2 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
technology interventions, genetically engineered (GE) crops1 present an option that could help increase agricultural productivity, improve income, and contribute to achieving the goals of broader poverty alleviation and national development policies (FAO 2004). The potential role of GE crops in addressing the continent’s constraints has
been recognized in Africa (Juma and Serageldin 2007). Accumulated expe- rience and knowledge in Africa and other developing countries (see Qaim 2009; Smale et al. 2009; Pontifical Academy of Sciences 2010; Potrykus and Ammann 2010; Areal, Riesgo, and Rodriguez-Cerezo 2012) suggest that avail- able GE crops in the short and medium term may have significant value for African agriculture. Yet their development and use remain controversial in many countries in SSA and in other developing countries. This is partly due to an incomplete understanding of the appropriate development role for GE crops and other biotechnologies that are products of nascent innovation sys- tems in the subregion. Valuing the development potential for the introduction of GE crops in SSA must account for their potential development interven- tions within the scope of broader poverty alleviation efforts and national development policies, taking into account the economic and political contexts. Like most technological interventions, GE crops will not solve all SSA devel-
opment problems, nor will all available GE crops be useful—or appropriate— in the African context. Instead, African decisionmakers will need to evaluate the specific value of each GE crop as a tool in the portfolio of potential inter- ventions that may be made available to farmers in the region. GE crops may be particularly important if they help solve specific crop productivity constraints in Africa. This is true especially of those productivity constraints that have not been resolved by conventional means, including conventional plant breed- ing, integrated pest management, and in those situations where other control/ productivity enhancement approaches may not be accessible to farmers. To identify potential beneficial technologies, an assessment of economic
impacts is called for, which includes analyses at the farm, national, and inter- national levels. In any such priority-setting exercise, the institutional setting needs to be accounted for, as it may have an impact on adoption, technology use, and output marketing by farmers in developing countries (see, for example,
1 Here we use the label “GE” for transgenic crops or products derived thereof, because it is one of the most commonly employed term used in the literature and public media. Other equally im- precise terms (such as genetically modified (GM) crops derived from modern biotechnology) could be used instead, and may be used interchangeably in the book. In this book we focus on GE crops, yet many of the issues discussed here apply to animals, arthropods and other insects, and microorganisms, which may become available in SSA.
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