"The project on Strengthening Capacity for Safe Biotechnology Management in Sub-Saharan Africa (SABIMA) is a partnership between the Forum for Agriculture Research in Africa (FARA), a continent-wide agricultural research, technology dissemination and adoption advocacy and support agency, and the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA), a global non-profit organization that supports smallholder agriculture for food security and poverty reduction. SFSA provided the financial and technical support to FARA to manage the project in sub-Saharan Africa through its sub-regional organizations (SROs) and the national agricultural research systems (NARS).
SABIMA builds stewardship capacity that will be valuable if and when countries decide to admit biotech products for commercial use. A special feature of the project is its emphasis on the creation of awareness for issues of stewardship in biotechnology and the provision of training to scientists, policymakers and farmers in stewardship and its application to the development of improved crops. The training in biotechnology stewardship is unique in Africa.
The six SABIMA countries are Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and Uganda. The project, which started in 2009, ends in 2011. The project countries in their various reports to FARA and the SFSA have recounted success stories on the application of the stewardship principles in their research and technology transfer activities. These have ensured quality product development and the general responsible management of biotechnology. FARA and SFSA feel that these experiences in stewardship should be documented and shared with the rest of the world."
Preface