Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa

Schnurr, M. A., Gore, C. D., Addison, L., Bawa, S., Taylor, A., Nsereko, H., & Mujabi-Mujuzi, S. (2024). The gendered value chain of matooke banana and its implications for tissue culture adoption in Uganda. Journal of Eastern African Studies, 1–24.

Tissue culture banana is promoted as a form of micro-propagation that can aid farmers in managing pests and disease in Uganda, the country with the largest per capita consumption of banana in the world. But uptake amongst smallholder farmers remains low. This study recruited 71 farmers from five banana-growing districts in Uganda to assess how …

Rock, J., Schnurr, M.A., Kingiri, A., Ely, A., Glover, D., Stone, G.D., and Fischer, K. (2023). The knowledge politics of genome editing in Africa. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, 11 (1): 00143.

How is the promise of crop genome editing viewed by scientists working with or aspiring to work with the technology, by development experts seeking to mold public perceptions and policy attitudes toward genome editing, and by donors that provide funds for genome-editing research for agricultural applications in sub-Saharan Africa? In this article, we present data …

Rock, J., Schnurr, M.A., Kingiri, A., Glover, Stone, G.D., Ely, A., & Fischer, K. (2023). Beyond the Genome: Genetically Modified Crops in Africa and the Implications for Genome Editing. Development and Change.

Genome editing — a plant-breeding technology that facilitates the manipulation of genetic traits within living organisms — has captured the imagination of scholars and professionals working on agricultural development in Africa. Echoing the arrival of genetically modified (GM) crops decades ago, genome editing is being heralded as a technology with the potential to revolutionize breeding …

Schnurr, M.A., Rock, J., Kingiri, A., & Lieberman, S. (2022). Are genetically modified and genome-edited crops viable strategies for climate-change adaptation among smallholder farmers? Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 58, 101216

Genetic modification and genome editing are laboratory techniques that allow plant breeders to alter an organism’s DNA with the aim of enhancing the expression of beneficial traits. Both have been touted as pro-poor breeding technologies that can help smallholder farmers in low-income countries adapt to climate change. This review assesses the evidence showcasing both the …

Ely, A., Friedrich, B., Glover, D., Fischer, K., Stone, G., Kingiri, A., and Schnurr, M.A. (2022). Governing Agricultural Biotechnologies in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany: A Trans-decadal Study of Regulatory Cultures. Science, Technologies, & Human Values.

Comparative studies of agricultural biotechnology regulation have highlighted differences in the roles that science and politics play in decision-making. Drawing on documentary and interview evidence in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, we consider how the “regulatory cultures” that guided national responses to earlier generations of agricultural biotechnology have developed, alongside the emergence …