In an open letter to ECOWAS Ministers currently meeting in Bamako, Mali, to discuss biotechnology issues, the group lamented that at a meeting held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in July 2004 , the ministers adopted a resolution calling for greater research and investment in agricultural biotechnology and recommending the creation of a West African Centre for Biotechnology without considering the negative side of introducing GMOs.

The Ouagadougou meeting was co-sponsored by the United Sates Departments of Agriculture and State, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the government of Burkina Faso.

FoE, Africa advised the ministers to use the opportunity of the Bamako meeting to retrace their earlier steps of “walking the path prepared by the biotech industry” and not “ to accept line, hook and sinker the unhealthy propagandas of an industry bent on using Africa as a dumping ground for a technology that Africa does not need, neither wants to accept.”

The environmental network pointed out that “Many activities on biosafety and GMOs are taking place in the region, and by reason of the paucity of information, knowledge and capacity on this issue, there is a growing concern that informed policy options and choices are not properly addressed or made.

“Africa has little experience with GM crops, and only one country in Africa, that is South Africa, allows commercialization of GM crops. In most other countries GM crops are not legally authorized for commercial purposes. Other countries like Egypt, Kenya, Uganda and Mali are researching and/or experimenting in the field with various GMO applications. Africa must not be allowed to be overrun as a new frontier for the biotech industry.”

According to the group, despite the aggressive attempts to introduce GMOs across the world it is still limited to a few countries; United States, Canada and Argentina with the product of one company the US-based, Mosanto accounting for over 90 per cent of the total area of cultivated GM crops.

The U.S Agency for International Development (USAID) has been supporting several initiatives to propagate biotech in Africa and has, for instance mounted pressure on the Nigerian Government culminating in a March 2004 to Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Nigerian government and the US government for the promotion of GM crops in the country without any consultation with civil society groups.

While urging African countries to be cautious and learn from other countries before introducing GMO crops, FoE, Africa demands:

 Complete moratorium on GMOs in Africa until their safety for environment, health and socio-economic conditions are established,

 adoption and implementation by African countries of strict, comprehensive, and genuinely participatory democratic laws on GMOs,

 African countries ratification and implementation of the Cartegena Protocol on Bio-safety and the adoption of the African Model Law on Safety in Biotechnology as a minimum standard,

 Democratic and qualitative public participation in decision making in the matter, and the guarantee public access to information,

 African governments to reject the dumping of GMOS in Africa under the guise of food aid, and Rejection of the commodisation, privatization and patenting of agricultural seeds.