By Henry Neondo
The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) announced
recently in Kampala, Uganda a public-private partnership to develop
drought-tolerant maize varieties for Africa through gene manipulations-a
marked difference from the stand taken by the Alliance for a Green
Revolution in Africa.
The long-term goal of public-private partnership, according to AATF,
is to reduce crop failure, alleviate hunger and poverty.

The partnership, known as Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA), was
formed in response to a growing call by African farmers, leaders, and
scientists to address the devastating effects of drought on small-scale
farmers and their families.

Frequent drought leads to crop failure, hunger, and poverty. Climate
change will only worsen the problem. AATF announced the effort at the end of
a two-day planning meeting that included representatives from each of the
countries participating in the project: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and South
Africa.

And in a marked difference with the Kofi-Annan-led Alliance for a
Green Revolution in Africa, AGRA, which advocates non-biotechnology grain
development, the AATF partners will use marker-assisted breeding and
biotechnology to develop African maize varieties with the long-term goal of
making drought-tolerant maize available royalty-free to African small-scale
farmers.

The benefits and safety of these maize varieties will be assessed by
national authorities according to the regulatory requirements in each
country.

"This partnership fits well with the AATF mandate of facilitating
innovative public/private partnerships that bring to smallholder farmers in
Africa the tools needed to increase productivity for better food and income
security", said Mpoko Bokanga, Executive Director AATF.

AATF will work with the non-profit International Maize and Wheat
Improvement Center (CIMMYT); the private agricultural company, Monsanto; and
the national agricultural research systems in the participating countries.

The new drought-tolerance technologies have already been licensed
without charge to AATF so they can be developed, tested, and eventually
distributed to African seed companies through AATF without royalty and made
available to smallholder farmers.

Bokanga added that the project will involve local institutions, both
public and private, and in the process expand their capacity and experience
in crop breeding, biotechnology, and biosafety.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Howard G. Buffett
Foundation contributed a total of $47 million to this effort. The Uganda?s
Director General of the National Agricultural Research Organisation Dr.
Dennis Kyetere said that the project will help address drought and
contribute to food security in Africa.

"Drought is a source of suffering and food insecurity for many people
in Uganda and it is recognised as a challenge by the government. Drought
causes up to 100 percent crop failure in Uganda in some instances", said Dr.
Kyetere.

Africa is a drought-prone continent, making farming risky for millions
of small-scale farmers who rely on rainfall to water their crops.

Maize is the most widely grown staple crop in Africa: more than 300
million Africans depend on it as their main food source.

It is severely affected by frequent drought. In the next five years,
the partnership will develop the new maize varieties, incorporating the best
drought-tolerance technologies available internationally.

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre, CIMMYT will
provide conventionally developed drought tolerant high-yielding maize
varieties that are adapted to African conditions and expertise in
conventional breeding and testing for drought tolerance. Monsanto will
provide proprietary germplasm, advanced breeding tools and expertise.

Additionally, representatives from Monsanto and BASF said they will
provide without royalty drought-tolerance transgenes that they have
developed through their collaboration.

The national agricultural research systems, farmers? groups, and seed
companies participating in the project will contribute their expertise in
breeding, regulatory issues and will be responsible for country-specific
implementation including project governance, testing, germplasm evaluation,
seed production and distribution.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has funded an independent program
at the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health (University of Toronto) to
assess and monitor social, cultural, ethical and commercial issues related
to the WEMA Project.

The independent organization will conduct annual audits of WEMA and
serve as an additional communication channel for stakeholders.

According to eminent scientist Professor Calestous Juma, who is the
Director of the Science, Technology and Globalisation Project at
HarvardUniversity, the WEMA project is a powerful signal of the relevance of
biotechnology to African agriculture.

The collaboration between CIMMYT and national agricultural research
systems has already yielded excellent gains in drought tolerance through
conventional breeding.

The partners in the WEMA project expect the combination of advanced
breeding and biotechnology to bring even greater gains. The partners
estimate that the maize products developed over the next 10 years could
increase yields by 20 to 35 percent under moderate drought, compared to
current varieties.

This increase would translate into about two million additional tons
of food during drought years in the participating countries, meaning 14 to
21 million people would have more to eat and sell.

The first conventional varieties developed by WEMA could be available
after six to seven years of research and development.

The transgenic drought-tolerant maize hybrids will be available in
about ten years. Risk of crop failure from drought is one of the primary
reasons why small-scale farmers in Africa do not adopt improved farming
practices. A more reliable harvest could give farmers the confidence to
improve their techniques.

Good soil health, improved training and support, pest and disease
management, and access to markets to sell their surplus are all necessary
for small-scale farmers to boost their yields and incomes.

To date, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has invested more than
$660 million as part of a broad agricultural development strategy that
includes efforts in all of these areas so small-scale farmers could have
access to the tools and opportunities they need to build better lives.

The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) is an
African-led charity designed to facilitate and promote public/private
partnerships for the access and delivery of appropriate proprietary
technologies with potential to increase the productivity of resource-poor
smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa.


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