Only 15 of Africa's 54 Nations Have Approved or Trialed GM Crops

Only 15 of Africa's 54 nations have approved genetically modified crops or run field trials, according to a new review by University of Dodoma biologist Gideon Sadikiel Mmbando, published in Discover Biotechnology. The paper pins the continent's slow adoption on misinformation and persistent fears about safety, environment and ethics — not on the science itself.

Mmbando is blunt about the technology's promise. "Food biotechnology has the potential to solve many of Africa's agricultural problems," he writes in the review, highlighted by Bioengineer.

Who is actually growing GM crops?

The adopters stretch across the continent, but the list stays short. The review counts:

• Egypt — GM maize
• Sudan — GM cotton
• Ethiopia — GM cotton, newly cultivated
• Ghana and Nigeria — GM cowpea, cotton and soybeans
• South Africa — GM canola, cotton, maize and soybeans, with more than 20 years of continuous biotech cultivation

Field results where crops have taken root look encouraging. Bt cotton in Burkina Faso raised yields and farmer incomes while cutting pest damage. Biofortified sweet potatoes have spread among growers in Uganda, Kenya and Mozambique. Researchers are also applying CRISPR gene editing to traditional staples including teff and finger millet.

What's blocking wider adoption?

Mmbando identifies a stack of barriers, and he puts misinformation at the top. "The main barriers to widespread acceptance were found to be misinformation," he reports, alongside worries over safety and ethics that feed restrictive policies and public skepticism.

The capacity gaps are just as concrete. Many countries lack funding, trained staff, biosafety facilities and clear regulations — the physical and legal infrastructure a GM approval pipeline requires.

Market structure adds another pressure point. Four companies produce roughly 90% of the world's seeds, and critics of that concentration worry African growers could face dependence on foreign suppliers and higher seed prices. European and US policy positions also sway African policymakers, the review finds.

Even the underlying evidence base has holes. "Progress is hindered by a substantial lack of long-term, region-specific field data" on ecological and socioeconomic impacts, Mmbando notes.

What does this change for growers and regulators?

For African farmers outside the 15 adopting countries, nothing immediate changes — the bottleneck sits in national biosafety law and research budgets, not in seed supply. Mmbando's prescription runs on three tracks: harmonized biosafety rules across countries, more research infrastructure, and stronger technology transfer so smallholder farmers can actually access biotech seed.

The stakes scale with the continent's fast-growing population, which the review frames as the core food-security driver behind GM crops' potential. South Africa's two-decade track record with four approved biotech crops offers the closest thing Africa has to a working case study; whether the other 39 nations that have neither approved nor trialed GM products follow depends less on agronomy than on regulation, funding and public trust.