**1. Introduction**

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is one of the regions that depend mainly on agriculture but have largely remained food insecure. In fact, food insecurity in SSA has progressively worsened since 1970 with the proportion of malnourished population reaching 30% in 2017 [1]. Farming in SSA relies on rudimentary methods, which, among others, are characterized by continuous tilling of land, which depletes soil nutrients, leading to poor soil quality. Many countries in the region are making efforts at rehabilitation and expansion of irrigable land, in addition to subsidy on fertilizer and seeds. However, intensive use of inputs depletes agriculture's natural resource base, jeopardizing current and future productivity. More than three-quarters of food is produced in this manner on smallholder farms despite serious production challenges including degradation and nutrient-deficient soils, soil-borne and plant pathogens and pests, unreliable rain-fed farming, high postharvest losses, especially of milk, grains, and tubers, resulting from poor processing and storage, poor farming skills, and limited access to and utilization of appropriate agricultural technologies. In SSA, studies have shown that majority of smallholder farmers lack awareness of improved agricultural practices and technical know-how, partly because of weak linkages between researchers, extension staff, and farmers [2]. The food production-consumption gap for SSA is projected to widen, allowing food insecurity to reach catastrophic levels in the coming years as majority of smallholder farmers continue aging, while the youth remain less attracted to farming. This will be exacerbated by the projected increase in population in the region, with a higher increase than rest of the world (**Figure 1**).

#### **Figure 1.**

*World human population compared to Africa, across major timescales. Population in Africa has been and is projected to increase more rapidly than rest of the world.*

The region's agricultural development is in a race against time to eliminate this deficit as climate change is expected to lead to significant reductions in crop yields, threatening the livelihoods of millions of poor subsistence farmers and agricultural workers [3]. On the other hand, closing the development deficit and providing farmers with access to the investment, technologies, and knowledge they need to adapt to climate change could transform their development prospects. Increasing farm productivity is therefore a priority as yields have stagnated at levels well below global averages. It is quite clear that scientific and technological advances could be used to mitigate the factors that have continued to keep African agricultural productivity at very low levels. Prospects do exist for significant productivity improvement through a combination of technological and policy measures. Improving farmers' access to technology is central to meeting the double challenge of closing the development deficit and adapting to climate change. The African Union (AU)'s comprehensive approach that envisions a 6% annual growth in agricultural productivity requires the deployment of advanced technologies coupled with strong policy support. It has been observed that realizing a 6% agricultural productivity growth rate will need unprecedented policy support from African governments and international development partners [4]. Such policy shifts should aim for sustained investment in the generation of agricultural technologies and most particularly for the deployment of advanced biotechnologies. "Biotechnology" as a term has evolved since it was coined in the early twentieth century and is today defined differently by different organizations, groups, and individuals. For example, the US National Science Foundation defines it as "The controlled use of biological agents, such as microorganisms or cellular components," while the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) define biotechnology as "any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use." Generally, therefore, biotechnology is *any use of organisms or its components in industrial, medical, agricultural and environmental engineering or processes.* The growing human population, coupled with climate change, has triggered the need to explore complementary biotechnological innovations for improving food production, better healthcare, and cleaner environment.

Many challenges faced in agriculture can be minimized through the application of various biotechnologies. Low production associated with degraded soils, drought episodes, emergent plant pathogens and pests, and postharvest losses can now be mitigated using suitable biotechnologies that enrich soils, target production traits for improved yields, selective breeding, and genetic engineering for insect resistance and drought tolerance. Further, biotechnologies now exist for overcoming accumulation of aflatoxin, usually produced by certain fungal species under moist and dump conditions. Generally, biotechnologies have revolutionized farming in industrialized economies, and have the potential to reduce food deficits, make farming more remunerative, and attract the youth to agriculture in

**159**

*Biotechnology in Agricultural Policies of Sub-Saharan Africa*

both middle- and low-income economies. In healthcare, various biotechnologies have been developed in the last few decades to manage both infectious and noninfectious diseases. Diabetes, for example, is now managed using insulin produced in bacteria through genetic engineering. To reduce malnutrition, biofortification for micronutrients and selective breeding for nutritional improvements have been used. In environmental conservation, biotechnologies are applied in removal of contaminants such as heavy metals, and waste decomposition. In industrial biotechnology, biological agents such as microorganisms, tissues, cells, or enzymes isolated from living systems have been used, either in the natural state or genetically engineered to reduce or remove waste materials from the environment. Others involve the use of genetically improved trees for phytoremediation (plant-based cleanup of contaminated soils), use of microorganisms to decompose effluent (sewage), and the use of biofertilizers and biopesticides instead of chemical sprays. Although biotechnology is applied in many fields beyond agriculture, this chapter

focuses on its integration into agricultural policies of African countries.

Application of biotechnology requires, among others, at least the following to be in place: systems that ensure there is adequate capacity to develop and apply the technologies; systems that promote research, extension, and wider adoption; and systems that regulate the sector to assure sustainable use of resources, environmental and human safety. With growing urbanization and the supply crisis from food production deficits, and as more and more people gain interest in agribusiness, there is urgent need to develop guidelines and policies that create a conducive climate for agricultural investment while providing safeguards against environmental and social risks. Although biosafety relates to all biotechnology applications, and genetic engineering is just one of the many biotechnologies in use today, most discussions about biosafety in many countries worldwide revolve around whether a country has projects involving genetic modification (GMO), and hence some internationally agreed way of treating safety and associated assessments. The GMO-centered handling of biosafety emanates from the erroneous interpretation among non-experts that biotechnology = GMO. Biotechnologies (whether low- or high-tech) may introduce certain risks. Both modern biotechnology such as genetic engineering and traditional techniques commonly used such as crossbreeding (with wild counterparts) may confer the same kind of risks but which many people generally do not know about. From a scientific perspective, therefore, the controls should be the same if the risks (real or perceived) are the same, or nearly same. Practically across the world, however, this is not the practice. The level of protection required for a product should necessarily relate to its intrinsic characteristics rather than to the method of obtaining it, a position taken both by world toxicologists in

**2. Regulation and management of biotechnology**

their valuable position paper on genetically modified foods [5].

As a country determines an appropriate level of protection for any product, social and political considerations have to be built-in within the scientific decision framework in order to calibrate the balance between controls and safety, against accessibility/benefits. Agricultural wisdom dictates striking a balance between economic development and human as well as environmental health. Thus, an enabling policy environment comprises deliberate actions intended to promote technology development (such as trained personnel, research and development (R&D) infrastructure and R&D funding, efficient extension or advisory services that link labs to farms, policies, laws, and regulations for development and application of biotechnologies in the sector, among others). Consequently, all products

*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*

*projected to increase more rapidly than rest of the world.*

**Figure 1.**

The region's agricultural development is in a race against time to eliminate this deficit as climate change is expected to lead to significant reductions in crop yields, threatening the livelihoods of millions of poor subsistence farmers and agricultural workers [3]. On the other hand, closing the development deficit and providing farmers with access to the investment, technologies, and knowledge they need to adapt to climate change could transform their development prospects. Increasing farm productivity is therefore a priority as yields have stagnated at levels well below global averages. It is quite clear that scientific and technological advances could be used to mitigate the factors that have continued to keep African agricultural productivity at very low levels. Prospects do exist for significant productivity improvement through a combination of technological and policy measures. Improving farmers' access to technology is central to meeting the double challenge of closing the development deficit and adapting to climate change. The African Union (AU)'s comprehensive approach that envisions a 6% annual growth in agricultural productivity requires the deployment of advanced technologies coupled with strong policy support. It has been observed that realizing a 6% agricultural productivity growth rate will need unprecedented policy support from African governments and international development partners [4]. Such policy shifts should aim for sustained investment in the generation of agricultural technologies and most particularly for the deployment of advanced biotechnologies. "Biotechnology" as a term has evolved since it was coined in the early twentieth century and is today defined differently by different organizations, groups, and individuals. For example, the US National Science Foundation defines it as "The controlled use of biological agents, such as microorganisms or cellular components," while the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) define biotechnology as "any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use." Generally, therefore, biotechnology is *any use of organisms or its components in industrial, medical, agricultural and environmental engineering or processes.* The growing human population, coupled with climate change, has triggered the need to explore complementary biotechnological innovations for improving food production, better healthcare, and cleaner environment. Many challenges faced in agriculture can be minimized through the application of various biotechnologies. Low production associated with degraded soils, drought episodes, emergent plant pathogens and pests, and postharvest losses can now be mitigated using suitable biotechnologies that enrich soils, target production traits for improved yields, selective breeding, and genetic engineering for insect resistance and drought tolerance. Further, biotechnologies now exist for overcoming accumulation of aflatoxin, usually produced by certain fungal species under moist and dump conditions. Generally, biotechnologies have revolutionized farming in industrialized economies, and have the potential to reduce food deficits, make farming more remunerative, and attract the youth to agriculture in

*World human population compared to Africa, across major timescales. Population in Africa has been and is* 

**158**

both middle- and low-income economies. In healthcare, various biotechnologies have been developed in the last few decades to manage both infectious and noninfectious diseases. Diabetes, for example, is now managed using insulin produced in bacteria through genetic engineering. To reduce malnutrition, biofortification for micronutrients and selective breeding for nutritional improvements have been used. In environmental conservation, biotechnologies are applied in removal of contaminants such as heavy metals, and waste decomposition. In industrial biotechnology, biological agents such as microorganisms, tissues, cells, or enzymes isolated from living systems have been used, either in the natural state or genetically engineered to reduce or remove waste materials from the environment. Others involve the use of genetically improved trees for phytoremediation (plant-based cleanup of contaminated soils), use of microorganisms to decompose effluent (sewage), and the use of biofertilizers and biopesticides instead of chemical sprays. Although biotechnology is applied in many fields beyond agriculture, this chapter focuses on its integration into agricultural policies of African countries.
