After years of lagging behind in the scientific field, Africa's bio-science research capability could now be effectively at par with research undertaken in the world's most advanced institutes.

A world-class bio-sciences research facility had just been launched in Nairobi and open to scientists and other stakeholders from Africa's national research institutes and universities.

The laboratory, located within the compound of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), brings to par the continent's research capability with that of the world's most advanced countries, its officials said on Wednesday.

With its opening, the continent's experts in bio-sciences can venture into the new realms of science without constraints of inadequate laboratories at affordable costs and without restrictive regulations to conduct the same research overseas.

"Our aim is in part, to support research and build capacity by empowering scientists to lead agricultural revolution from within Africa," said its director Dr Segenet Kelemu.

She was briefing visiting journalists from the East African region on the centre called BecA (Bio-sciences Eastern and Central Africa) which was developed from a grant of $ 21 million from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

A wide range of cutting edge-technologies at the centre, including genome sequencers, has afforded researchers and students in Africa access to the latest equipment and technologies in bio-sciences to improve agriculture.

"Many scientists have already used BecA's capacities in crop, livestock and microbial sciences in their ongoing search for solutions to the unique challenges of Africa's development,"she pointed out.

According to Dr Kelemu, many of research findings generated there have found immediate application in agriculture and cited the one which enabled genetic characterisation of cassava varieties - one of the region's staple food in eastern Africa.

Another project found out that Uganda holds rich sweet potato bio-diversity which can be used to increase food security across the continent.

BecA, she added, is the first hub of the Africa Bio-sciences Initiative (ABI) to become fully developed and functional. The Initiative aims to enable African scientists and institutions to become significant technology users and innovators.

The initiative has been endorsed by Nepad's Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) and developed within the framework of the centres of excellence for science and technology.

Its main partner in Tanzania is the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in Morogoro. Others include the Selian Agricultural Research Institute in Arusha and the Mikocheni Agricultural Research Centre in Dar es Salaam.

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