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Factors influencing agbiotech adoption and development in sub-Saharan Africa

Nature Biotechnology volume 30, pages 38–40 (2012)Cite this article

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An Erratum to this article was published on 08 February 2012

This article has been updated

To the Editor:

The first issue mentioned in the interviews is that poor communication is affecting agbiotech adoption. The majority of stakeholders interviewed identified a limited understanding of GM crops by the public as a major challenge to improving public perception of the technology for successful development and adoption of agbiotech in SSA. Indeed, one stakeholder stated, “My understanding is that a number of people, including politicians and some decision makers, do not know really what GM is.” Elitism in reporting and ineffective and inaccurate communication by the media and other stakeholder groups were described as barriers to appropriate information sharing and informed public perception.

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  • 12 January 2012

    In the version of this supplementary file originally posted online, information regarding the positions of the participants and the organizations they belonged to was not complete. Complete information has been provided in this file as of 12 January 2012.

References

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to J. Clark, J. Komen and D. Kamanga for their comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript. This project was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and supported by the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, an academic center at the University Health Network and University of Toronto. The findings and conclusions contained within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect official positions or policies of the Gates Foundation.

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  1. McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, University Health Network and University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Obidimma C Ezezika, Abdallah S Daar, Kathryn Barber, Justin Mabeya, Fiona Thomas, Jennifer Deadman, Debbie Wang & Peter A Singer

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  1. Obidimma C Ezezika
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  2. Abdallah S Daar
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peter A Singer.

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Competing interests

Authors received grant from Gates Foundation to study the water-efficient maize mentioned in the paper.

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Ezezika, O., Daar, A., Barber, K. et al. Factors influencing agbiotech adoption and development in sub-Saharan Africa. Nat Biotechnol 30, 38–40 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.2088

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