Back
to top
Key
Documents
Several
reviews of the implications of new developments in modern genetics for emerging
economies agree that no single strategy is likely to be suitable for all
countries, given the range of variation in country size, economic development,
strength in science and technology, importance of the rural sector, extent of
poverty, and issues in food security (e.g. ADB, 2001; Academies of Science,
2000; CGIAR 2000a, b; DANIDA,
2002; IDB 2002; IFPRI, 2001; ISNAR
2002b; UNDP 2001.)
However,
there are several elements that need to be taken into account in developing
strategies that make optimal use of new developments in technology, as part of
overall approaches towards reducing poverty, increasing food security,
conserving natural resources and improving trade competitiveness for emerging
economies. The appropriate mix of these elements will depend on the situation in
a particular country.
Back
to top
Elements
of Future Strategies
Policy dialogue is
needed with governments as to
the importance of the rural sector, the need for public investments in rural
development, including investments in the development of public goods for poor
people and the need for governments to provide an enabling framework that
encourages private sector investments in rural areas.
Priority species:
The continued availability of sufficient
nutritious food at affordable prices for poor people is an essential component
in ensuring food security and reducing poverty in the developing world.
Twelve species provide over 90% of the world’s food. These twelve (banana,
barley, cassava, groundnut, maize, oilseed rape, potato, rice, sorghum, soybean,
sweet potato, wheat) include the staple foods of the majority of the
world’s population and provide almost all the food for the world’s poor
people. There is also increasing demand for livestock, fish and forest products,
as important sources of food and income.
While
recognising that other species also play important roles at a regional and sub
regional level, these key species could provide an initial set of priorities to
assess how their productivity could be improved in different environments
through the applications of modern genetics.
Priority traits to address food security and poverty
reduction: Future food security will require producing more food on less
land with less water, and with less reliance on chemical pesticides and
fertilizers. This will require
crops that are able to make more efficient use of water and tolerate abiotic
stresses, such as drought and salinity that reduce productivity in marginal
lands. Pests, weeds and diseases also cause substantial pre and post harvest
losses and the use of chemical pesticides for their control is both costly and
environmental damaging. Improving
the nutritional quality of staple foods would also help address the problems of
malnutrition especially important in women and children.
Examples
of the traits that could enhance food security and reduce poverty are:
·
Drought
tolerance, especially in maize, rice and wheat
that lack the inherent drought tolerance of sorghum and millets
·
Pest
and disease resistance, especially for those pests
and diseases that are presently controlled by the use of pesticides.
·
Post
harvest quality to extend the shelf life and
reduce post harvest losses of perishable commodities (eg banana, cassava,
potato, sweet potato).
·
Improved
nutritional quality (eg improving
vitamin and mineral content of cereals)
·
Apomixis,
an enabling trait that would enable seed to breed true (eg cassava).
Investment priorities: In order to maximise the
benefits that may be gained from public and private investments in biosciences
in emerging economies, it is important to identify and invest in the priority
species and the traits that would be most valuable to poor people living in
different environments, rather than relying on spill overs of technologies
developed primarily for other purposes elsewhere. There is also a need for
identifying those priorities that require additional public investments and/or
public-private partnerships for their development. There is also a need to link research efforts with the
development and delivery of new products that will make a difference to food
security and poverty reduction in specific cases
Enhancing present applications in agriculture: Discoveries
in genetics and related sciences are contributing to improving the productivity
and sustainability of agriculture today in many countries. Wider use could be
made of such practical applications of plant biotechnology in emerging
economies; for example by enabling:
·
More targeted
selection objectives and the use of molecular markers to enable early generation
selection in breeding of improved strains.
·
The molecular characterization of genetic
resources
·
The
improved diagnosis and management of parasites, pests and pathogens by the use
of molecular diagnostics.
·
Use of
improved micro-propagation techniques to develop clean planting materials,
especially for vegetatively propagated crops.
Smarter plant breeding: To fully realise the benefits
of modern genetics, there needs to be viable plant breeding/crop improvement
programs at the national and international levels that are able to develop
locally adapted varieties with desirable traits. There also needs to be seed
sectors able to produce and deliver quality seed of improved crop varieties to
farmers. Regretfully both plant breeding and the seed sector are weak in many
countries where food security is most at risk. The key targets for breeding in
selected crops in Africa are summarised in Table 6.1 (De Vries and
Toenniessen 2001; ISNAR 2002b).
Table
6.1: Demands
for improved breeding of seven African crops
Source:
De Vries & Toenniessen 2001
Back
to top
More targeted public investment is
required in modern plant breeding, nationally and internationally, to develop
the public goods that will not come from private investments in plant
biotechnology and plant breeding. Private investments are primarily concentrated
on developing products for markets in industrial countries.
Seed sector:
Countries need to have a suitable enabling environment to encourage the
development of the private seed sector. This
includes suitable intellectual property management, such as plant variety
protection or other sui generis systems.
Cultivation of transgenic crops: Some
countries are exploring the options for the targeted introduction of transgenic
crop varieties. The present applications of transgenic crops in emerging
economies are largely locally adapted spill overs of technologies developed for
broad scale agriculture elsewhere, with traits for insect resistance and
herbicide tolerance being most widely available. The most widespread transgenic
product in emerging economies is cotton modified for insect resistance (Bt
cotton), which is being cultivated by some 5 million cotton farmers in China,
and a smaller number in South Africa. Bt cotton has demonstrated economic,
social, human and environmental health benefits that have been documented in
China and South Africa (Pray et al 2002).
Importance of genomics for gene discovery: New
developments in genomics are seen as the basis for future gene discovery. It is
important that the basic information on the genome structure of the world’s
staple crops and other agriculturally important species is available in the
public domain, able to be used for studying the function of genes, and
understanding their role in the control of important traits. This is critical
for addressing the constraints in those species and/or traits in which the
private sector is unlikely to invest.
State
of the genomes: There is a need for a systematic
assessment of the status of the genomic information of the world’s major food
species, who is generating genomic data, who has access to the data, who has the
capabilities to use the data in future crop and livestock improvement and what
additional investments are required. Such
an assessment may provide the basis for ensuring that the genomes of the
world’s major food species are molecularly mapped, and that this information
is available to those concerned with improving the use of these species for food
security and poverty reduction.
Capacity
building: Many people from emerging
economies have been trained in various aspects of genetics and biotechnology. A
large proportion, perhaps more than 50%, are no longer working in their home
countries, largely due to lack of career opportunities, poor infrastructure and
limited financial resources for R&D. More support to these scientists would
enable more to continue working in their own countries while also enabling them
to have access to the latest developments worldwide through modern
communications technology (UNDP 2001).
Biosafety and
regulatory systems: Substantial
multilateral and bilateral resources are being directed towards building
capacity in biosafety and establishing regulatory systems to manage the products
of biotechnology in emerging economies, especially genetically modified
organisms (GMOs). These programs are designed to help countries meet their
obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity and its Cartagena
Protocol on Biosafety (e.g. UNEP/GEF programs) (ISNAR
2002a).
These
efforts on building capacity in biosafety need to be complemented by assessments
of the risks and benefits of specific applications of biotechnology, including
but not restricted to genetically modified organisms. These assessments may
include the preparation of dossiers on
potential products that summarise the data and other information needed by
regulatory authorities to make informed decisions.
There
is also a need for harmonization of guidelines, legislation and best practices
for the regulation of the safe use of biotechnology in agriculture and the
environment. This may best be done
initially at the regional and sub regional level where the benefits of
regulatory harmonization are most evident.
Trade implications of biotechnology policies and
regulations for emerging economies: Biotechnology’s
most important contributions in emerging economies may be allowing the expansion
of production of major crops without increasing the pressure on fragile
environments. It is also likely to be important in increasing opportunities for
agro-industrialization that may arise from increased production and
diversification of crops (IDB 2002).
Biotechnology
also holds potential for improving the competitiveness of agricultural
production in world markets, as well as reducing the incidence of urban and
rural poverty, since that the nutritional and income status of the poor are
highly dependent on the efficiency of staple food crop production (IDB
2002).
However,
in order for developing countries to realise these benefits, an increasingly
important policy issue is the effect that restrictive regulatory regimes for
genetically modified organisms are having on emerging economies. Some countries
are not pursuing the use of new technologies in agriculture; even for producing
more food for domestic consumption, in case this affects their access to present
or future export markets for other products.
Back
to top
New Genetics, Food &
Agriculture: Scientific Discoveries - Societal Dilemmas