Why is this Important?
- A supportive and enabling policy environment and public participation that will stimulate innovation, technology uptake and agribusiness is critical if agriculture is to make meaningful difference to the lives of smallholder farmers in Africa.
Innovation and technology can play a major role if African countries are to realise their potential in agriculture. Farmers in SSA have generally shown willingness to adopt innovative technologies particularly those that enable them to overcome their existing constraints. However, there are new technologies with the potential to drive transformation in the sector that have not reached farmers due to a lack of enabling policy, legal and regulatory environments that promote innovation.
It is vital to create these enabling environments by giving policymakers the information they need to make informed decisions about the regulation of agricultural technology, and to help them to formulate regulations and support structures that promote innovation. Countries that are able to create conducive climates for innovation and business growth will be able to attract investment and drive the development of their agriculture sectors and their wider economies.
An enabling policy and regulatory environment refers to sets of policies, institutions, support services, processes, capacities and other conditions that improve or create a setting where agricultural sector players including enterprises, can start, develop and thrive.
Given our belief that innovative agricultural technologies can positively impact the lives of smallholder farmers in Africa, we proactively address policy and regulatory obstacles to technology access and delivery across the food value chain from research, production, processing through to market linkages.
We mainstream into our projects complementary enabling functions that include intellectual property rights, policy advocacy, regulatory support, technology stewardship, communications and issue management, product deployment and seed systems.
Current Projects and Special Initiatives
OFABThe Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB), project facilitates the flow of credible biotech information from the scientific community to policy makers and the public through advocacy and communication campaigns. It contributes to constructive conversations among key stakeholders and decision makers such as scientists, policy makers, journalists, civil society, farmers, regulators, investors on the role that biotech can play in enhancing food security and creating wealth. These interactions contribute to Africa’s decision-making on how to progress with biotechnology as part of its developmental agenda and also to addressing misinformation and misconceptions. OFAB is currently being implemented in seven countries of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Ethiopia.
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Quality Seed Supply SystemsThe project on Supporting African Governments to Implement National Regulatory Reforms Governing Quality Seed Supply t National Regulatory Reforms Governing Quality Seed Supply SystemsSystems Challenges on implementation of policies on seeds in Eastern, Southern and Western Africa is addressing challenges on implementation of policies on seeds in Eastern, Southern and Western Africa to improve the enabling business environment for agriculture and catalyze and sustain an inclusive agricultural transformation. The project is improving understanding of the existing challenges to policy implementation and building commitment of policy makers on the need to invest in unlocking policy implementation challenges for commercialization and availability of key agro-inputs in target countries.
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Enabling Policies for Technology AdoptionThe project on Enabling Policies for Technology Adoption aims to increase the percentage of farmers using improved seeds from 30% to at least 60% over the next 8-10 years through creation of a strong seed system, increasing access and availability of quality seeds, harmonization of regional technology release and registration policies and facilitation of competitive value-added chains.
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BiopesticidesGiven the importance of food safety and quality, we are facilitating regional consensus building on registration frameworks for biopesticides in selected African countries where control of aflatoxin contamination in food grain has been a national priority. This involves working with stakeholders on development of a ‘Guidance Document’ for registration of bio-pesticides including equipping regulatory laboratories with sampling and testing equipment for aflatoxin control. It also involves capacity strengthening for government ministries and private sector entities on the importance of practical food safety measures, compliance with international trade standards, and their impact on trade especially with the U.S. market and opportunities under AGOA.
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