Dr. Daniel Mataruka Executive Director African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) ( The Launch of The Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) Tanzania Chapter The Peacock Millennium Hotel on 25 th May 2009

Vision: Prosperous farmers and a food secure Africa Facilitate access and delivery of proprietary agricultural technologies that address constraints of smallholder farmers in SSA Appropriate partnerships to manage the technologies AATF – An introduction

Current AATF Projects  Striga control in smallholder maize fields  Insect-resistant cowpea varieties  Banana bacterial wilt resistance  Enhanced nitrogen use efficiency and salt tolerance in rice  Drought tolerance in maize 1 Special project:  Nutritionally enhanced sorghum varieties (AHBFI)

About biotechnology There is growing development in biotechnology worldwide.  number of farmers increased by 1.3 million in 2008 to reach 13 million farmers on 125m ha  90% are small holder resource-poor farmers.  number of countries planting biotech crops also increased to 25 countries in 2008 – three in Africa (Egypt, Burkina Faso and South Africa).  These developments in agricultural biotechnology are an indicator that this is the technology of the future

Why the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology? A lot has been said on biotechnology - Some true but also a lot of untruths and even myths The untruths are causing anxiety among our people and decision makers Africa has many highly qualified scientists working on biotechnology who can shed light In its tradition of facilitator, AATF initiated the OFAB platform where this critical mass of knowledge can be accessed by policy and law makers, by journalists and the general public

What is OFAB? A platform for biotechnology stakeholders to  Constructively share information & knowledge among opinion leaders & decision makers, scientists, journalists, farmers & consumers  On science, technology, innovations, environmental protection, policy, trade, social benefits sharing and their impact on Africa’s economic development  Explore avenues of bringing biotech benefits to resource poor farmers  OFAB could be an equivalent of ‘Baraza la wazee’ (Council of Elders)

OFAB Modus Operandi  By collaborative agreement between like- minded institutions – Country Chapters  Kenya – AATF & ISAAA (Sept 2006)  Uganda – AATF, UNCST & PBS (Dec 2007)  Nigeria – AATF, NABDA & ARCN (Apr 2009)  Tanzania – AATF & COSTECH (May 2009)  Programs and activities managed by a country Programming Committee (PC)  Monthly lunch meetings – about 2 hours  Presentations & discussions

In conclusion Appreciations to COSTECH AATF assures of its commitment and support AATF hopes that open discussions at OFAB Tanzania will encourage Better understanding Informed appreciation Enhanced uptake of agric biotechnology