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Africa has taken a major step toward strengthening access to credible biotechnology and biosafety information following the launch of a continental digital portal designed to make regulatory data easier to find, understand and use.
The portal, dubbed the Biotech Africa Database platform, provides country-specific information on biotech crop approval decisions and summaries of key regulatory requirements for import, export and transit of biotech products.
It also offers, at a glance, a guide to application processes for the movement of biotech products across borders, according to a statement issued in Lusaka on Friday.
The platform, developed by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA AfriCenter) and its partners, is expected to support informed decision-making, regulatory transparency, regional learning and the responsible deployment of agricultural biotechnology across the continent.
ISAAA AfriCenter Director, Dr. Margaret Karembu, described the development as a monumental step in leveraging digital data for regulatory decision-making in Africa.
“For many years, Africa-related biotechnology and biosafety information has been scattered across multiple agency websites, gazette notices and regulatory documents, making it difficult for users to access and interpret,” Karembu said.
She stated that this had often created delays, compliance risks and uncertainty for traders, regulators and value-chain actors operating across borders.
Karembi said the Biotech Africa platform sought to address this challenge by collating accurate and up-to-date information on biosafety regulations, approval decisions and regulatory processes in one place.
She said the platform was particularly useful for traders, regulators, researchers and other stakeholders who require quick and reliable access to regulatory approval decisions and biosafety information. Speaking during the launch,
“Today, we have opened a door where data replaces rumours, where a farmer in Kampala (Uganda) sees the same biotech information as a researcher in Kaduna (Nigeria), as a trader in Johannesburg (South Africa) and as a policy maker in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia),” Karembu said.
She highlighted that 73 countries were currently cultivating or trading in biotech crops and that by 2024, over 20 biotech crops were cultivated in 31 countries with the global area planted to GM crops reaching 218.71 million hectares.
An additional 29 countries were importing biotech products or crops for food, feed and processing.
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In Africa, six biotech crops have been approved for cultivation in 10 countries: South Africa, Sudan, Malawi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Eswatini, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Rwanda.
“The approved biotech crops are cassava, cotton, cowpea, maize, potato and soybean,” Karembu said.
She said Malawi, Zambia’s neighbor, cultivated over 28,500 hectares of bollworm-resistant genetically-modified (GM) cotton.
Karembu added thst Biotech crops had been improved for traits such as drought tolerance, pest and disease resistance, higher nutrition, increased productivity and herbicide tolerance.
“Africa currently cultivates about 3.98 million hectares of biotech crops, representing close to 2 percent of the global biotech crop hectarage,” she said.
Karembu said Biotechnology had played a crucial role in alleviating poverty and improving the lives of more than 17 million small-scale farmers in developing countries.
“By contributing to higher yields and reducing dependence on costly chemical inputs, biotech crops have helped farmers, their families and communities build more stable and resilient livelihoods,” she said.
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