The diseases there are so heavy on the banana crop that we need to devise ways of getting around them. This is where the bottom-up approach becomes important. In fact, we have already commissioned somebody to carry out a social economic impact assessment. We are planning to expand to other regions and other countries, and we are hoping to do the same so that the farmers are not disappointed because of lack of market for their surplus produce. Africa missed the green revolution, where biology did wonders for countries in the East, like India, where the production of rice and wheat was 10 times higher than earlier productions.
Biotechnology applies the same principles, but the science is a bit advanced.
We do need biotechnology in Africa very much because of the greater persistence of hunger. The continent experiences low food production, and we have situations which are peculiar to Africa, which need to be tackled by biotechnology. We have low nitrogen content in the soil that we need to fix, we have insect pest and disease that we need to control and we have crop varieties that we need to improve. We would be worried if we tampered with it without having biosafety regulations in place. What is invested on research and development in Africa is pitiable, compared to other continents.