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Women researchers are strongly influencing the adoption of agricultural biotechnology in Africa.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAs African women, we are the ones who suffer most whenever drought and food shortages strike, despite the availability of technological solutions to these problems,\u201d said Dr. Felister Makini, deputy director general in charge of crops at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO).<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe are looking for new solutions and how we can use technology to give our people and ourselves better and improved crop varieties to fight hunger and improve the quality of living,\u201d said Dr. Priver Namanya Bwesigye, who leads Uganda\u2019s banana research program at the National Agricultural Research Laboratories (NARL) at Kawanda.\u00a0 \u201cWe also need varieties that can give us more in terms of nutrients.\u201d<\/p>\n Throughout Africa, women are in labs developing crops that produce high yields and can tolerate or resist disease, as well as healthier, more productive livestock. They are also found in meeting rooms and gardens informing the public about their innovations and how these improved crops can aid the fight against hunger across both the continent and the globe.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is time to tell the public about the positive side of biotechnology<\/a>,\u201d said Professor Caroline Thoruwa, chairperson for African Women in Science and Engineering.<\/p>\n In Uganda, where bananas are an important staple food and cash crop, Bwesigye is in charge of developing varieties that offer farmers better options.<\/p>\n She and her team are using the tools of genetic engineering to develop banana varieties that are resistant to nematodes, bacterial wilt and weevils. The most advanced of these genetically modified varieties is a banana biofortified to provide vitamin A. It should reach farmers immediately after Uganda implements a legal biosafety framework guiding the use of GMOs.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have trialled the technology in multiple locations \u2014 all the four banana planting regions of Uganda \u2014 and it will be ready by the time we have a legal framework,\u201d Bwesigye said. \u201cWe have to do this [multi-location field trials] before we can give it to the farmers. We want to be sure that different farmers across the country can plant the variety and have similar results. In this case, all the banana yields should be rich in pro-vitamin A.\u201d<\/p>\n But Bwesigye\u2019s program does much more than develop improved bananas using biotechnology. It also employs conventional plant breeding tools to produce heartier varieties, including a banana resistant to black sigatoka disease. When she\u2019s not in the lab, Bwesigye conducts extensive outreach to farmers and young people to explain agricultural biotechnology and why Uganda, Africa and the world need this tool.<\/p>\n Dr. Barbara Mugwanya Zawedde is also championing the adoption of agricultural biotechnology in Africa. She\u2019s currently director for research at Uganda\u2019s Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute in Mukono, which is under the jurisdiction of the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO).<\/p>\n But before that, she was the coordinator for the Uganda Biosciences Information Center (UBIC) \u2014 NARO\u2019s knowledge and information-sharing hub. It champions an appreciation of modern biosciences research for agricultural development and works to educate stakeholders on the importance of biosafety.<\/p>\n In that role, Zawedde engaged religious leaders, local communities, farmers, extension agents, legislators, public ministries, \u201cwomen in agriculture,\u201d students and others to raise awareness about new technologies and their safety.<\/p>\n After earning a doctorate in plant breeding, genetics and biotechnology from Michigan State University, Zawedde returned home to Uganda in 2013 to discover \u201cwe had gaps in communication as well as in regulation,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n So, she worked with Dr. Yona Baguma, now deputy director general for NARO, to set up the biosciences information center. Their goal was to \u201cbring to the fore these new technologies that people were not talking about\u201d and to emphasise the importance of regulating them.<\/p>\n \u201cThe regulatory framework [we have been calling for] is not just for the introduction of these new technologies, but for their regulation as well,\u201d Zawedde said.<\/p>\n To an extent, Zawedde and UBIC have been successful.<\/p>\n