Biotechnology important to Africa’s development

Lazarus Sauti

B

iotechnology is a new technology that can improve crop productivity, food security, and boost agricultural resilience to climate change-related impacts in the great African continent.

This new technology is defined as any technique that uses living organisms or parts of organisms to make or modify products, to improve plants or animals, or to develop micro-organisms for the benefit of mankind.

Dr Jonathan Mufandaedza, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Biotechnology Authority of Zimbabwe, an autonomous research and development institute with a mandate to develop Zimbabwe through both conventional and cutting-edge biotechnologies, says biotechnology can be split into two that is conventional and modern biotechnology.

He says: “Conventional biotechnology has been in practice since time immemorial in various fields of human influence like agriculture, food production and medicine. Examples of conventional biotechnology products are cheese, bread, yoghurt, beer, wine, new crop varieties, new animal breeds and antibiotics like penicillin.”

On modern biotechnology, he says: “This refers to the recent advance in biotechnology. Modern biotechnology is based on the manipulation of genetic material existing in the nucleus of cells.

“Modern biotechnology can thus be used to alter the function and processes of living organisms. Examples of modern biotechnology products are tools for detecting and treating diseases; and genetically modified crops and drugs.”

Consequently, using biotechnology in Africa could bring about socioeconomic transformation. For instance, in Uganda, tannery and slaughter wastes are being turned into manure for crop production and clean water.

Other innovations include the production of drought-resistant seed varieties that are suitable to specific agri-ecological areas.

Because of this, Seyoum Leta, Bio-resources Innovations Network for Eastern Africa Development (Bio-Innovate) programme manager and an environmental biotechnology expert, says that modern biotechnologies must be harnessed to improve crop productivity.

Dr Mufandaedza shares similar views and highlights food, environmental, medical, animal, agriculture or crop and virology as platforms of biotechnology.

“Food biotechnology involves processing and adding value to foods. Biotechnology applications include production fermented products like cheese, yoghurt, bread and wine. The potential benefit of biotechnology in food processing is food production efficiency,” notes Dr Mufandaedza.

He adds: “Biotechnology is a powerful tool which can be harnessed in environment management to clean air, waste, water and polluted soil. It can also be applied in producing bio-energy and replacing harmful chemicals in the environment with biodegradable substitutes.”

Potential applications of biotechnology in Africa take in waste water purification using microorganisms-bioremediation of sanitation facilities to clean the urban sewage system at lower costs; and the production of bio-herbicides for weed control to deal with noxious weeds.

In addition, possible applications of biotechnology and the environment incorporate environmentally friendly waste management techniques to produce biogas, bio-fuels and bio-fertilisers; and the production of bio-herbicides which are biodegradable and hence eliminating residue carry over problems.    

Agriculture biotechnology involves the application of biotechnology techniques mainly to increase yield, infer disease resistance, drought tolerance and herbicide tolerance and increased nutritional value.

“Practice of biotechnology in agriculture has evolved over time memorial from the traditional methods of crops improvement such as breeding and mutation to current techniques which involve tissue culture and marker assisted mutation,” says Dr Mufandaedza.

Furthermore, Leta emphasises the need for biotechnologies to improve crop productivity and resilience to climate change especially in small-scale farming systems in the region to boost food security.

“The development and application of biotechnologies innovations could enhance agricultural productivity and boost food security,” remarks Leta.

It is critical to note that medicine generally involves any substance or mixture thereof which is used, manufactured, sold in diagnosis or prevention of diseases.

Because of this, Dr. Mufandaedza says: “The major potential of biotechnology in the medicinal sciences is in the production of high quality and abundant medicine products (pharmaceuticals).

“Common applications of biotechnology and medicine include manufacturing of diagnostics such as pregnancy tests and HIV rapid test; and manufacturing of therapeutics like insulin, for diabetic patients.”

Other medical applications comprise genomics and drug delivery systems; regenerative medicine; bioinformatics; rational drug design systems; personalised medicine; protein therapeutics; gene therapy for genetic diseases; proteomics; and biopharming.

To effectively benefit from biotechnology, African countries should come up with biotechnology authorities and these authorities should ensure safety of biotechnology products though research.

For example, Dr. Mufandaedza says the National Biotechnology Authority of Zimbabwe is mandated to carry three crucial roles that are biotechnology research, biotechnology safety and regulating imports and exports on biotechnology products.

“We are mindful of the new technology – its potential to cause risks to people and what we should do to ensure that people are safe.

The biotechnology authorities should be regulatory bodies of governments in countries within the African continent on imports and exports of biotechnology products.

There mandates should also cover the regulation of laboratories and green house facilities in their respective countries.

Dr. Mufandaedza says, “The research agendas of biotechnology regulatory bodies should focus on all platforms of biotechnology.”

To effectively embrace biotechnology, Dr. Mufandaedza notes, “Risk factors need to be monitored closely and African countries should take a cue from other countries that successfully embraced it.”

To promote public understanding and participation in biotechnology and its responsible use, stakeholders in the science industry should focus on bringing the technology to people.

They can do this through education tours in schools, universities and the public; exhibitions and shows; public debates which may be targeted on journalists or the public.

To mobilise resources and support biotechnology-led development, heads of state and government in Africa can create opportunities to source funding by writing grant proposals.

Furthermore, the signing of Memorandum of Understandings with funders, embassies, blocs such as Southern African Development Community and Common Market for Eastern and Southern African can be of help.

African governments should embrace biotechnology if they want to transform the continent from a raw material-based into a knowledge-based economy.