Gates Foundation gives $3m grant to support biotechnology in Africa
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on Thursday presented $3 million grant to the Open Forum for Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB) to expand its operations.
The grant also seeks to support the forum to create an enabling environment for agricultural biotechnology which would allow for the testing and delivery of innovative tools to help farmers enhance their food security and create wealth for their families and nations.
Ms Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, announced the grant at the forum’s 5th Anniversary commemoration workshop in Accra.
She described biotechnology as a vital tool used extensively in agriculture globally over the decades which had contributed immeasurably to food security in Africa.
Professor Walter Sandow Alhassan, Coordinator for Africa Biosafety and Biotechnology Policy Platform, noted that despite the increasing global trends in the use of modern biotechnology for agriculture, the rate of its adoption in Africa was slow.
He noted that: “Biotechnology has delivered substantial benefits to farmers around the world but Africa still lags behind in exploiting its potential partly due to lack of an enabling environment for the development and use of agricultural biotechnology.
“But inadequate awareness creation, lack of biotechnology related legislation, poor infrastructure and insufficient financial support for agricultural research has hindered the use of biotechnology”.
He therefore called on governments across Africa to provide enabling legislation and fast track mechanism for a science-led review of biosafety applications.
The Open Forum for Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB) is a platform that provides an opportunity for biotechnology stakeholders to network, share knowledge and experiences, and explores new avenues of bringing the benefits of biotechnology to the African farmer and investor.
Source: GNA
I and many others have been reading online that your foundation plans to vaccinate the worlds children. This is terrible news since you can read on many websites that vaccinations are killing children or destroying their brains causing many unheard of diseases. Also, children are now getting the very diseases that they are being vaccinated for. Will there be lawsuits against your foundation because of all the children that will be sickened or die from vaccinations? There are many lawsuits against the big pharmaceutical companies. Please reverse that horrible decision against children. Thank you for reading this and doing further research. Please protect the children and reconsider your decision.
Hysteria, hysteria again: we have had all that before with MMR vaccine and stories of resultant autism. How about some convincing evidence instead of wild assertions?