In 2002?2003, when a number of southern African countries suffering from food shortages rejected food aid in the form of genetically modified grain, a highly polarized debate over biotechnology came to the surface. Pro-biotech and anti-biotech camps forcefully argued about the role of modern biotechnology in Africa's economic development, often excluding African policymakers from the dialogue and leaving the public uncertain about where the truth lay. In response, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) embarked on a multistakeholder initiative aimed at raising awareness, promoting dialogue, and catalyzing consensus-building mechanisms to improve the institutions and policies governing agricultural biotechnology and to assess its implications for food security in southern Africa. The result of this initiative, this book brings together experts from within and outside Africa to discuss the current status of biotechnology in southern Africa, the conceptual framework for multistakeholder dialogues, the political and ethical issues surrounding biotechnology, food safety and consumer issues, biosafety, intellectual property rights, and trade involving genetically modified foods.