2020 Focus 2, Brief 2 of 10, October 1999

Biotechnology for Developing-Country Agriculture:
Problems and Opportunities

Biotechnology and Food and Nutrition Needs

Biotechnology can make life better for the poor in developing countries by producing higher than usual yields with less inputs, higher yields in a wider range of environments, better rotations to conserve natural resources, and more nutritious harvested products that keep much longer in storage and transport. Improved animals can resist diseases more effectively, have carcass structures that carry higher weights safely and healthily, have more efficient weight gains, and offer better quality meat and other products.

Because plants and animals evolve to fit their environment, and not to serve human needs, men and women have practiced breeding and selection since the earliest times to produce more useful strains of plants and animals. The deployment of new genes and combinations of genes, therefore, is and always will be the basis for plant and animal improvement. Logically, the scientific case for using the new gene technology to improve plants and animals is overwhelming. This improvement process needs to continue in order to sustain today's and tomorrow's world in ways that achieve greater benefits and cause less harm to the planet's resources.

THE BENEFITS AND RISKS OF BIOTECHNOLOGY

The application of biotechnology research to agriculture is in its infancy. However, the incorporation of novel genes has already produced plants that are more tolerant to drought and salt stresses, toxic heavy metals, and pests and diseases. Seeds with greater nutritional value have been produced by increasing the levels of essential amino acids, vitamins, and bioavailable iron. Genetic alterations have reduced overripening and postharvest losses of fruits. Given time and resources, the potential for improving all crops through these methods is enormous. The impact of biotechnology on food production, postharvest losses, and the nutritional value of food could improve the livelihoods of millions of poor people (see table).

But just as with natural evolution and breeding through the ages, gene changes through biotechnology can produce problems as well. Breeding to improve one characteristic can have negative effects on another. Breeding also modifies the concentration of beneficial or harmful ingredients, because it changes the internal chemistry of organisms. Common genes in our cultivated crops could become more commonplace in wild relatives by outcrossing and subsequent selection, leading to possible disturbance of existing ecosystems. New plants or animals may generate husbandry practices that damage the environment. New strains could reduce biodiversity in agriculture.

These sorts of issues are well known to breeders and farmers all over the world. They are increasingly becoming a matter of public debate in many countries. The benefits and risks associated with improved plants and animals are frequently perceived differently from place to place. Local decisions should prevail but be consistent with globally accepted, science-based criteria and international agreements. Most current discussions about the benefits and risks of the new gene technology, however, are based on the first transgenic crops of today. Instead, a strategic, long-term view of needs and opportunities is required that looks beyond these initial products. Relevant scientific knowledge and understanding and the genes available to meet needs are evolving rapidly. Soon the scientific base underpinning plant and animal breeding will be extraordinarily different from that of the past.

THE NEW GENOMICS

Within the next year the full DNA sequence of every gene required to produce a plant will become known as a result of a large international effort. This will be a historic landmark for crop breeding. As a next step, scientists will interpret gene structures and patterns of expression in each organism. This integrated knowledge of large numbers of genes is called genomics. Once a gene has been identified in one species its functional relative can be found in other species to aid breeding of any crop. Descriptions of the human and mouse genes will serve as models for farm animals.

The means of inserting new genes into plants has been demonstrated for a large number of species, including several of the world's major crop species. Although the procedure is still inefficient and expensive for many species, stable varieties of soybean, maize, canola, and potato are now in large-scale agricultural production. The technical hurdles clearly are not insurmountable. Creating transgenic plants with large numbers of novel genes may not be easy, but the considerable benefits versus risks provide incentives for continued research.

Knowing the sequences of most genes in a plant or animal chromosome and the chromosomal segments containing them is opening up new opportunities for determining and manipulating the genetic variants present in a particular strain. But this new technology will prove useful to plant improvement only if it is integrated into plant breeding procedures. Breeding programs in the developing world, therefore, will need to absorb this technology via integrated links with public and private institutions that have shown success with the new methods. The international agricultural research centers have begun to stimulate the creation of such links for crops produced by the poor.

Securing the Benefits of Genomics for Developing Countries

Genomic databases for some of the major crops of the developing world—maize, wheat, rice, and soybean—are being developed rapidly and competitively in the public and private sectors of the North to make improved cultivars. How and when can all this knowhow and improved germplasm be made available to the developing world? There is no simple answer to this question, just as similar questions about diffusion of technology and knowhow have had no simple answers in the past. As always, the answers depend on a host of local circumstances, institutions, attitudes, and finance. Many developing countries have started programs to benefit from the new gene technology. Governments, philanthropic agencies, and the private sector are funding technology transfer initiatives. The institutes of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research are also playing a role. New, multifaceted approaches to technology transfer urgently need to be developed to reflect the proprietary nature of some of this technology. Such approaches should be driven by the needs of the poor, whenever benefits are greatest and risks low.

Germplasm Conservation

Genes and gene combinations selected in the past in nature and by humans will remain the vital source of germplasm improvement. They must be conserved in seed banks, but also in situ when possible and strategically essential. Genomics can play a key role in conservation because it can determine which genes and chromosome segments are duplicated, which are unique, and how easy it will be to recreate the various combinations of chromosome segments in modern breeding programs. Genomics, therefore, needs to be applied on a large scale to germplasm collections. And as the technology becomes faster and cheaper to use, new, long-term international initiatives involving the public and private sectors are required to generate the appropriate knowledge databases.

THE FUTURE PATH

Plant and animal breeding will become increasingly integrated programs of the life and social sciences. The life sciences will be based on huge databases of genes and the practical knowledge of how to analyze and change their presence, activity, and role in whole organisms. This extraordinary revolution in the ways of understanding germplasm, coupled with the means of making additions and changes to plant and animal genomes, can and should have a large impact on the efforts to improve plants and animals for food production.

The gathering and provision of so much sophisticated information in computerized databases, by both the private and public sectors, and the patenting of genes and germplasm require a new paradigm for using biotechnology to improve germplasm, especially in the poor countries where food needs are most urgent. This paradigm requires public and private partnerships among advanced genomics specialists, breeders, and scientists knowledgeable about the germplasm upon which the world depends for food. The fruits of such partnerships should serve environmental sustainability and the needs of diverse consumers, with all relevant groups playing a role as stakeholders. International agreements and an effective regulatory framework for the validation of new strains for agriculture are urgently needed. The benefits and risks associated with each product need to be evaluated locally and in the context of global standards.

Although debates continue to flair in the media about the contribution that biotechnology should make to our crops and livestock, they are often fueled by errors of fact and political agendas having little to do with the needs of agriculture, the environment, and the poor peoples of the world. The features and limitations of current biotechnology products and systems also tend to distort the debate. Discussions should revolve around a long-term strategic view based on what the technology can deliver and what the needs of the world will be over the next millennium. It would be unethical to condemn future generations to hunger by refusing to develop and apply a technology that can build on what our forefathers provided and can help produce adequate food for a world with almost 2 billion more people by 2020.

For further information, see Francesco Salamini, “North-South Innovation Transfer,” Nature Biotechnology 17 (Supplement A, 1999): 11-12; Florence Wambugu “Why Africa Needs Agricultural Biotech,” Nature 400 (No. 6739, 1999): 15-16; and Clive James, Global Review of Commercialized Transgenic Crops: 1998, ISAAA Brief No. 8 (Ithaca, N.Y.: International Service for the Acquisition of Agribiotech Applications, 1998).

Richard Flavell was formerly director of the John Innes Centre, Norwich, England, and is now chief scientific officer of Ceres Inc., Malibu, California, U.S.A. (e-mail: rflavell@ceres-inc.com).

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