Agricultural Biotechnology In The Developing World

Biotechnology offers great potential to contribute to sustainable agricultural growth, food security and poverty alleviation in developing countries. Yet there are economic and institutional constraints at national and international levels that inhibit the poor people's access to appropriate biotechnological innovations. Agricultural Biotechnology in Developing Countries: Towards Optimizing the Benefits for the Poor addresses the major constraints. Twenty-three chapters, written by a wide range of scholars and stake-holders, provide an up-to-date analysis of agricultural biotechnology developments in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Besides the expected economic and social impacts, the challenges for an adjustment of the international research structure are discussed, with a special focus on intellectual property rights and the roles of the main research organizations. Harnessing the comparative advantages of the public and private sectors through innovative partnerships is the only way forward to optimize the benefits of biotechnology for the poor. The book will be an invaluable resource for both academics and policy-makers concerned with agricultural biotechnology in context of developing-countries.

Following on from earlier titles in this series, this volume presents further material generated by the World Bank/ISNAR/Australian government biotechnology study.It covers the present status and future prospects for the application of biotechnology to solve agricultural and environmental problems in a number of developing countries. Particular focus is given on to developments that have taken place over the last decade.

This publication describes the state of biotechnology in the developing regions of the world, namely Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean and the Near East and North Africa. Regional and selected country analyses review problems and prospects of food and agricultural production and sustainability issues and then examine the actual and potential role of biotechnologies as complements to conventional technologies. Policies, programmes and institutional and infrastructural supports to biotechnology are discussed in detail. Comparison of the different approaches to management of biotechnology taken by the different regions and countries, including some developed countries such as Australia and Japan, provides a basis for learning from each other s experiences and for planning biotechnology programmes and activities commensurate with the level of development, capability and need of individual countries. It is hoped that the volume will stimulate cooperation among developing countries and between developed and developing countries in harnessing modern biotechnologies for enhanced food security and sustainable agricultural development. Contents Chapter 1: Biotechnology in Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries-FAO Policy and Strategy; Chapter 2: Biotechnology in the CGIAR System by D L Plucknett and K Wright Platais; Chapter 3: Biotechnology in Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in Africa by S N Kassapu, R B Singh; Chapter 4: Agricultural Biotechnology in the Asia-Pacific Region by R B Singh; Chapter 5: Current Status and Future Prospects of Modern Biotechnologies in Latin America and the Caribbean by V M Villalobos; Chapter 6: Status and Prospects of Biotechnology in the Near East and North Africa by I Y Hamdan, V M Villalobos.

The product of research sponsored by the UK Department for International Development and a May 2000 workshop held in Rome, Italy, this book comprises 11 contributions from experts affiliated with the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (Rome, Italy) and the Institute for Plant Biology (U. of Zurich, Switzerland), and from academics in agriculture, food economics, law, and land economy affiliated with universities in the UK, US, and Italy. They investigate ways in which industrial changes implicit in new biotechnologies will affect modern agriculture; analyze industrial and distribution impacts, including consequences for developing countries; and look at genetic use restriction technologies and their implications for global agricultural production. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

Assuring food security for the next 25 years requires meeting a number of political, social, economic, and technical challenges. One of these is the successful use of new biotechnologies in agriculture. Research in recombinant genetics and biotechnology aims to develop plant varieties that provide reliable high yields at the same or lower costs by breeding in qualities such as resistance to disease, pests, and stress factors such as aridity. Realization of these goals could lead to tremendous gains in food production. However, biotechnology is now evoking the same objections that have been raised against the Green Revolution—that its benefits are distributed inequitably in favor of the large, rich farmers and that it is potentially environmentally destructive. In this brief, Leisinger discusses the need for biotechnology and its sociopolitical ramifications and he looks at the roles played by the public and private sectors. In conclusion, the author states that biotechnology offers no silver bullet for food security — there are no silver bullets—but biotechnology is an important instrument in the difficult fight against hunger. The sociopolitical obstacles must be removed not only for the successful implementation of biotechnology, but also for an equitable and sustainable tomorrow for the world.

There are currently many controversial socioeconomic issues concerned with the development and implementation of agricultural biotechnology. This book presents selected revised and edited papers from the fourth and fifth meetings of the International Consortium on Agricultural Biotechnology Research, held in Italy in 2000 and 2001.