It is still a mystery why it has taken so long for agriculture in Uganda to have a clear regulatory and technology adoption environment given the overwhelming evidence that planting improved seeds results in higher crop yields.

For years farmers have been growing grafted mangoes, hybrid maize, grafted avocados, cloned coffee, using tissue culture plantlets and lots of other improved seed varieties. Ugandan agricultural research scientists under the National Agricultural Research Organization (Naro) have made quite successful attempts with the use of modern biotechnology to address major crop diseases and nutrition challenges. They have found solutions to many of the destructive diseases and challenges that are slowing down the production of crops such as banana, cassava, maize, rice, soybean, cotton and potato but the improved varieties are still locked up in research stations and inaccessible to farmers because the country does not have a regulatory and technology arrangement for the farmers to grow such crops. They continue to struggle with the unimproved crop varieties that are prone to diseases and of low nutritional value.

Uganda has scored some very good successes in GMO research but up to now the country has no biotechnology and biosafety BIOB law in place and therefore its farmers cannot take advantage of the research succecsses to overcome challenging agricultural production constraints.

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