By Milliam Murigi
A Kenyan-developed genetically modified potato variety resistant to the devastating late blight disease is set to make its way to farmers in Rwanda.
This is after Rwanda used biosafety data generated from research conducted in Kenya to approve the new variety, rather than repeating the same assessments from scratch.
The approach, known as data transportability, allows scientific evidence generated in one country to be considered by another regulator where the product and growing conditions are sufficiently comparable.
“Rwanda is now moving towards registering this late-blight-resistant potato variety. A development that shows how sharing and transporting regulatory data could accelerate access to agricultural technologies across Africa,” says Dr. Eric Magembe, biotechnologist, International Potato Center (CIP) in Africa, Kenya who is a core principal investigator in the biotech potato project in Kenya.
The potato variety, developed to withstand late blight, underwent field research and regulatory processes in Kenya, where work began in 2017. The Kenyan process involved years of trials, assessments and regulatory review before the variety was approved for confined field trials.
However, Rwanda’s approval process for the same technology has been significantly faster. According to Magembe, Rwanda took about 45 days to approve the technology, compared with the years required to progress through the regulatory system in Kenya.
“The contrast has brought renewed attention to the potential of data transportability. Rather than requiring researchers to repeat every stage of testing from scratch, regulators can, where appropriate, assess existing evidence and determine whether it is relevant to their own environmental, agricultural and regulatory conditions,” he says.
The development, however, also exposes the lengthy and costly regulatory journey facing biotechnology products in Africa. Kenyan scientists spent years and lots of money generating the data required to demonstrate the safety of the product.
For Rwanda, accepting the Kenyan data meant it did not have to start the biosafety assessment process from scratch. Using existing scientific evidence helped the country avoid duplicating costly assessments, shorten regulatory timelines and accelerate the availability of improved crop varieties to farmers, while still allowing national regulators to make independent decisions.
“This is a very welcome process that we would like to see replicated across the region. Repeating the same assessments in neighboring countries not only delays the release of improved crops but also duplicates costs that African research institutions and governments can ill afford,” says Dr. Magembe.
According to him, greater use of data transportability could save countries as much as five years in the approval process. The reason is biosafety assessments can involve expensive studies, including nutritional assessments and molecular analysis, as well as other regulatory requirements before a product can move towards registration and commercial release.
This is why where rigorous data has already been generated in a neighboring country, regulators should be able to assess its relevance instead of demanding that every study be repeated.
“Data transportability will save countries years of work and a lot of money and resources. It is particularly useful in East Africa, where countries share same agro-ecological conditions and crops are often grown across borders.”
According to Julia Njagi, Deputy Director for Biosafety Licensing, Monitoring and Surveillance at National Biosafety Authority(NBA), several scholars have come up with a consensus on the conditions necessary for data transportability. They argue that for data to be transportable, the agro-climatic conditions of the location where the controlled field trials(CFTs) is conducted should be demonstrably representative of the area to which the crop is being considered for cultivation.
The scholars also point out that there needs to be a clear understanding of the biotech crop’s conventional counterpart’s agro-morphological performance within the country to which the data is being transported attained through a long tradition of growing the conventional varieties.
They also recommend that for data to be transportable, the novel traits in the biotech crop need to exhibit familiar traits, i.e., the mode of action needs to be thoroughly understood as evidenced by peer-reviewed publications. The efficacy of the new trait needs to be comparable to that of similar traits that may have already been approved elsewhere.
Additionally, the CFTs conducted in the source country should have been conducted in diverse agro ecological localities, employing scientifically sound, replicable methods, and using relevant and consistent measure endpoints.
“Adopting data transportability is not just a regulatory reform; it is a necessity for accelerating innovation in biotechnology. By reducing redundancy, fostering collaboration, and ensuring timely access to genetically engineered products, nations can address pressing global challenges more efficiently. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, leveraging shared knowledge and resources is the logical path forward,” says Njagi.
However, data transportability does not mean automatic approval. Regulators still need to determine whether data generated elsewhere are scientifically valid and applicable to their own conditions. Differences in climate, farming systems, biodiversity, pest pressures and regulatory requirements may require additional information before a technology can be approved.
Rwanda’s late-blight-resistant biotech potato received environmental-release approval from Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA) in September 2025, but it is still going through the process of selecting varieties and registration before farmers can access seed. Rwanda’s programme says the varieties must be cleared for release and registration by the relevant agricultural authorities.
