Biotech Updates

Biotech Stewardship Training in Kenya

January 22, 2010

Kenyan biotechnology scientists and regulators were trained on biotechnology stewardship under the ‘Strengthening capacity for safe biotechnology management in Sub-Saharan Africa' (SABIMA) project at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) Nairobi on January 19 to 20, 2010. The training was facilitated by Dr. Patrick Rüdelsheim of Perseus, Belgium who has a vast experience in regulatory support of transgenic products, field trials and commercial releases in industry acquired from Plant Genetic Systems N.V., AgrEvo, Aventis S.A. and Bayer companies.

Participants were drawn from the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Biosafety Authority and KARI. These included principal investigators from plant biotechnology product development projects like the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA), BioCassava Plus (BC+), Virus Resistance Cassava for Africa (VIRCA), and Africa Biofortified Sorghum (ABS) Sorghum, and Bt Cotton.

The training was the first of three module trainings which involves stewardship background, leadership and audit. Participants were exposed to the Excellence Through Stewardship (ETS) program which is the first industry coordinated initiative to promote global adoption of stewardship programs and quality management systems for the full life cycle of GM products. In her closing remarks, Ms Jane Otadoh, the head of the Biotechnology and Biosafety branch at the Ministry of Agriculture, noted that Kenya has made tremendous progress in biotechnology- related research in the region. "The fact that these projects intend to be executed carefully and responsibly for the full product development cycle is very encouraging," she concluded.

SABIMA comes under The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) umbrella program on African Biotechnology Biosafety Policy Platform (ABBPP). The project is funded by the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA). The project participating countries are Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and Malawi. In Kenya, the initiative is led by Dr. Simon Gichuki and Dr. Forstine Wandera of KARI on behalf of FARA.

For more information, email Dr. Simon T. Gichuki at stgichuki@kari.org