African economies are still lagging behind in acquisition of agricultural biotechnology and particularly genetically engineered crops.
A report by International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) said only Sudan and Cuba adopted the cultivation of GE crops in 2012 although the crop hectarage has increased from 1.7 million to 170 million hectares.
In 2012, Sudan became the fourth country in Africa, after South Africa, Burkina Faso and Egypt, to commercialize a biotech crop – biotech Bt cotton.
” A total of 20,000 hectares were planted in both rainfed areas and irrigated schemes. About 10,000 farmers were the initial beneficiaries who have an average of about 1-2.5 hectares of land,” the ISAAA report noted.
Globally, over 17 million farmers benefit from biotech crops. 2012 marked an unprecedented 100-fold increase in biotech crop hectarage from 1.7 million hectares in 1996 to 170 million hectares in 2012 – this makes biotech crops the fastest adopted crop technology in recent history – the reason – it delivers benefits.
Read the full, original article: Africa lagging behind in acquisition of GMOs
