Bio-resources Based Economic

Growth in East Africa

The Prospects of the Bioscience Revolution

Ivar VirginStockholm Environment

Institute (SEI)

• Support decision-making sustainable development around the globe.

• Linking Policy with Science in the field of environment and development.

• Water, Energy, Climate, Atmospheric pollution, Global scenarios, Sustainable bioresource development, Innovation

How could modern biosciences contribute to sustainable developing

countries?

MDGs and Poverty Reduction Strategies has been the focus but…..

• Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and National Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS) are dominating African development efforts.

• The focus on MDGs/PRS is necessary, critical and logical.

• However, foundation for long-term sustainable economic growth is also very important.

Increasing trade - domestic, regional and overseas export

important!• Many African countries have not been able to effectively engage and use international trade as an engine of growth•In the era of globalisation and rapidly expanding global trade, Africa’s share of world trade has actually fallen!•Long-term economic prospects for many African countries tightly coupled to their ability to integrate in the global economy.

Some key questions facing Policy makers......

• How to use trade as an engine for sustainable development?

• What to produce and sell on the world market in the future?

• What type of productions systems, what infrastructure, what actors?

• How do we get there? What specific investments, capacities, policies and strategies are needed?

…?

African countries to large extent agricultural economies…

Rapid globalisation, new technologies and trade regimes, increasing energy prices and growing demand for renewable bio-resource are changing the conditions for the agricultural sector world wide..................not least for countries in Sub-Saharan Africa

The Bioresource demand boom!• Increased demand for renewable

bioresources…including food/feed• An oil economy in Zenith – increased

biofuel demand...and greenhouse emission has to come down

• The hunt for agricultural land....

THE NEW HARVESTAgricultural Innovation in Africa

Calestous JumaAfrica is a huge continent....

..still relatively sparsely populated. ..

...rich in genetic resources...

..with a great variety of agro-ecological niches...

....Significant agricultural production potential.

Way forward ?

• Countries in Africa using bio-resources as a strategic base for sustainable economic growth

• The development of a modern “Bio-resource Economy”.

So what are the demands... and the prospects!

Farmers will need to at least double production over the next 25 years to meet increased demand.

— Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research

Increased demand have to be met mainly by increased crop

productivity!

Higher crop productivity

badly needed!….

Not least in the South.

Climate change and resource scarcity

How do we meet a rapid increase of bioresource demand in resource effective, climate smart and in a sustainable manner??

In the North, investments in precision agriculture making agriculture more :-resource efficient-sustainable -climate smart

Improved Seeds/cultivars are key!

FAO, AU, World Bank points to improved seeds/ cultivars as a key to improving productivity

Plant Breeding is evolving rapidly .

• Bioscience and gene technology increasingly important tools in breeding....all over the world.

USD/genome

2001 500 MUSD

2007 1 MUSD

2008 100 000 USD 2012 1000 USD

2020 1000 USD

The bioscience revolution moves very fast….

It took 300 researchers 10 years to sequence the human genome, which today would take one researcher a week!!!!

Gene technology a toolbox formore efficient and more precise breedingand the development just begun….

Whats on the horizon?

Soon (2-5 years), crops with:• Improved nutrional composition

(vitamines,proteins • Golden rice-vitamin A rice)• Improved drough tolerance

Further away (10-20 years)• Perennial crops. • More effecient nutrient uptake. • More efficient phototosynthesis.• ...More rescource efficient crops

Plants are chemical factories

Everthing you do with mineral oils youcan do with plant oils

Its a matter of costs !

1997

$17 USD $88 USD $130 USD $ 130 USD

2011

Biofuel and biofuels technologies increasingly important world wide...

Production of non food/feed agricultural products increasing!

• Development of agroindustrial production systems producing:- biofuels, fibres, starch products, -“green” chemicals”, biodegradable plastics, oils and lubricants -detergents, enzymes, cosmetics, fragrances and flavours, medicinal products

• Dow, Du Pond are moving from petrochemicals to R&D on biotech/GM industrial crops.

• Biotechnology can be used to support value addition, value chains and bioprocessing

Moving the chemical factory to the fields........

2010 2030 ?

An opportunity for Africa...?

6% of global harvest, can replace 40% of fossil oil in chemical industry with plant oils.

Stymne et al...and the ICON Industrial Crops producing added value Oils for Novel chemicals project -

optimizing the production of industrially important oils in high-yielding, agronomically important crops

Converting waste into useful products...modernizing the

agroindustril sector

Huge potential for countries in Africa....

.

Long-term development goals and visions on how to benefit from global trade some 15-20 years ahead needed.....Where do you want to be?

Countries without competence to use modern Biosciences miss the opportunity to use this

powerful technology to develop productive resource efficient sustainable crop production systems for

food, feed and agroindustrial products

The Bio-Innovate Program contributions to the Eastern Africa Bio-

economy

The Gene Hunters- Calestous Juma

• Moving genetic resources. Tee from China to India, rubber from Brazil to Malaysia

• Gene Hunters today…the ability to design and ”tailor make” agroindustrial production

• Agricultural economies/gene rich countries can benefit!

The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa

Calestous Juma, Harvard University

• …“Gene technology can be for Africa what the IT revoution has been for India…”.

....but in order to benefit from the wide-ranging advances in biosciences countries need to increase their ability to develop and adopt technologies and knowledge according totheir own priorities and needs!

Who is missing the bioscience train?

The Seeds of Future…

Developing, adopting and utilising the new biosciences to promote a biobased African growth will require: • Active support from African governments • Effective policies supporting bioscience innovation • A dynamic public research and development (R&D) sector.• Regional integration and collaboration, international partnership and

multidisciplinary innovation platforms involving the private sector

Thank you for listening!!

For more information please contact

ivar.virgin@sei.se