Presented as part of the "Moving Africa Towards a Knowledge Based Bio-economy" seminar on how agricultural innovation and in particular biosciences in areas such as breeding, agro-processing and value addition can contribute to economic growth and sustainable development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Key questions of the seminar: How the millions of resource-poor smallholder farmers, so vital for food production and economic growth, can benefit from the prospects of a new bio-economy? How countries in Sub-Saharan Africa can develop programmes, institutional capabilities and bioscience innovation structures able to adapt and use technologies and know-how based on their own priorities and needs? How can Sweden assist countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to move Towards a Knowledge Based Bio-economy?

1. THE PROSPECTS
FOR AN
AFRICAN
BIOECONOMY
E Jane Morris
SWEDISH INTERNATIONAL
AGRICULTURAL NETWORK
INITIATIVE
STOCKHOLM
27 SEPTEMBER 2013

2. The Challenge in sub-Saharan
Africa
 More than 40% of the population live on less
than $1 a day
 One in three people are under-nourished
 Agriculture is the largest employer of labour
 Agriculture is responsible for over half of export
earnings
 Agricultural productivity has stagnated and
agricultural production per capita has fallen
over the last four decades
 Agricultural research has failed to translate into
economic improvement

3. The Challenge in sub-Saharan Africa
 Africa lags behind much of the rest of the world in
economic development
 The current trajectory of economic development is
ecologically unsustainable
 SSA is one of the regions where natural services are
most threatened by human impact
 Agricultural productivity and crop yields need to
increase dramatically in order to avoid clearing
increasingly more virgin land for agricultural
production
 More efficient use of all agricultural biomass is
necessary, including waste minimization and value
addition through agroprocessing

4. Farming systems in Africa
 Small scale farms account for 90% of agricultural
production
 Poorly developed markets and inadequate market
access
 Poor infrastructure
 Lack of knowledge, resulting in inadequate
technology adoption and adaptation
 Use of unsuitable varieties and poor management
practices
 Do farmers want to remain in this situation? NO!
 HUGE POTENTIAL FOR THEM TO BECOME MARKET
ORIENTED PLAYERS IN A SUSTAINABLE BIOECONOMY

5. What do we mean by a
Bioeconomy?
 Sustainable production and conversion of biomass, for a
range of food, health, fibre and industrial products and
energy, where renewable biomass encompasses any
biological material to be used as raw material (EU)
 A world where biotechnology contributes to a
significant share of economic output (OECD)
which needs to be contextualized within a Green
Economy:
 A system of economic activities related to the
production, distribution and consumption of goods and
services that result in improved human wellbeing over
the long term, while not exposing future generations to
significant environmental risks and ecological scarcities
(UNEP)

6. None of this can be achieved
without innovation, i.e.:
 Transfer and application of knowledge, R&D
and information (OECD)
 The innovative application of technology to
create products or services
 Can involve adoption, refinement and
modification of existing technologies – not
necessarily new cutting edge technologies

7. In Africa, bioinnovation follows one
of three routes:
1. Community level innovation. eg Application of
indigenous knowledge in traditional medicines,
or the use of fermented products as a means of
preserving food.
2. Technology transfer and adaptation from
developed countries; eg micro-propagation,
marker assisted selection, animal vaccines.
3. Implementation of technologies developed
elsewhere in the world, eg adoption of insect-
resistant (Bt) cotton by small scale farmers in
Burkina Faso and elsewhere after backcrossing
into local varieties.

8. What can bioscience innovation
contribute?
 Improved crop varieties appropriate for local
conditions
 Improved animal breeds
 Plant and animal diagnostics and health
solutions
 Novel agroprocessing solutions providing value
addition to primary production
 Reduction in post-harvest losses
 Novel crops with potential for high economic
return

9. What about a Bioeconomy
strategy?
 EU Bio-economy Strategy focuses on the potential for
conversion of agricultural biomass into food, feed, bio-
based products and bioenergy
 US Bio-economy Blueprint focuses on new drugs and
diagnostics for improved human health, higher-
yielding food crops, biofuels and bio-based chemical
intermediates
 China sees the bio-economy as a means to tackle
certain economic and societal challenges rather than
an end goal.
 AFRICA???

10. IS AFRICA MAKING ANY
PROGRESS TOWARDS THE
DEVELOPMENT OF A BIO-
ECONOMY?

11. African case study – Striga
tolerant cereals
 21m ha infested across Africa, major crop losses
 BASF developed herbicide tolerant maize that
would kill Striga
 Technology deployed through AATF
 Limited uptake
 Uptake hampered by limited seed
availability, lack of training for farmers
 Need for brochures in local languages –
provided by NGOs

12. African case study – banana
tissue culture
 Disease results in low yields and shortened life of
plants
 Tissue culture bananas provide disease free
planting material
 Concerted efforts to enhance uptake and
improve distribution of plantlets
 Technology uptake low (eg 5% in Kenya)
 Uptake hampered by high costs of production,
lack of access to credit by farmers, the need for
agricultural inputs, and knowledge of the
required agronomic practices
 Need for disease resistant plants

13. African case study – microbial
fermentation in South Africa
 Technology to produce the amino acid lysine
developed in South Africa
 1996 - $70M investment in fermentation plant to
produce 11 000 tonnes per annum
 Technologically successful though a steep
learning curve
 1998 – management buyout
 Plant suboptimal in size, tried to diversify into
other less commoditized amino acids
 2009 – acquired by a Canadian company,
moved to yeast production

14. African case study – value
addition through agroprocessing
 Various initiatives to add value to agricultural
products across Africa
 Eg Cassava in Nigeria, cashew nuts in Kenya,
liquorice in South Africa, edible oils in East Africa
 Governments and private sector have all
recognized the potential for growth. Market-led,
private sector involvement is key for success.
 Needs to be a strong linkage between producers
and processors
 Technological, market, institutional and
infrastructural issues must all be addressed

15. Challenges and hurdles (1)
 Access to finance, markets and business
advisory services
 Support for business plan development
 Seed funding and venture capital
 Lack of purchasing power in local markets
 Transport costs and difficulty of access to markets
in the developed world
 Time and cost of product development
 Lack of critical mass (expertise, facilities, money)
 Leads to lack of competitiveness

16. Challenges and hurdles (2)
 Intellectual property
 Weak protection of IPRs in much of Africa
 Difficulty of accessing IP to ensure Freedom to
Operate
 High cost of patenting
 Liability and redress concerns
 Protection of indigenous knowledge
 Policy and regulatory hurdles
 Policies and legislation do not support innovation
 Lack of regulations for biological products

17. Challenges and hurdles (3)
 Funding for R&D
 Lack of government support for
research, development and innovation
 Reliance on donor organizations
 Lack of modern equipment, and/or funds to run
and maintain equipment
 Lack of pilot plant facilities
 Technical skills and know-how
 Lack of technological readiness hampers
innovation

18. SOME SOLUTIONS
 Public-private partnerships
 Eg WEMA, Syngenta Foundation projects
 Bioincubators
 Need to be developed throughout the continent
 Regional African collaborations
 CORAF/WECARD, ASARECA etc
 Sustained donor-funded programmes
 Eg Bio-Innovate
 Technology licensing
 Eg P57 in South Africa

19. FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES
 Improved crops,
 Animal vaccines and diagnostics
 Medicinal products derived from the continent’s
biodiversity
 Biofuels,
 Biological fertilizers
 Biological control agents
 Plant and animal diagnostics
 Biological waste treatment
 Nutraceuticals
 Cosmeceuticals

20. THE WAY FORWARD
 Innovators must focus on areas where Africa has a
real competitive advantage
 Increase investment in market research and
technology benchmarking
 Increase global competitiveness through investment
climate reforms
 Increase investment in skills development
 Lobby for strong political leadership to remove
generic roadblocks
 Build on synergies through collaboration
 Strive for an integrated approach to development of
the bioinnovation value chain – Innovation Systems
approach

21. INNOVATION SYSTEMS APPROACH
Demand Domain
• Consumers of food and food products in rural
and urban areas
• Consumers of industrial raw materials
• International commodity markets
• Policy-making process and agencies
Enterprise Domain
Users of codified
knowledge, producers of
mainly tacit knowledge
• Farmers
• Commodity traders
• Input supply agents
• Companies and industries
related to
agriculture, particularly
agroprocessing
• Transporters
Intermediary Domain
• NGOs
• Extension services
• Consultants
• Private companies
and other
entrepreneurs
• Farmer and trade
associations
• Donors
Education and Research
Domain
Mainly producing codified
knowledge
• National and international
agricultural research
organizations
• Universities and technical
colleges
• Private research foundations
Sometimes producing codified
knowledge
• Private companies
• NGOs
Support structures
• Banking and financial system
• Transport and marketing infrastructure
• Professional networks, including trade and
farmer associations
• Education system

22. TAKE HOME MESSAGE:
Swedish expertise has much to
contribute towards the development
of an African bioeconomy but an
integrated approach will achieve
more than piecemeal interventions