Due to the onset of climate change we are likely to experience more harsh weather conditions and other farming challenges including floods, and crop diseases most of which we might not easily overcome as ordinary farmers without regular scientific interventions to provide solutions. Policy makers are expected to have more faith in agricultural research findings.
Some countries in Africa including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, and South Africa, among others, are looking at biotechnology as one of the best approaches to the current agricultural problems.
But as you read this comment there are successful biotechnological solutions to some of the diseases killing off a number of our major food crops, discovered by our own scientists, but are not available to farmers because our policy makers have not decided yet whether or not to adopt biotechnology.
Related on the SLP
Graham Brookes, Director of PG Economics, has written,
We have seen for more than twenty years now how crop biotechnology adoption in developing countries has contributed to higher yields, more secure production, and increased incomes, greatly contributing to decreasing poverty, hunger and malnutrition in some regions of the globe most prone to these challenges.
