According to Robert Paarlberg of Harvard University, the disadvantaged farmers of Africa were bypassed for the most part by the Green Revolution and the gains in production that were brought on by conventional plant breeding. Those improved varieties still required that farmers buy supplementary inputs such as fertilizer and pesticides. But with the new transgenic crops, the potential for greater productivity exists in the seed itself. Pests and diseases are controlled through genetic engineering, not by chemicals. Despite substantial progress during the past quarter century, many countries, particularly here in Africa, have been unable to achieve sustained gains in agricultural output.
Biotechnology holds promise for changing that picture and for poverty alleviation.
Increasing farm productivity will raise incomes of the rural poor and free up workers to support growth in manufacturing and service sector jobs. Raising agricultural productivity will be crucial to any strategy to increase economic growth and decrease poverty levels. But the challenges to acceptance of biotechnology are many. Challenges to the acceptance of biotechnology include political as well as technical aspects. To this point, the scientific community has developed biotechnology responsibly.