Crop Biotechnology for African Smallholders

Genetic improvement of planting material (in a broad sense) is an important component of agricultural growth for nations and regions in the process of economic development. Asia’s Green Revolutions in rice and wheat are perhaps the best-known examples of dramatic agricultural growth associated with crop genetic improvement. Most experts agree that no such seed-based revolution has occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa, despite frequent, though scattered, episodes of success. Such change is crucial, however, given that an estimated 200 million people in Africa can now be classed as undernourished—almost 20 percent more than in the early 1990s (Benson 2004). Many of these individuals are smallholder producers of food crops. Smallholder farmers are the subject of two parallel case studies that explore the potential for integrating transgenic varieties of cooking bananas and maize into smallholder agriculture in East Africa. Both bananas and maize are devastated by pests and diseases in this region, particularly in the lowland tropical environments. Since chemical treatment of these crops is not economically viable for most smallholder farm families, varieties with genetic resistance could play a vital role in reducing their vulnerability to crop failure. Hence, national research programs have targeted bananas and maize for genetic transformation.