Rwanda embraces biotech through OFAB expansion

Rwanda signaled its growing receptivity toward agricultural biotechnology this week as it joined seven other African countries; Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania in forming a country chapter of the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB).

“By embracing technological upgrading and building capacity for our farmers and rural value chain actors, I believe they will make informed decisions to be at par with the rest of African countries who are already benefiting from agricultural biotechnology, such as South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, among others,” said Dr. Geraldine Mukeshimana, Rwanda’s Minister for Agriculture and Animal Resources.

Africa has yet to adopt agricultural biotechnology in an optimal way as one of the solutions to food production challenges, Mukeshimana said.

“As a continent, we are still hesitating due to the bad press GM (genetically modified) products have received for the past decades,” she said. “It is worth noting that the food import bill for Africa rose to US$49 billion in 2019 from US$35 billion in 2015.  We need to use homegrown scientists’ innovations to help reduce the food import bill and to repurpose these savings to other socio-economic programmes.”

Biotechnology

By joining OFAB, Rwanda has achieved a great milestone that allows agricultural stakeholders to interact and share knowledge on crop and livestock biotechnology, she noted. “This knowledge is critical to the stakeholder who needs to make informed decisions amidst misconceptions about biotechnology,” Mukeshimana said.

OFAB was established by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) in 2006 as a platform for advancing stakeholder interactions on agriculture biotechnology. OFAB also intends to expand its outreach through the establishment of new chapters in Malawi and Mozambique. AATF is an African-led NGO that works in 23 countries, including Rwanda, to empower smallholder farmer through access to technologies that can improve their livelihoods

Biotechnology is the most suitable tool to spur sustainable development in Africa, Mukeshimana said, noting that the OFAB collaboration puts Rwanda on the same level as other African countries that are using various platforms to engage the public about opportunities in biotechnology to mitigate agricultural production challenges.

The Rwanda OFAB chapter will be hosted by the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB) and will work to enhance awareness and science-based knowledge agricultural innovations.

With the launch, Rwanda agriculture stakeholders will get a chance to participate in conversations on the role of science technology and innovation, particularly biotechnology, in the transformation of agriculture in Africa. The establishment of the OFAB Rwanda chapter will also help close the information gap around agricultural biotechnology and demystify the attendant myths and misconceptions.