As part of a regional policy dialogue on "Biotechnology, agriculture, and food security in Southern Africa", the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), convened its first meeting on 25-26 April 2003 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Seven background papers were prepared as input into the meeting. Two of them (a regional synthesis paper and a paper on concepts and practices of multi-stakeholder processes) were presented and discussed while the other five papers (addressing political and ethical issues raised by biotechnology, food safety and consumer issues, biosafety, intellectual property rights, and trade) were not formally presented. These seven papers as well as two synthesis chapters by the editors have now been put together in a 297-page book entitled "Biotechnology, agriculture, and food security in Southern Africa", edited by S.W. Omamo and K. von Grebmer. See http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/books/oc46.htm or contact [email protected] for more information. IFPRI is one of the 15 research centres supported by the CGIAR.

02/06/2005