07 November 2000

U.S.-Africa Biotechnology Conference to Be Held in Ghana

By Charles W. Corey
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- U.S. and African agriculture experts will meet in Accra, Ghana, November 9-11 to discuss the advantages of using biotechnology to boost agricultural output and generate increased trade, economic growth, and development throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

The conference, entitled "Enabling Biotechnology for African Agriculture," aims to help "clear the air" of much of the bad press, myths, and misinformation that have surrounded the use of biotechnology in agriculture, according to Darrel Upshaw, a program analyst with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Foreign Agricultural Service, who discussed the conference on November 7. He said that representatives from some 40 African countries are expected to attend the event.

According to Upshaw, biotechnology involves using science and technology to improve agricultural output and speed the growing times of crops -- especially in developing countries. Biotechnology is best used as "a tool to enhance agricultural development," he said.

It is a myth, Upshaw said, that the techniques of biotechnology are too costly for the average farmer to use. And if the average farmer does not have the proper technical knowledge to apply the techniques, he said, that can be remedied through enhanced training by international agricultural institutions.

And so Upshaw and his colleagues are promoting biotechnology in the hope that its use by African farmers will "improve their agricultural development" and thus "open up two-way trade with the agriculture community here in the United States," he said.

Additionally, Upshaw, who will attend the conference, said the event hopes to do the following:

• spread information and promote education about agricultural biotechnology;

• create an awareness of biotechnology's advantages and spark communication between the general public and government officials on its use; and

• create a network composed of the USDA and international research facilities, institutions, and universities in Africa that will develop an "ongoing relationship" on biotechnology.

The conference, to include a USDA delegation and experts from the historically black Tuskegee University, is an outgrowth of the Fifth African-African American Summit, which was held in Accra in 1999.

Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.
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