BIOTECHNOLOGY
ENSURING FOOD SECURITY IN
AFRICA
Charles Opara
African Nations have traditionally
been plagued by food insecurity and
economic dislocations. These
malaises have been blamed on
several factors some of which
include poor access to Farm Lands,
out dated farming tools and
techniques, Lack of food
preservation infrastructure, and the
lack of a robust food processing
industry.
According to the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations (FAO), developing
countries record about 40 percent of
food losses after harvesting and
during processing. Meanwhile, food
wastage – as opposed to food losses
– is more prevalent in industrialized
countries, where more than 40
percent of food waste occurs at
stores and homes after purchase.
Biotechnology, often abbreviated to
biotech, is the area of biology that
uses living processes, organisms or
systems to manufacture products or
technology intended to improve the
quality of human life. Depending on
the technology, tools and
applications involved, biotechnology
can overlap with molecular biology,
bionics, bioengineering, genetic
engineering and nanotechnology
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Food biotechnology is an important and promising
research field that applies biotechnology to the
production, processing and manufacture of
foodstuffs. It includes the oldest biotechnology
processes like food fermentation and brewing, as
well as the use of modern biotechnology to improve
the genes related to the processing quality of food
raw materials, produce high-quality agricultural
products, manufacture food additives and cultivate
plant and animal cells to access food functional
ingredients, and other biotechnologies related to
food processing and manufacturing, such as enzyme
engineering, protein engineering and evolutionary
engineering of enzyme molecules.
Generally, food biotechnology includes:
1) Improving the quality and yield of agricultural
products through genetic engineering and cell
engineering.
2) Producing “green” antioxidants and preservatives,
etc., for the preservation of agricultural products
through genetic engineering and fermentation.
3) Improving the added value of
food and the utilization of
agricultural products and the
health function of food, and
making the food processing
effective through genetic
engineering, fermentation,
enzyme engineering, protein
engineering and molecular
evolution engineering.