak.

#### **Figure 3.**

*Some SSA countries and their R&D investment share as a percent of AgGDP (except the top ranking the last three countries, all the others are selected only for representation of the rest). Source: Data sourced from ASTI [10].*

Reports show declining government R&D spending in the agricultural sector recently from 0.59% in 2000 to 0.39% in 2016 in the SSA [10]. Thirty-three of the 44 SSA countries have less than the minimum investment target of 1% AgGDP (**Figure 3**) recommended by the African Union and United Nations [11]. Thus, most national programs in Africa were not able to maintain up-to-date capacity in trained human resources and facilities to translate scientific research into useful products impacting agricultural growth. Conventional crop improvement programs are increasingly requiring support from biotechnology to effectively respond to changing market demands. Therefore, African government should play a key role to strengthen national programs and maintain strong regional and global collaborative partnerships and expedite knowledge and technology transfer. Allowing more regional integration can help to ensure smoother collaboration, transfer of suitable technologies, data and information, and allows improved access to products at an affordable price and quality [12].

Most African countries have not created the necessary incentives for high-end modern biotechnologies to get well integrated in the research and development profile of national programs and create opportunities for new products to get to market. Instead, they depend on other countries that have decided to invest and strengthen their R&D. They are not taking advantage of this to enable national programs to expedite adoption and use of better and diverse technologies through quick testing and approval processes. Biotech products are rapidly expanding to include not only farmers' interest but getting more diversified targeting the interest of industry and consumers [13]. Therefore, a further declining trend of investment in agricultural R&D over the past 15–20 years in the developing countries with few countries in exception is alarming [14]. In countries with advanced economies where public financial outlay for R&D has lagged, the private sector has been investing heavily in genomic sciences and techniques that enable faster and more efficient delivery of improved crops to farmers, the value chain, and consumers, targeting business opportunities and crops with the greatest returns to investment [7]. However, many 'orphan' or underutilized indigenous crops in developing countries have been forgotten and their diversity is threatened [7]. It

is highly challenging to rectify this imbalance between public and private research investment and ensure that crops including indigenous species are improved and conserved thus equally benefiting from modern biotechnology.

Against all odds and considerable skepticism in African countries even after three decades of the phenomenal growth of modern biotechnology and wider adoption of safe biotechnology crops globally, some countries have moved forward and strengthened capacity in biotechnology and related fields of biosafety, food safety, and intellectual property (IP) management to reap the benefits of integrating the advanced sciences. The recent progress in approvals of several biotechnology crops in Africa can reverse the delay in the near future [15–18].

### **2. Role of agricultural biotechnology: narrowing yield gaps**

Rapid advancement is made in the field of biotechnology since the discovery of DNA and during subsequent advancements in molecular techniques and other "omics" technologies. This has ushered agriculture into a new era of technological frontiers to tap the latent potential of its biological resources in an unprecedented way, showing a new horizon of opportunities emerge to develop and modernize agriculture. Today, modern agricultural biotechnology encompasses a range of technologies including molecular breeding, fingerprinting, genomics, proteomics, genetic engineering, genome-editing, tissue culture and micropropagation techniques, and other advanced applications. This has empowered scientists, provided unlimited potential, to develop new strategies to harness genetic potentials for solving current and emerging crop production challenges. Therefore, biotechnology has provided a unique capacity to successfully fighting back the continuing battle against diseases, pests, and environmental stresses that are global threats to the survival of mankind. Genetic engineering, a part of modern biotechnology, involves the manipulation of the gene(s) of crop species by introducing, eliminating, or editing specific gene(s) through modern molecular techniques.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the public sector began supporting biotech research with lots of anticipations to advance the use of genetic engineering in agriculture soon to be taken over by the private sector. The first genetically modified (GM) plants were successfully developed as early as 1983 using antibiotic-resistant tobacco and petunia. In 1990, China started to commercialize GM tobacco for virus resistance followed by the Flavr Savr tomato in the United States. By 1995 and 1996, several transgenic crops were approved for large-scale use. Since the first commercial delivery in 1996, millions of smallholder farmers around the world have become beneficiaries of the multiple benefits from growing GM crops [19, 20].

Farmers are primary beneficiaries of the improved production and associated positive environmental, socio-economic, health impacts [21]. The rapid adoption and expansion of biotech crops reflect the substantial multiple benefits realized by farmers in industrial and developing countries. To date, of interest to farmers are several GM crops with enhanced input traits, such as disease (viral, fungal, bacterial) and insect resistance, herbicide tolerance, and resistance to environmental stresses such as drought, improved processing quality, improved product shelf life, and nutrient-enhanced crops available for commercial production.

Recent data [19] shows global acreage of only four biotech crops, corn, soybean, cotton, and canola has reached 190.4 million hectares in 2019 from 1.7 million hectares in 1996, which is on average 7.9 million hectares growth per year impacting crop production and productivity [22]. In recent years, the novel technique of genome-editing (GE) has been developed for targeted genome modification in plants with a high potential of increasing genetic diversity or correcting genetic


#### **Table 2.**

*Genetically engineered (GE) crops researched, under testing, approval or commercialization in different countries of Africa.*

defects. The simplicity and high efficiency of these tools have made it optimal for precise genome editing, heralding a new frontier in the—"Gene-revolution"—and in the development of modern biotechnology.

GM technology has been targeting some of the yield constraints and successful technologies have been commercialized in Africa for different crops such as insect resistance (maize, cotton, soybean, brinjal, cowpea), disease resistance (cassava, potato, sweet potato), better nutrition and quality (rice, potato, sorghum, banana). Some of these technologies are now successfully tested or grown in some countries of Africa (**Table 2**). Globally, by the end of 2019, a total of 71 countries (excluding EU countries) [19] issued regulatory approvals for GM crops, of these 11 were African countries. Total approval granted between 1992 and 2018 has reached 4349 from 70 countries (28 countries from EU) for food (2063), feed (1461), and environmental release or commercial cultivation (825) of GM plants [23]. In 2020 alone, 43 approvals were recorded for GM crops globally, involving 33 varieties from 12 countries, and eight of them are new varieties [22]. In 2019, four countries in Africa have given commercially approved for GM crops namely Ethiopia, (Bt cotton), Malawi (Bt cotton), Kenya (Bt cotton), and Nigeria (PBR cowpea) for the first time. Nigeria had additional approval for TELA maize in October 2021 and Kenya approved GM Cassava in June 2021. The TELA maize is built on the progress made from a decade of excellent breeding work under the WEMA project and working toward introducing the Bt- gene to WEMA, water-efficient varieties for drought tolerance [15, 16].

Despite several crops under testing for a long period, only a few have been commercialized in Africa (**Table 2**) [24]. In the SSA, South Africa has taken the lead with an estimated 2.7 million hectares covered with GM crops. It grows three commodities, namely cotton (100% cover), maize (85%), and soybeans (95%) of the total acreage [25]. Nigeria follows with three approvals (Bt cotton, PBR Cowpea, and TELA Maize) since 2018 [17], whereas Sudan stands second in acreage (about 192,000 hectares) from Bt cotton production.

Yield and quality improvements and associated economic benefits of growing GM crops have been the driving factors for biotech crops' rapid global expansion. A study conducted on GM crops and conventional hybrid (CH) maize yield differences across 106 locations and over 28 years in South Africa has shown a mean yield increase for GM over CH maize of more than 0.42 MT per hectare in addition to reducing yield risks [26]. Others reported [27] that GM technology adoption has reduced chemical pesticide use on average by 37%, increased crop yields by 22%, and increased farmer profits by 68%. According to the report, yield gains and pesticide reductions are larger for insect-resistant crops than for herbicide-tolerant crops, and yield and profit gains are higher in developing than in developed countries.

#### **3. Farmers access to new agricultural technologies**

Since the first field trial of a GM product back in 1987, the world has seen massive progress in the adoption of biotechnology crops and products and an increasing number of laboratory and field trials for a variety of novel GM products. Of the total global acreage (190 million hectares) of GM crops in 2019, the share of African countries is close to 3.0 million hectares only with South Africa taking the lead with 2.7 million hectares for HR-soybeans, IR/DT- maize and Bt cotton, followed by Sudan for 192,000 hectares of Bt- cotton [21, 28]. Currently, however, 13 biotech crops containing 13 traits in 13 countries are under different stages of research and evaluation in Africa [21]. Crops such as cotton, maize, cowpea, rice, sorghum, potato, sweet potato, cassava, banana, and sugarcane are either at the stage of

#### *Crop Biotechnology and Smallholder Farmers in Africa DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101914*

Confined Field Trials (CFT) or commercial production status [29]. Since 2018, four countries have entered commercial production for the first time in Africa namely, Nigeria (Bt cotton and PBR cowpea in 2018 and TELA maize in 2021), Kenya (Bt cotton in 2020 and virus resistant cassava in 2021), Ethiopia (Bt cotton in 2018), and Malawi (Bt cotton in 2018), after approval for the respective GM crops [19, 20]. Nigeria has made a move to become the first among African nations followed by Kenya that approved commercial use of GM food crops cowpea and maize.

Given global advancement in the use of GM crops, progress in Africa has been slower than expected [30, 31]. After three decades of global experience on the safety of GM crops and impressive impacts on the livelihood of millions of farmers, many countries still are postponing approvals of GM crops. Numerous health and environmental safety research reports have sufficiently confirmed the safety and desirable impacts of GM crops and their derived products [30–34]. Such scientific evidence have not challenged enough the lingering public perception and controversies around the risks of GM crops [35]. Instead, the overwhelming challenges faced by farmers make it difficult to believe these technologies can positively affect the situation of smallholder farmers [31]. However, scientists believe genetic engineering and genome-editing technologies will continue to impact the global economy with new momentum for more innovative technologies. Countries such as Ghana, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Uganda, and Malawi are in process of working on clarifying the biosafety context and developing a guideline for promoting genome-editing technologies in crop improvement [36].

### **3.1 Factors shaping access and availability of biotech products for smallholder farmers**

The commercialization of already approved products is challenged by a wave of issues along the product commercialization chain. The national research capacity has been very critical to respond to farmers' needs for new technologies through creating awareness to the public, advising policymakers, testing of technologies, approvals, and helping access to proven technologies by farmers. In the same way robust regulatory system is needed to respond to applications based on scientific and empirical evidence. Often this has been a challenge in most countries since sufficient safety data generated can only be accepted and reviewed again by the regulatory agency of adopting country. Private and public sector developers apply step-wise review and decision processes to critically monitor the development of new products and to ensure that only good events are commercialized. Therefore, the intellectual property, product stewardship, and commercialization strategy become key parts of the product life cycle.

The Excellence Through Stewardship (ETS) [37], a global industry coordinated organization, identifies the key steps in the biotechnology product life cycle which includes the following: (i) research and discovery; (ii) product development; (iii) seed or plant production; (iv) marketing and distribution; (v) crop production; (vi) crop utilization; and (vii) product discontinuation (**Figure 4**). Product Stewardship and commercialization are key cross-cutting components along the product life cycle for the industry to remain innovative and viable. Successful commercialization of a GM crops, therefore, requires a well-planned strategy with sufficient information and expertise in a wide range of professions spanning from research and discovery to market and consumer interest.

In other words, success in commercialization also depends on downstream activities: functional seed systems and extension systems, strong technology demonstration, presence of reliable financial and marketing services, and the like. These are often weak in developing countries including most parts of Africa. The

**Figure 4.**

*Biotechnology product life cycle (Excellence Through Stewardship, 2018). Source: Excellence through Stewardship (2018).*

blame on lack of political will, safety concern, or public acceptance for the delay in the adoption of deregulated products is often misleading. A recent assessment of stakeholders view on commercialization barriers of released biotech products shows socio-economic constraints, high cost of seed, weak certification of seed, weak private sector involvement, inadequate awareness of the technology, and best practices to be important [18, 24, 38, 39]. Thus, potentially a stronger public-private partnership in research, product development, and product commercialization in developing countries holds the key.

#### **3.2 Challenges of scaling-up and utilization of biotech crops**

Rigorous risk assessment studies take years to complete only to satisfy the benefit of the doubt. In Africa, many consider GM crops are intended for use in industrialized countries and are hence inappropriate for agriculture in Africa. There is a poor understanding of the use and potential impact of the technologies on improving productivity. In some countries, GM crops are considered a threat to biodiversity due to fear of replacing local or conventional varieties and indigenous crop species and thereby making farmers dependent on private seed companies. Limited research, regulatory and monitoring capacities, and anticipated loss of export markets with trade-sensitive countries also add up to the challenges against wider commercialization of the biotech crops [38]. In countries that have overcome hurdles of the regulatory system, rolling of GM crop commercialization and access by growers depend much on what happens downstream the pathway beyond product development, regulatory approval, and registration.

#### **3.3 Enhancing regulatory decisions for improved access**

Delayed decisions from regulatory agencies have a large, negative impact on the commercialization of new GM crop varieties around the world, but also in Africa [28]. While some delays can be sustained by some private sector developers, public sector developers are reliant on funding cycles and their projects are more quickly discontinued by indecision at regulatory agencies [40]. Regulators can strengthen decision-making by first reviewing the safety of new GM products and then linking the decision to national policy goals such as food security, sustainability, and the economic benefits to local farmers [41]. Linking regulatory decisions on GM plants to national policy goals, such as achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals

(SDGs), will help to clarify which products benefit the community, the environment, and bring about economic growth [18].
