Abstract:
Almost one in three people who live in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are hungry, higher than
anywhere else. This magnitude of food insecurity coupled with slow progress in regional
integration, disease and epidemics, poor access to markets, gender disparities, lack of land
tenure rights, and governance and institutional shortcomings on the continent have been
used to justify a narrative for the inclusion of biotechnology in smallholder agriculture in
SSA. The fact, however, suggests that even in the face of these challenges, smallholder
farmers in SSA still produce 70% of the food on the continent. We critically examine the
introduction of biotechnology in smallholder farming within the context of the New
Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition and public–private partnerships in SSA. We
explicitly address the bioethical concerns and implications for technology adoption goals in
line with a neoliberal economic model that is encouraging smallholder farmers to adopt
biotechnology as a way to secure more food for communities. This paper is not meant to
pose a simplistic pro or anti stance on genetically modified (GM) crops or biotechnology,
but rather to situate the debate about GM technology within issues of power, control in the
global food agriculture systems, and point to the bioethical concerns that affect the lives of
smallholder farmers and their families on a daily basis
