Assessing the adoption and application of the Namibian biosafety labelling regulations and determining their impact on Namibian food and feed importers.

The study was carried out to investigate the implications of the Namibian biosafety regulations on Namibian food and feed importers. After the Biosafety Act, 2006 (Act No. 7 of 2006), the biosafety regulation was gazetted in 2016, which saw the implementation of the national framework, the impact of food and feed importers was not known. The objective of the study was to assess the adoption and application of the national biosafety labelling regulations by food and feed importers. In addition, the impacts of these regulations on Namibian food and feed importers were assessed. The study used a structured online and hard copy survey questionnaire based on responses from 340 Namibian importers of food and feed products from eight identified Namibian regions: Khomas, Erongo, Kavango West, Kavango East, Omusati, Oshana, Ohangwena, Oshikoto, and Zambezi who have the knowledge required for the adoption and application of the Namibian biosafety labelling regulations. Using the Mann-Whitney test, the study confirmed that individuals who are aware of the biosafety Act, 2006 (Act No. 7 of 2006) are less likely to agree with statements such as experiencing problems in fulfilling requirements under the biosafety regulations. It was further concluded that there is a need to reduce the current administrative burdens for handling applications and improve dialogue between regulators and the food and feed importing industry while increasing the competence of regulators and creating more labelling regulation awareness for food and feed importers. The study further suggests that public awareness is required beyond food and feed importers.

Isolation and characterization of culturable seed-associated bacterial endophytes from gnotobiotically grown Marama bean seedlings.

Marama bean (Tylosema esculentum) is an indigenous non-nodulating legume to the arid agro-ecological parts of Southern Africa. It is a staple food for the Khoisan and Bantu people from these areas. It is intriguing how it is able to synthesize the high-protein content in the seeds since its natural habitat is nitrogen deficient. The aim of the study was to determine the presence of seed transmittable bacterial endophytes that may have growth promoting effects, which may be particularly important for the harsh conditions. Marama bean seeds were surface sterilized and gnotobiotically grown to 2 weeks old seedlings. From surface-sterilized shoots and roots, 123 distinct bacterial isolates were cultured using three media, and identified by BOX-PCR fingerprinting and sequence analyses of the 16S rRNA and nifH genes. Phylogenetic analyses of 73 putative endophytes assigned them to bacterial species from 14 genera including Proteobacteria (Rhizobium, Massilia, Kosakonia, Pseudorhodoferax, Caulobacter, Pantoea, Sphingomonas, Burkholderia, Methylobacterium), Firmicutes (Bacillus), Actinobacteria (Curtobacterium, Microbacterium) and Bacteroidetes (Mucilaginibacter, Chitinophaga). Screening for plant growth-promoting activities revealed that the isolates showed production of IAA, ACC deaminase, siderophores, endoglucanase, protease, AHLs and capacities to solubilize phosphate and fix nitrogen. This is the first report that marama bean seeds may harbor endophytes that can be cultivated from seedlings; in this community of bacteria, physiological characteristics that are potentially plant growth promoting are widespread.