Background

Growing population results in growing food demands and need for increased agricultural productivity for food security and poverty alleviation

The tools and knowledge of plant biotechnology, coupled with plant breeding and crop physiology, have great potential to contribute to agricultural productivity and quality. These tools include tissue culture, marker assisted selection, DNA or antibody based diagnostics and genetic modification.

However, the high cost of specialised laboratories, knowledge and training can deter African countries from taking advantage of modern biotechnology. Sharing of information and collaboration could help to maximise the potential opportunities from this technology. ABNETA therefore aims to help biotechnologists access information, communicate and collaborate with each other as well as key stakeholders.

Opportunities to share these capacities only exist if available knowledge is accessible by scientists and research planners in the region. ABNETA therefore aims to develop a database of personnel, laboratory capacities, research topics, techniques and scientific protocols available in Africa .

Further, scientists often struggle to apply their advances to target crops in a way that will be accessible to farmers. ABNETA therefore aims to link biotechnologists with plant breeders, farmer based organisations, NGOs and entrepreneurs in order to facilitate development of improved crop varieties and dissemination of them to farmers.

Adequate funding and policies are required to allow effective use and exploitation of biotechnology. For these practical reasons and also ethical reasons, scientific technologies can and should only develop at a pace that is acceptable to the people of a country and their political representatives. A certain amount of fear exists surrounding all new technologies and particularly the biotechnology of Genetic Modification: this is in part due to lack of knowledge and fact based discussion. ABNETA therefore aims to support, train and educate journalists and other stakeholders in order to encourage greater public discussion of issues related to biotechnology.

ABNETA recognises that a number of websites and networks exist to support agricultural and biotechnological activities in Africa . Many of these, however, focus on specific crops, techniques or issues. ABNETA aims to cross disciplines and would like to cooperate with and support the work of these other networks in order to achieve mutual aims.