This Policy represents the Government's commitment to provide relevant infrastructure, framework, facilities and other resources for rapid and safe development and application of biotechnology in industry, agriculture, food, environment, health and research, in order to ensure sustainability of the biotechnology industry in Kenya and enhance its international competitiveness, with a strong resolution to promote ethical, environmental and biosafety concerns. The Policy focuses on the adoption of biotechnology for the purpose of improving the quality of human welfare, maximising productivity in agriculture and industry and protecting the environment, conserving biodiversity and bioprospecting. Therefore, this Policy concerns: traditional and modern biotechnology, genetically modified organisms that are human food and animal feeds, and pharmaceuticals, all biotechnology applications including tissue culture and micropropagation, biopesticides and biofertilisers, bioremediation, livestock technology, DNA Marker technology, and genetic engineering. The Policy aims at the achievement of the following objectives: prioritisation, promotion, and coordination of research in basic and applied sciences in biotechnology; promoting sustainable industrial development for the production of biotechnology-derived products; creating enabling administrative and legal frameworks for biotechnology development and commercialisation; developing mechanisms for the provision of sustainable funding for biotechnology research and product development; facilitating capacity building for intellectual property access and protection, and biosafety; supporting the development and retention of human resources in science, innovation and biotechnology; stimulating collaboration among public, private sectors and international agencies in order to advance biotechnology both locally and internationally; increasing bilateral and multilateral cooperation for biotechnology procurement, development and commercialisation; promoting public understanding of the potential benefits of biotechnology. The Policy covers the following priority areas: 1) agricultural biotechnology, in order to: develop new plant varieties with beneficial genetic traits for pest and disease resistance, improved nutritional value, tolerance to drought and salinity; improve animal reproductive biotechnologies such as artificial insemination, embryo transfer, genetic improvement of local breeds, and somatic cell nuclear transfer (cloning) techniques; increasing protein in milk; improving plant and animal diagnostic products, animal vaccines, biological pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers; mitigate the constraints involving the sector: restricted range of conditions for farming, inadequate quality fish seed, reduced water volumes; 2) education; 3) bioresources, aimed at: the development of a managed database on species in different ecosystems and the traditional knowledge associated with the species; the establishment of national culture collection centres for microorganisms with potential for novel products development; the exploitation of fauna, flora and microbes in marine and extreme habitats for development of osmo-tolerant crops, enzymes, biopolymers, marine pollution biosensors, bioactive molecules, regeneration of endangered indigenous plant species; 4) environmental biotechnology, in order to: monitor environmental pollution; strengthening afforestation and reforestation programmes; ensuring eco-restoration of degraded habitats; 5) medical biotechnology, focused on the development of traditional herbal medicines into superior industrial therapeutic products; and screening of biodiversity components for bioactive compounds for value added therapeutic products; 6)biotechnology in industry and trade.
Кения · 2006-01-01