SA hosts biotech conference
Lazarus Mabasa
30 September 2004
South Africa will host a conference to discuss the commercial potential and benefits of biotechnology.
The conference will be held during the country's first International Science, Innovation & Technology Exhibition (Insite) from Friday to Sunday at the Gallagher Estate in Johannesburg.
Insite is a Department of Science and Technology initiative that strives to facilitate the growth of industries that will make an impact on the sustainable development of the country.
The exhibition aims to create an international marketplace for innovation, science and technology (IST) in the context of long-term sustainability; to place a focus on IST solutions for the developing world; to promote IST partnerships for global sustainable development; to provide networking opportunities within the industry; and to enable IST experts from across the globe to identify joint objectives, activities and initiatives.
World experts, academics and
researchers are expected to share their knowledge on the issues and challenges facing and evolving in biotechnology.
Pegasus Professor and trustee chair at the University of Central Florida, Henry Daniell, said South Africa was leading in organising the International Conference and Science & Technology Exhibition, which he hoped would help educate the public and policymakers on recent developments.
"Biotechnology is revolution to global agriculture and is the best hope to solve food shortage, hunger and malnutrition around the world," said Daniell.
Daniell said the conference would also discuss biotechnology for crop improvement and production of human therapeutic proteins.
In this case, genetically modified crops were introduced in 1996 and they were currently being planted on more than 167 million acres worldwide to solve the shortage of food.
The US is the leader of all GM crops planted globally. Argentina, Canada, Brazil, China and South Africa
are also major producers of these crops. South Africa has planted over a million acres of GM cotton last year.
He also said the number of farmers planting GM crops had doubled from 3.5 million in 2003 to 7 million in 2003, and that more than 85 percent of farmers who planted crops were resource-poor, including South African cotton growers.
Exhibitors will include both local and international governments and research institutions, science and technology institutions, entrepreneurs, funding agencies, and the United Nations family of science and technology-related organisations.
Source: BuaNews
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