Some biosafety regulators from Africa have told the United Nations (UN) Biodiversity Conference that countries on the continent have the appropriate legal regime to regulate the safe application of genetically modified organism (GMO) technology to agricultural production.  

Regulators from Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, and Sudan say their countries have established appropriate regulatory systems that will ensure GMOs provide the maximum benefit for consumers on the continent, whilst guarding against the negatives.

They were speaking at a side event at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal, Canada, organised by an academia consortium led by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA).

The 15th meeting of the Conference of Parties to the UN Biodiversity Convention deliberated on a new framework for the protection of biodiversity (Post-2020 Global Diversity Forum), including the role that biotechnology (GMOs) can possibly play in helping protect the planet.

Dr Naazik Ahmed who is director of the Sudan Biosafety Department at the Higher Council of Environment and Natural Resources told the side event her country has had laws in place to govern the approval of GM crops since 2005, following the ratification of the Cartagena Protocol.

About 173 countries have ratified the protocol so far. 

The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety which is a supplement to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity is an international agreement that seeks to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by GMOs resulting from modern biotechnology.

Dr Ahmed said following the ratification of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, Sudan in 2009 approved a framework for a national biosafety law. It then set up a National Council for Biosafety. Sudan subsequently approved its first GM crop, Bt cotton.

“The government adopted Bt cotton after a long process of risk assessment and a wide consultation of communities,” she said.

“100% of farmers in Sudan have now adopted GM cotton because its productivity is more than 4 times better than the conventional… Farmers say they will not grow other varieties again because there is more benefit from GM cotton,” she added.

Dr Ahmed says approval processes for other GM crops are in the pipeline whilst efforts are ongoing to build more human capacity, as well as set up additional appropriate monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.

Chief Executive Officer of Kenya’s National Biosafety Authority Dr Roy Mugiira also told the event Kenya was among the first batch of countries to append a signature to the Cartagena Protocol.

“Following that, we developed what we call the National Biotech Development Policy. It was a policy document to give a framework on how the country will interact with this new technology,” he explained.

Kenya subsequently approved a National Biosafety Act in 2009 and then established a National Biosafety Authority. Between 2011 and 2012, Kenya published regulations to govern the conduct of business in contained use, research, trials, environmental release, export, import, transit, and labelling of GMOs.
 
“In 2019 we approved genetically modified Bt cotton for cultivation… We have also approved Bt maize which we expect will be with farmers in the next cropping cycle which begins in March. We are happy that we are progressing well,” Dr Mugiira added.
 
Dr Lilian Chimphepo who is Biosafety Registrar at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Climate Change in Malawi also told the side event her country ratified the Cartagena Protocol in 2009.

“Prior to that, we already had the legal framework. We developed our biosafety act in 2002. And biosafety regulations in 2007. And then the national biotech and regulation policy in 2008,” she said.  
 
“There was a time when we had a food crisis and we had a donation of GM maize. But we didn’t have any legal framework in place, so we rushed to come up with a legal framework so that if we receive any further donation which is GMO, we should be able to manage things,” she explained.
 
“We have so far approved GM cotton for commercialisation. 2019, 2020 farmers grew Bt cotton. Aside from Bt cotton, we have confined field trials for Bt cowpea which we couldn’t continue because of Covid. We also had confined field trials for transgenic GM bananas. Unfortunately, it was also terminated prematurely,” Dr Chimphepo noted.
 
CEO of Ghana’s National Biosafety Authority Eric Okoree also said his country ratified the Cartagena Protocol in 2003. Subsequently, the National Biosafety Act was approved by parliament in 2011 to govern the application of GMOs to crop production.

Ghana has since approved its first GM crop, the GM cowpea with resistant to some pest attacks. “Ghana wasn’t slow in approving GMOs. We were very purposeful,” he said.
 
Mr Okoree said African countries which participated in the negotiations at the UN Biodiversity Conference were there to negotiate for what the continent needs and not what others dictated to them.

“With the negotiations going on, the Africa of those days is not the Africa now. Africa is well organized, and prepared, we know what we came here for. We have committed delegates who can argue on any platform about GMOs,” he told the event.