AUDA-NEPAD, in partnership with the National Biotechnology Authority of Zimbabwe, organized a biosafety capacity-building workshop for regulators, scientists, and other stakeholders from 14-16th March 2023 in Harare, Zimbabwe.

About 35 participants from various technology, regulatory, and development institutions attended the training workshop. Topics covered in the training on the 14th and 15th of March 2023 included the importance of genetic technologies for enhancing food and nutrition security and livelihoods, introduction to genetic approaches for crop improvement, environmental risk assessment, food safety assessment, legal issues pertaining to GM crops, regulation of stacked traits and genome editing, and considerations for environmental release and decision making of biotech crops. In addition, standard procedures for the conduct of confined field trials (CFTs) and inspection and compliance monitoring of CFTs were addressed.

On the 16th of March 2023, participants traveled to Kadoma, where one of the GM cotton CFTs is being conducted by the Cotton Research Institute of Zimbabwe in collaboration with Quton Seed Company, Mahyco Seeds, and Bayer Crop Sciences. Representatives of these seed companies provided briefings about the CFTs, and discussions were held on-site.

A few months ago, in 2022, Zimbabwe made a leap in approving CFTs of insect-resistant GM cotton, which is a precursor for commercial cultivation of the crop. Hence a critical need to make sure the country follows the necessary steps in compliance with national and international standards.  AUDA-NEPAD’s biosafety programme (ABNE) will continue providing technical support to Zimbabwe to help the country safely harnesses biotechnology and, eventually, other new emerging breeding techniques for its development.