African countries should form smart partnerships to share knowledge on biotechnology applications in agriculture, health, industry and food technology, an expert said on Tuesday in Zimbabwe.

Visiting Biotechnology specialist, Thomas DeGregori of the University of Houston, in the United States, said this soon after meeting Vice President Joyce Mujuru.

"Africa needs all the knowledge it can get together on biotechnology," he said.

DeGregori said there was growing concern in Zimbabwe and the rest of Africa on the failure to produce adequate food to feed the people.

He said Africa was the only continent in the world that had experienced a decline in food per capita over the past 15 years.

"African farmers are taking more nutrients out of the soil than they are putting, making agriculture not sustainable," he said.

Biotechnology was the solution to the challenges that African countries were experiencing and governments should listen to what their scientists were telling them about the science, said DeGregori.

African scientists had been promoting biotechnology long before outsiders started talking Genetically Modified Organisms, he said.

They had been developing seed varieties that were drought resistant, high yielding and adapted to local conditions.

The Zimbabwe Academy of Sciences, in conjunction with the Research Council of Zimbabwe, invited DeGregori to deliver a public lecture on Applications of Biotechnology to Agricultural Productivity, Health, Industry and Food Technology at the University of Zimbabwe on Wednesday.