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Strengthening African R&D through effective transfer of tropical crop biotech to African institutions

Nature Biotechnology volume 30, pages 1170–1172 (2012)Cite this article

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To the Editor

According to a study published in your January issue1 on genetically modified crop development and adoption in sub-Saharan Africa, the negative perception and limited adoption of biotech in Africa can be partly attributed to a lack of local expertise and capacity for regional development of agbiotech products. The need for self-determination in science is clearly emphasized in this survey. Over the past decade, training opportunities in Western laboratories have boomed for African scholars. Supported by master's and PhD fellowships, African scientists now have increasing access to education in renowned Western institutions, as well as to training in cutting-edge technologies. It is widely accepted that training in the best institutions forges the scientific leaders of tomorrow who will contribute to building and strengthening of African science. Although training of African scientists abroad is essential, we argue here that building a self-sustainable African scientific workforce also requires the development of top African education and research institutions with full access to technology.

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Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to W. Gruissem and E. McCallum (ETH Zurich) for suggestions and comments on the manuscript and acknowledges N. Fedoroff (Penn State University), S. Kelemu (BecA) and D. Delmer for their support. Participating African scientists and institutions, C. Rey (University of Witwatersrand), L. Tripathi (IITA), J. Ndunguru (Mikocheni Agricultural Research Institute) as well as S. Bull (University of Bath) are acknowledged for their collaboration. Technology transfer activities were supported by ETH Zurich, a Swiss National Science Foundation grant (SNF IZ32Z0_125783), a Swiss South African Joint Research Programme grant (SMC JRP 08) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BioCassava Plus phase I).

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  1. Department of Biology, Plant Biotechnology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Hervé Vanderschuren

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Correspondence to Hervé Vanderschuren.

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Vanderschuren, H. Strengthening African R&D through effective transfer of tropical crop biotech to African institutions. Nat Biotechnol 30, 1170–1172 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.2405

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