Researchers and policymakers met in Kenya to discuss ways that biotechnology could contribute to the continent's development, according to the Science and Development Network.

A draft report, available on the SciDev.Net website, identifies ways of building the continent's capacity to use biotechnology to improve health, agriculture and industry, and urges African countries and regions to collaborate on biotechnology research.

Calestous Juma, the panel's co-chair of Harvard University in the United States, said that people who say biotechnology is being forced on Africa have a limited view of what it is taking place and are only considering genetically modified organisms.

He pointed out that serious research in various aspects of biotechnology was already under way in African countries including Egypt, Kenya and South Africa.

Panel member Tewolde Egziabher, the director-general of Ethiopia's Environmental Protection Authority, said that biosafety issues relating to genetic modification are a small, but vital component of biotechnology as a whole.

GM products are safe: Juma

He said some industrialised countries are trying to force genetically modified products onto African countries that have no regulatory frameworks or laws in place to mitigate adverse effects that these products could generate. He said such countries are undermining the Cartagena Protocol, an international instrument intended to protect biodiversity from potential harm posed by genetically modified (GM) organisms.

Juma, however, is less worried about biosafety. "As far as I am concerned, genetically modified products are as safe as conventional ones, and both have risks," he said.

The meeting was the fourth gathering of the High-Level Panel on Biotechnology, set up by the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) to provide policy advice to African leaders.

The panel discussed a draft report to submit to the annual summit of African heads of state in January 2007. It has requested comments on the report from researchers, policymakers and the general public.