Transgenic Horticultural Crops on the African Continent - Transgenic Horticultural Crops: Challenges and Opportunities - page 149

TABLE 6.1
Transgenic Horticultural Crops and Traits under Commercialization
and Status of NBFs in Four African Countries

Country Transgenic Hort Crops and Traits Biosafety Law CPB Commercialization

Egypt Watermelon-VR Yes Bt.maize.2008

✓

Squash-VR
Melon-VR
Cucumber-VR
Potato-IR

Kenya Sweet.potato-VR 2009 ✓ None

South.Africa Grapes-FR

Potato-IR
Sweet.potato-VR
Strawberries-RR

1997,.2003 ✓ Bt.maize-yellow

Bt.maize-white
Bt.cotton
RR-soybean
Stacked.gene.traits

Uganda Banana-FR Draft.bill None

✓

Banana-AP
Banana-BR
Banana-NE

Note: . AP,. agronomic. performance;. BR,. bacterial. resistance;. CPB,. Cartagena. Protocol. on. Biosafety;.
FR,.fungal.resistance;.IR,.insect.resistance;.NE,.nutritional.enhancement;.RR,.round-up.ready;.
and.VR,.virus.resistance;.NBFs,.national.biosafety.frameworks.

The.major.challenges,.on.the.other.hand,.have.been.summarized.by.Bradford.and.
Alson 7 .as.encompassing.technical,.economic,.regulatory,.and.market-related.factors.
While. a. number. of. products. have. been. developed. and. tested,. unfortunately.
they. have. not. reached. commercialization. 8 . Consequently,. there. has. been. a. drastic.
decrease.in.R&D.efforts.going.into.horticultural.products.with.investors.choosing.to.
invest.in.breeding.and.the.use.of.molecular.markers. 9,10

SOUTH AFRICA

b t p otato
The.case.studies.on.Bt.potato.in.both.Egypt 11 .and.South.Africa.have.been.extensively.
covered 12 .and.will.not.be.described.in.detail.here..South.Africa.has.had.11.years.of.
experience.working.with.Bt.potato,.and.ive.of.those.years.have.been.spent.on.con-
ined.ield.trials.(CFTs)..The.Agricultural.Research.Council.(ARC).has.now.applied.
for.approval.of.larger-scale.ield.trials.in.a.number.of.selected.areas.and.that.approval.
is.still.awaited..Just.as.was.found.in.Egypt,.the.Bt.technology.for.resistance.to.potato.
tuber.moth.works.extremely.well..The.outstanding.safety.concerns.have.to.do.with.
stewardship.issues,.seeing.that.South.Africa's.neighbors,.except.for.Zimbabwe,.do.
not.have.functioning.biosafety.regulations.in.place.to.safeguard.the.transboundary.
movement.of.potato,.a.vegetatively.propagated.crop.