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Potentials and constraints for biotechnology to beneficially impact small farmers in developing countries |
N. TAYLOR, International Laboratory for Tropical Agricultural Biotechnology, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, 975 N. Warson Rd., Saint Louis, MO 63130 Recent approval of cotton genetically engineered for resistance to bollworm in South Africa and India, and its cultivation by small farmers in these countries, signals an important step forward for agricultural biotechnology and its adoption in developing world. Four fifths of the world’s population resides in the lesser developed countries, where agriculture is the major human activity. Over the coming decades, food security, health and economic development within these regions will depend largely on ability to reduce constraints to agricultural production while ensuring increased accessibility of its products to the poor. Application of modern plant biotechnologies, such as micopropagation, embryo rescue and genetic engineering offer new tools for the production and distribution of enhanced germplasm to small farmers in developing countries. While important successes have been achieved, significant technical, legal and logistical challenges must be overcome before the potential of agricultural biotechnology can be fully realized. This paper will briefly review the crop biotechnologies most relevant to developing countries before outlining the issues involved in developing and deploying these for the benefit of small farmers. Emphasis will be given to crops such as cassava, plantain, sweet potato, sorghum and millet, which are essential to food security and health for billions of people, which are ripe for improvement through biotechnology, but for which investment remains lacking. Cassava will be used as a case study to illustrate the challenges involved in applying the benefits of modern biotechnology to improve the well being of worlds’ most needy people.
Session 21, How will we feed the world in 2025?
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