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June 22, 2007
Source:
FAO-BiotechNews newsletter
Final Workshop Report*
Assessing and Designing Strategies to Strengthen Regional Plant
Breeding and Associated Biotechnology
Capacity in the Caucasus**
Tbilisi, Georgia – 21-22 February
2007
Original document:
http://apps3.fao.org/wiews/docs/Workshop%20Draft%20Report%2004%20Regional%20230207.pdf
The 20 participants of the
regional workshop represented the three Caucasus countries
namely Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The event also was
attended by representatives from the CGIAR Centres (CIMMYT and
ICARDA), as well as a scientist from Turkey, who carried out the
plant breeding and associated biotechnology in his country.
To set the scenario for the
discussion six oral presentations were organized:
- Assessment of the National
Plant Breeding and Associated Biotechnology Capacity
Worldwide: Focus on Caucasus – Mr. Elcio P. Guimaraes
- ICARDA/CIMMYT’s Crop
Improvement Strategy for the Caucasus – Mr. Alexei Morgounov
- Turkey Plant Breeding and
Associated Biotechnology Capacity Assessment – Mr. Nusret
Zencirci
- Azerbaijan Plant Breeding
and Associated Biotechnology Capacity Assessment – Mr.
Javanshir Talai
- Georgia Plant Breeding and
Associated Biotechnology Capacity Assessment – Mr. David
Bedoshivili
- Armenia Plant Breeding and
Associated Biotechnology Capacity Assessment – Ms. Armine
Amyan
The process of arriving at a
consensus on national and regional priorities started with a
presentation summarizing the list of issues highlighted by the
participants during the three national workshops (Azerbaijan,
Georgia and Armenia). The participants were asked to revise the
long list and come up with four or five major issues; after a
general discussion the countries agreed on seven subjects. The
next step was to prioritize them, which was done by constructing
a table with the three countries on top and the list of topics
as rows. Through assigning 1 (least important), 2 or 3 (most
important) crosses to each topic the participants ranked the
topics, in addition they indicated if the subjects were to be
dealt at regional and/or national. According to the group two
were truly regional and five were seen as country and/or
regional level.
In the sequence there are the
seven major issues in order of priority and the activities
proposed by the group to tackle them. Unfortunately it was not
possible to attribute responsibilities for implementing the
proposed activities; nonetheless they represent a clear
prioritized demand from the region and it is an excellent guide
to donors’ investments in use of plant genetic resources through
plant breeding in the region.
1) Capacity building on plant
breeding
Ranked as the first priority at
the regional level the scope of capacity building goes from
short-term training on specific breeding techniques to improving
the educational level of the scientists to MSc or PhD degrees.
The proposed activities are:
- To facilitate
in-country plant breeding education to bachelor students
in the Agrarian Universities since these students
sometimes perform field work (in association with senior
plant breeders);
- To assist countries in
educating at international level their scientists
through providing opportunities for MSc degrees on plant
breeding;
- To make possible the
realization of short-term training courses on specific
subjects focusing on effective breeding methods and
considering the particularities of each crop and region;
- To stimulate
international organizations and/or neighboring countries
to organize regional and international short-term
training courses including the participation of
international specialists;
- To assist nations
through in-country language training (English) to
overcome barrier on communication and allowing access to
scientific knowledge;
- To take advantage of
Turkey’s offer to provide short-term plant breeding
training for scientists from the Caucasus region;
- To identify in the
region or neighboring countries universities with strong
MSc degree plant breeding programmes to educate breeders
from the region.
2) Information and networking
Access to information, mechanisms
to exchange national and regional information, and facilities to
promote the first two were selected as the second most important
regional priority to help strengthening the countries capacity
to use plant genetic resources. The main activities proposed are
listed as:
- To assist each
country in the region to establish a national
information system on plant genetic resources
connecting the genebanks, the Research Institutes
and the Agrarian Universities;
- To stimulate
international organizations and/or neighboring
countries to organize regional and international
conferences facilitating information exchange among
genebank managers and breeders, as well as bringing
the advances in the areas achieved worldwide;
- To stimulate
international organizations and/or neighboring
countries to organize regional conferences to
discuss efficient mechanisms for information access
and exchange in the region;
- To indicate the
needs for providing technical and operational
facilities to facilitate information access and to
promote data exchange at national and regional
levels;
- To help
subscribing to an agricultural research journal in
Russian and other foreign sources of technical plant
genetic resources publications;
- To help developing
web-sites in the national Research Institutes that
are dealing with plant genetic resources and also a
common site for the region;
- To produce a plant
breeding newsletter in Russian language and/or
translate the PBN-L news published by FAO and
Cornell University to Russian.
3) Seed systems
The group was very strong about
having the issue of lack of seed production and distribution
system at the national levels ranked very high. There was a full
agreement that for short term and direct impact to production
and farmers seeds are highly relevant. The proposed activities
maybe carried out at the national or regional levels:
- To promote the
establishment of seed growers’ association with
the responsibility to produce high quality
seeds;
- To provide
technical support and technology to better seed
production through information exchange
(technical meetings);
- To indicate to
the local government and the donor’s community
that the lack of equipment (machineries) is the
highest limiting factor for production of
quality seeds;
- To stimulate
the local governments to develop and implement
adequate policies supporting seed production in
the countries.
4) Support to breeding
programmes
Breeding activities rely primarily
on external support, thus it falls lock in not having long-term
support and planning.
- To provide
small equipment (machinery) to support
breeding activities since all activities are
done by hand;
- To
strengthen linkages with international
breeding research communities, including the
CGIAR centres;
- To make
efforts to include national PGRFA as parents
on the breeding programmes and not only rely
on foreign materials;
- To work
with the Governments to enhance support to
breeding communities including genebank
managers and biotechnologists;
- To promote
regional breeding programmes for crops with
regional importance, such as wheat.
5) Policy and awareness
Participants were very excited
about the idea of raising awareness regarding the importance of
PGRFA conservation and use, however, they were skeptical about
the response of the policy-makers to it. It was stressed that
messages coming from outside echoes strongly in the
policy-makers than internal dialogues.
- To
prepare and have a strategy to
disseminate PGRFA information materials
to policymakers and civil society
showing the contribution and the
importance of PGRFA;
- To
have a dialogue with governments
stimulating them to join the
International Treaty on PGRFA;
- To
organize workshops showing international
experiences in drafting laws regarding
PGRFA conservation and use, including
seed systems;
- To
organize workshops on international
experiences on mechanisms that promote
sustainable use of PGRFA, such as
breeders’ right, IPRs, etc;
- To
promote exchange of visits of
policy-makers from the region to other
countries to learn experiences elsewhere
regarding PGRFA conservation and use;
- To
promote regulations to introduce
breeders’ rights and other mechanisms to
collect royalties
6) Research and education
This topic relates to the
interaction between the Research Institutes and the Agrarian
Universities with special emphasis on mechanisms to strengthen
the linkages between them.
- To
have in place mechanisms to promote
the development of joint research
projects and value this interaction;
- To
have formal mechanisms that
stimulate training of Agrarian
University students at the Research
Institutes;
- To
provide opportunities for hand-on
student training at the Research
Institutes;
- To
open chairs for researchers at the
Agricultural Universities and
vice-versa;
- To
prepare educational films to educate
students
7) Breeding and biotechnology
The participants valued the role
of biotechnology tools can play to support breeding and
conservation activities, however they indicated that the
linkages between these two groups are almost inexistent. The
proposed following activities are related to how this
relationship can be strengthened.
-
To
develop formal mechanisms to
promote joint planning of
activities;
-
To
give priority for biotechnology
projects which proposes joint
biotechnology/ breeding
activities;
-
To
organize joint workshops of
breeders and biotechnologists to
facilitate communication and to
provide better understanding of
the needs and capacity to
deliver from both groups;
-
To
establish a national
coordinating body for breeding
and biotechnology research.
* This report was prepared by
Elcio P. Guimaraes (FAO) and David Bedoshivili and Alexei
Morgounov (ICARDA/CIMMYT) on 28 February 2007.
** Some information on biotechnology was obtained from the
Proceedings of the FAO/UNESCO subregional workshop on
“Agricultural Biotechnology and Biosafety for Food Security and
Rural Development in the Caucasus Region and Moldova”. This
event was held in Yerevan, Armenia, 3-6 November 2003.
Original document:
http://apps3.fao.org/wiews/docs/Workshop%20Draft%20Report%2004%20Regional%20230207.pdf |
