The Heads of State of Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, and Niger made presentations at the opening ceremonies. Among the 300 participants were thirteen West African Ministers representing agriculture, natural resources, science and technology, the heads of all major agricultural research organizations, and heads of the region's intergovernmental organizations, including the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU).

The conference began with a roundtable entitled "Perspectives in Harnessing Science and Technology to Improve Agriculture Productivity in West Africa." It was followed by four plenary sessions:

• Water - its conservation, use efficiency, and new management technologies for West Africa;
• Crop Biotechnology and Biosafety - for improved productivity, control of plant diseases and pests, and enhanced drought tolerance;
• Policies - regulatory frameworks and upgraded institutional capacity to improve agricultural productivity, technology transfer, and economic growth; and
• Partnerships - for improving the commodity chain for staples and high value crops.

Delegates at the WARP booth

The conference topics elicited extremely interesting and well-informed discussions, reflecting the high levels of knowledge and experience of the participants. Biotechnology (Bt) proved to be the hottest topic at the conference.

The phrase that summarized the feelings of most of the participants was the following: " The Bt train is about to leave the station and if Africa is not on it, then it will be left behind at the station once again." Time and again, participants pointed out that Africa had missed the "Green Revolution" that had catapulted many Asian and Latin American countries out of chronic food insecurity. Today, opportunity was again knocking on Africa's door in the form of the "Gene Revolution" and if Africa failed to get on the train this time, then its future would be bleak.

Not everyone was totally convinced that Bt was the cure for the region's ills. Representatives of the region's small farmers expressed fears regarding the potential negative environmental impacts of Bt, as well as their deep concern that Bt products might not be made available on an equal basis and that their constituents, the poor farmers who constitute the majority of the inhabitants in West Africa, would be passed over. But this was a minority point of view. In general, the delegates believed that improved agricultural science and technology, and in particular Bt, was the most obvious solution to the region's economic and food security challenges and that the region's leaders should do whatever was necessary to get it into the hands of its producers.

The region's policy makers expressed a strong commitment to improving the livelihoods of poor farmers and general population through the adoption of a wide range of modern scientific technologies, in particular biotechnology. Public/private sector partnerships such as that developed between Monsanto and the Government of Burkina Faso for the field testing of Bt cotton would be key to implementing change.

A follow-on high-level conference is scheduled to take place in Bamako, Mali in December 2004 when the region's leaders will propose concrete programs and next steps for implementing a science-based program to increase agricultural productivity.