Is Africa ready for geneticaly modified foods?

Even as food insecurity
continues to afflict impoverished and disaster-
affected populations around the continent, African
policymakers and consumers remain deeply
divided over the potential harms and benefits of
genetically modified (GM) foods, which advocates
say could greatly improve yields and nutrition.
A recent study published in the journal Food
Policy, titled Status of development, regulation
and adoption of GM agriculture in Africa, shows
that heated debates over safety concerns
continue to plague efforts to use GM crop
technology to tackle food security problems and
poverty.
Yet results from the four African countries that
have implemented commercial GM agriculture -
Burkina Faso, Egypt, South Africa and Sudan -
suggest an improvement in productivity. In
South Africa, a 2008 study showed an 11 percent
grain yield advantage when using GM maize, and
in Burkina Faso, the technology has led to a 15
percent increase in cotton.
"Compared to conventional plant breeding
methods, GM technology is less time-consuming
and more accurate in acquiring the desired
objectives," said Carl M.F. Mbofung, a professor
at the University of Ngaoundere, Cameroon, said
at a 2010 conference on agriculture in Africa.
A 2011 report by the Melinda and Bill Gates
Foundation, which strongly supports the use of
GM technologies, noted that the average yield of
cereal per acre was seven times greater in the US,
where GM crops are widely used, than it was in
sub-Saharan Africa. While better infrastructure
can account for some of this difference, the
report argues that a failure to invest in GM crops
is partly responsible.
Still, there remain significant challenges across the
continent regarding the need to build robust
regulatory frameworks and to bridge the
knowledge gap between scientists, policymakers
and the public to allow for informed decisions.
Regulating GM
The Food Policy report suggests that when
effective biosafety regulatory frameworks are in
place, GM is more likely to be widely adopted and
accepted.
The authors interviewed 305 respondents from
Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and
Tunisia - countries that are already cultivating GM
crops or have large research and development
programs devoted to it.