Abstract

Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the most food insecure regions in the world. Africa’s overall food production capacity is said to be increasing at the rate of 1.4% while its population is expanding at about 2.4% per year. The continuing decline in food production has to be reversed if massive food insecurity, poverty, social and political instability are to be averted. Genetic modification, biofortification and other new and emerging technologies, including synthetic biology, artificial intelligence and tissue engineering may have potential implications for the future of crop and livestock agriculture. However, biotechnology requires investments in research and development, human capital, infrastructure and knowledge flows, regional and international collaboration, and technology foresight and assessment for agricultural innovations. The adoption and full utilization of biotechnology in general, and agricultural biotechnology in particular in Sub-Saharan Africa appear to be very slow. It was in view of the above that this review was designed and intended to determine if biotechnology investment can get Africa out of poverty and hunger, the current status of African biotechnology investment, and level of investment in biotechnology that would get African out of poverty and hunger. An integrative review was used as the project design, and the study had searched for more than 40 articles and reviewed more than 35 of the articles being the most recent. As at 2022, seven countries out of fifty-four had the functional biosafety systems. Number of commercial approval of GM crops, the types approved and approval for commercial release of the crops for local consumption is negligible. The study concluded that African nations are far behind in terms of acceptance, adoption, and utilization of modern biotechnology. The study recommended increase in funding for R & D so as to increase number of crops release for commercial cultivation and export, investment in other sectors of biotechnology like medical (bio-pharma, diagnostics, vaccines, etc.), environment, industry, etc., put workable policies & legislation for biosafety and patent right protection, encourage trans-border trade among regional members, increase awareness on GM crops through outreaches.