By Dan Murphy

One of the most persistent images of African agriculture is the iconic photos of dusty, drought-stricken fields where crops are withering under the Sub-Saharan region’s blazing sun. Indeed, much of Africa is drought-prone, which complicates food production for millions of subsistence farmers who are dependent on rainfall to sustain their crops.

Since corn is the continent’s most widely grown staple crop more than 300 million Africans depend on it as their primary food source the effects of what are becoming more frequent and persistent drought conditions are ever more damaging in terms of both farm productivity and human suffering. Without modern infrastructure and irrigation systems, drought leads to crop failure, exacerbating hunger and poverty, a situation that is only worsened by the effects of climate change.

Finding ways to mitigate the impact of drought and stabilize yields is fundamental to food security across all of Africa. One of the organizations leading the way in that effort is the African Agricultural Technology Foundation, which works with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, Monsanto and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among other partners, to foster the development of drought-tolerant corn varieties suited to African soils and climatic conditions. The goal is to increase yields by 24 to 35%, which would make a significant difference in every measure of food security, economic growth and even political stability.

AAFT supports a variety of initiatives, which include deployment of best management practices fertilization, weed control, crop rotation and the use of using conventional breeding techniques. But because AAFT also funds marker-assisted breeding projects and the application of genetic engineering technologies, its efforts have been hamstrung by regulatory barriers erected by governments wary of disrupting relations with European trading partners in Europe, where biotech is severely restricted.

For example, Tanzania has so far failed to approve final field trials for genetically modified corn, because of the country’s restrictive strict bio-safety laws. We have had successful mock trials since 2009, but we failed to move to the next step last August because the government did not grant us a permit, Alois Kullaya, project country coordinator for AAFT’s Water Efficient Maize for Africa project, told Business Week magazine.

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