How do you foresee the future of crop biotech nology in the African continent?
I think Africa is going to move slowly though public perception is not a big problem there. It is a country like India where perception is not a major issue except for a few intellectuals here and there. The biggest problem in the African continent is that apart from South Africa and some parts of the Arab world like Egypt, there is hardly any technology research being done. Africa is where agricultural biotechnology s greatest promise lies. In Africa biotechnology has the potential of increasing the agricultural productivity, developing crops that are tailored for harsh environmental conditions, marginal soils, etc. But this cannot be done in many of the African countries simply because of lack of research infrastructure, lack of policy supporting, forget biotechnology, just simple agricultural research. And so there is no point in having computers when people are illiterate. So what is required there is something more basic. Just like how the green revolution was brought into countri
