而现代生物技术和,具体来说,基因改造在世界许多地方都是争论的话题,撒哈拉以南非洲越来越多的国家正在朝着授权普遍发布转基因(GM)作物品种供农民和农业综合企业使用的方向取得重要进展。显然,根据二十多年的记录,种植转基因作物所带来的经济和环境效益是决策过程中的主要驱动力。另一个关键因素是生物安全监管政策与非洲逐步农业和农村发展政策的日益一致,与过去的经验相比,在生物安全监管审查中更加强调预期的好处,而不是风险。在一些情况下,这导致了对转基因作物发布申请的加速审查,对于密闭田间试验或一般环境释放,考虑其他国家的经验和数据。这种监管方法有望成为相关的管道,有利于穷人的转基因作物应用正在扩大,新的植物育种技术提供了机会。这篇评论文章分析了部分非洲经济体的政策背景变化,导致采用新的农业技术,以及用于生物安全决策的新监管方法。将为加纳提供案例研究,肯尼亚,马拉维,尼日利亚和乌干达分析挑战,总结经验教训,并为新兴经济体提出一般性政策建议。
While modern biotechnology and, specifically, genetic modification are subject of debate in many parts of the world, an increasing number of countries in Sub-Sahara Africa are making important strides towards authorizing general releases of genetically modified (GM) crop varieties for use by farmers and agribusinesses. Obviously, the documented economic and environmental benefits from planting GM crops-based on a track record of over two decades-are a major driver in the decision-making process. Another key factor is the increasing alignment of biosafety regulatory policies with progressive agricultural and rural development policies in Africa, resulting in-compared to past experiences-greater emphasis on anticipated benefits rather than risks in biosafety regulatory reviews. In several cases, this has led to expedited reviews of GM crop release applications, either for confined field trials or general environmental release, taking experiences and data from other countries into account. Such regulatory approaches hold promise as the pipeline of relevant, pro-poor GM crop applications is expanding as are the opportunities provided by novel plant breeding techniques. This review article analyses the shifting policy context in select African economies, resulting in adoption of new agricultural technology, and novel regulatory approaches used in biosafety decision-making.
Case studies will be presented for Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and Uganda to analyze challenges, distill lessons learned and to present general policy recommendations for emerging economies.