Plant Biotechnology on a flight: Is Africa on board?

The rate of development of plant biotechnologies has been huge in recent times, especially in the developed countries. The technologies have created a new branch of biotechnology known as molecular farming, where plants are engineered to produce pharmaceutical and technical proteins in commercial quantities. An evaluation of the status of plant biotechnology development in Africa revealed that the very few countries, with the exception of South Africa, that are involved in biotechnology activities are still at the level of tissue culture applications. This calls for sincere commitments on the part of various stakeholders in Africa, especially the governments, to the development of biotechnology capacity.