Agricultural Biotechnology: The View from Ghana
Council for Biotechnology Information
July 9, 2007
Here is an excerpt of an article on agricultural biotechnology published by Council for Biotechnology Information.
Excerpt…
George Acquaah of Ghana describes how biotechnology can benefit the people of Africa.
As a native of Ghana, and a professor at Langston University in Oklahoma, I see both the enormous challenges facing the people of Africa and the potential solutions. Growing up in Africa, I saw firsthand so many of the problems that people in the United States only read about: chronic hunger, children going blind from malnutrition and people dying from treatable diseases. As a scientist, I find biotechnology a challenging field, but as an African, I am genuinely encouraged by its potential to help alleviate these problems that plague Africa and developing countries around the world.
"Vitamin A deficiency leads to approximately half a million cases of permanent childhood blindness and 1 million to 2 million deaths."
One of the gravest health issues facing Africa is malnutrition and the diseases it spawns. For example, vitamin A deficiency leads to approximately half a million cases of permanent childhood blindness and 1 million to 2 million deaths each year. Part of the reason is that the staple foods of many Africans are starchy crops like rice and cassava that do not provide enough nutrients. Now there is real hope in a new type of rice called "golden rice" that is fortified through biotechnology with beta-carotene, the nutrient the body uses to make vitamin A. This technology could soon be used to increase the levels of vital nutrients in other crops as well.
Food storage is another significant problem in Africa because of the lack of refrigeration. Tons of food rot before they get to the market. Biotechnology could help to prevent these losses by producing crops that ripen more slowly. If crops ripened more gradually, there would be more time to get them to market before they spoil, and far less food would go to waste.
"In East Africa, a virus can destroy an entire maize crop ..."
Biotechnology could also help reduce hunger by decreasing the amount of food lost to pests and disease before it is harvested. In East Africa, a virus can destroy an entire maize crop, and between 20 percent and 80 percent of the sweet potato crop is lost to pests and disease every year. Scientists have already developed some types of crops that resist insects and disease, and more are on the way. Less food lost means less hunger.
Helping farmers in developing countries grow more food will go a long way toward reducing hunger and, by developing crops that can grow in difficult conditions like poor soil, extreme heat and drought that are common in much of Africa, biotechnology could help local farmers grow more food….
Full article at Council for Biotechnology Information.
