**4.1 Biotechnology policies and biosafety frameworks**

There is a close relationship between the extents to which biotechnology is being deployed in countries and the policy and political environment for biotechnology. As stated earlier, the relationship among application, capacity, and enabling environment is complex, each somehow acting as driver for the others—with mutually re-enforcing effects. Specifically, countries that are consistently ranked high in applications of biotechnology have also made progress in developing biotech-specific biosafety policies. For high-tech technologies such as genetic modification, the lack of biosafety legislation, policies, and biosafety procedures in several countries continues to be a significant impediment and discouragement to institutions, including private sector institutions that are willing to undertake high-end biotech R&D because processes for application are opaque and tedious, and generally the institutional landscape does not encourage R&D with significant biotech content. Tanzania, for example, has shown a strong political will to promote agricultural biotechnology, as evidenced by the National Biotechnology Development Policy, Biosafety Regulations 2009, Environmental Management Act, and other policies and laws. However, the country's legal framework is prohibitive. Strict liability and redress provisions in the law and regulations are currently a hindrance to advancing biotechnology research and development in the country. Djibouti has some laws and regulations, including those aimed at positioning her for adoption of modern biotechnologies including genetic engineering. However, there lacks specific roadmaps for achieving some of the goals envisioned in the legislation. Djibouti should focus on creating a favorable policy environment to attract private sector working on agricultural biotechnology. Mozambique, on the other hand, has enacted several laws, a large majority of which are focused on protecting natural resources. A few plans have been prepared, such as the National Agriculture Investment Plan 2014–2018. However, these lack clear roadmaps and time-bound actions. While Madagascar has clearly paid attention to policy and legislation side, other enablers that can enhance research and applications are still relatively absent.

#### **4.2 Public awareness and participation**

There are major gaps in public awareness and understanding of the science, and the potential promise and usefulness of biotechnology in African agriculture. There

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*Biotechnology in Agricultural Policies of Sub-Saharan Africa*

**4.4 Human capacity and research infrastructure**

are also knowledge gaps, with misinformation on risks and perceptions of risks remaining one of the key factors that have hindered the adoption of biotechnology in Africa. Consequently, there are misconceptions and lack of knowledge about biotechnology in general, and about GMOs in agriculture in particular. Although there have been successes in public awareness creation, there are still gaps in policy support, political commitment, and acceptance of genetic engineering technologies, and this continues to hinder the adoption of certain biotechnologies in agriculture.

**4.3 Utilization of research products and public-private partnerships**

The process by which biotech research translates to (commercial) applications in the field requires early engagement of industry (private sector players). On the other hand, agricultural biotech research in almost all SSA countries is still primarily driven by NARI and university scientists who either have limited knowledge on or drive to commercialize research products. Indeed, the incentive of the majority scientists seems to be more about the science and the academic products of science (in form of publications and patents). There is limited or no incentive to invest efforts in commercialization, and the research funding mechanisms do not normally include the commercialization phase and modalities for it. At the same time public extension services are generally weak. Although public-private partnerships (PPPs) have been recognized as one of the ways to drive the conversion of biotech research into practical use, and despite the fact that there are a number of PPPs operating in some countries, there remain major gaps in operationalizing the concept and developing functional partnerships at scale. Simple PPP models have been used in delivery of animal health and AI services in some countries—for example, where semen and vaccine production is done by public sector and field delivery done by private sector, including farmers' organizations and cooperatives. Where new technologies and innovations are involved, a major gap in PPPs is the issue of proprietary rights, especially patents, intellectual property rights, and sharing of benefits accruing from joint biotechnology research and development activities.

In most SSA countries, there is a clear lack of a critical mass of scientists in areas relevant for agricultural biotechnology. Even countries that rank as relatively "high" in capacities do not necessarily have critical mass in the more "advanced" areas of modern biotechnology such as genomics, and genetic engineering, for example. The majority of SSA national agricultural research systems (NARS) have research programs that are often limited in scope and dependent on a handful of scientists. Due also to the financial and infrastructural constraints, many such programs often have limited national capacities to implement initiatives beyond pilot scales. This calls for innovative ways of forming critical mass of research teams across sectors—working around issues that allow sharing of staff (and facilities). The acquisition and maintenance of the expensive infrastructure needed for high-tech applications remain a challenge for most countries. Facilities in several countries (the low-capacity countries) are too basic to support modern biotech research. In other cases, equipment acquired through projects only function during the life of these projects and thereafter cannot be maintained—due to budget constraints. The lack of engineers and technicians trained to service these fast-evolving and sophisticated equipments presents another challenge, as do inadequate power supplies and frequent power outages, which also affect reliable cold chains—such as for AI and vaccine field delivery. These challenges have informed the establishment of regional shared biotechnology platforms such as the BecA-ILRI Hub; the concept of shared

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85567*

*Biotechnology in Agricultural Policies of Sub-Saharan Africa DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85567*

*Elements of Bioeconomy*

**4. Gaps and opportunities for biotechnology advancement**

research infrastructure, and (5) financial resources for R&D.

**4.1 Biotechnology policies and biosafety frameworks**

This section examines areas or issues constituting either challenges which if addressed, or opportunities which if harnessed, will enhance research and commercial applications of agricultural biotechnologies in SSA. Besides selective breeding as well as germplasm characterization based on phenotypes, tissue culture in crops, clonal propagation in trees, sex reversal in aquaculture, and artificial insemination (AI) in livestock, use of modern advanced technologies remains limited in SSA, mostly confined to research projects. However, use of molecular and genomic technologies, while still low, is increasing rapidly especially in research. A major constraint to the application of most of these technologies in SSA relates to capacities (human resources and facilities) and several dimensions of enabling environment especially political will, low public awareness, and associated effect on acceptance, lack of financial investments, and limited organizational capacities. Five key gaps can be identified for SSA, corresponding to opportunity areas for action: (1) policies and biosafety frameworks, (2) awareness and public participation, (3) utilization of research products and public-private partnerships (PPPs), (4) human capacity and

There is a close relationship between the extents to which biotechnology is being deployed in countries and the policy and political environment for biotechnology. As stated earlier, the relationship among application, capacity, and enabling environment is complex, each somehow acting as driver for the others—with mutually re-enforcing effects. Specifically, countries that are consistently ranked high in applications of biotechnology have also made progress in developing biotech-specific biosafety policies. For high-tech technologies such as genetic modification, the lack of biosafety legislation, policies, and biosafety procedures in several countries continues to be a significant impediment and discouragement to institutions, including private sector institutions that are willing to undertake high-end biotech R&D because processes for application are opaque and tedious, and generally the institutional landscape does not encourage R&D with significant biotech content. Tanzania, for example, has shown a strong political will to promote agricultural biotechnology, as evidenced by the National Biotechnology Development Policy, Biosafety Regulations 2009, Environmental Management Act, and other policies and laws. However, the country's legal framework is prohibitive. Strict liability and redress provisions in the law and regulations are currently a hindrance to advancing biotechnology research and development in the country. Djibouti has some laws and regulations, including those aimed at positioning her for adoption of modern biotechnologies including genetic engineering. However, there lacks specific roadmaps for achieving some of the goals envisioned in the legislation. Djibouti should focus on creating a favorable policy environment to attract private sector working on agricultural biotechnology. Mozambique, on the other hand, has enacted several laws, a large majority of which are focused on protecting natural resources. A few plans have been prepared, such as the National Agriculture Investment Plan 2014–2018. However, these lack clear roadmaps and time-bound actions. While Madagascar has clearly paid attention to policy and legislation side, other enablers that can enhance research and applications are still relatively absent.

There are major gaps in public awareness and understanding of the science, and the potential promise and usefulness of biotechnology in African agriculture. There

**168**

**4.2 Public awareness and participation**

are also knowledge gaps, with misinformation on risks and perceptions of risks remaining one of the key factors that have hindered the adoption of biotechnology in Africa. Consequently, there are misconceptions and lack of knowledge about biotechnology in general, and about GMOs in agriculture in particular. Although there have been successes in public awareness creation, there are still gaps in policy support, political commitment, and acceptance of genetic engineering technologies, and this continues to hinder the adoption of certain biotechnologies in agriculture.
