Biosafety Regulatory Reviews and Leeway to Operate: Case Studies From Sub-Sahara Africa
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Date
2020
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Front. Plant Sci
Abstract
While modern biotechnology and, specifically, genetic modification are subject of debate
in many parts of the world, an increasing number of countries in Sub-Sahara Africa are
making important strides towards authorizing general releases of genetically modified
(GM) crop varieties for use by farmers and agribusinesses. Obviously, the documented
economic and environmental benefits from planting GM crops—based on a track record
of over two decades—are a major driver in the decision-making process. Another key
factor is the increasing alignment of biosafety regulatory policies with progressive
agricultural and rural development policies in Africa, resulting in—compared to past
experiences—greater emphasis on anticipated benefits rather than risks in biosafety
regulatory reviews. In several cases, this has led to expedited reviews of GM crop release
applications, either for confined field trials or general environmental release, taking
experiences and data from other countries into account. Such regulatory approaches
hold promise as the pipeline of relevant, pro-poor GM crop applications is expanding as
are the opportunities provided by novel plant breeding techniques. This review article
analyses the shifting policy context in select African economies, resulting in adoption of
new agricultural technology, and novel regulatory approaches used in biosafety decisionmaking.
Case studies will be presented for Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and Uganda to
analyze challenges, distill lessons learned and to present general policy recommendations
for emerging economies.
Description
Keywords
Policy & institutional actions, Biotechnology, Biosafety analysis, Regulation, Genome editing
Citation
Komen J, Tripathi L, Mkoko B, Ofosu DO, Oloka H and Wangari D (2020) Biosafety Regulatory Reviews and Leeway to Operate: Case Studies From Sub-Sahara Africa. Front. Plant Sci. 11:130. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2020.00130