Rome, Italy
February, 2008
Source:
FAO-BiotechNews 1-2008
The summary document of the FAO e-mail conference entitled
"Coping with water scarcity in developing countries: What role
for agricultural biotechnologies?" has now been published.
It provides a summary of the main
issues discussed during this moderated e-mail conference, hosted
by the FAO Biotechnology Forum from 5 March to 1 April 2007,
based on the messages posted by the participants, 75% of which
came from people in developing countries.
The major topics discussed were
the application of biotechnologies (mainly genetic modification
and
marker-assisted selection) to develop crops with improved
drought resistance or water use efficiency; the use of bacteria
and mycorrhizal fungi in water-limited conditions; and the use
of biotechnology in wastewater treatment.
See
http://www.fao.org/biotech/logs/C14/summary.htm or contact
biotech-admin@fao.org
to request a copy.
|
Executive Summary |
The availability of water is a challenge for all
countries, but especially for those with scarce
water resources and where the livelihoods of its
people depend heavily on agriculture. The term
'biotechnology' includes a broad suite of tools that
present varying degrees of technical sophistication
and require different levels of capital input. A
number of them can be used to mitigate water
scarcity in agriculture, including a variety of
plant biotechnologies, e.g.
marker-assisted
selection (MAS), and microbial biotechnologies, e.g.
use of mycorrhizal fungi as a biofertiliser. Many
examples of applications of biotechnology in
developing countries were cited during this FAO
e-mail conference. There was a general consensus
that biotechnology has a valuable role to play in
addressing the challenge of water scarcity in
developing countries, although opinions differed on
the relevance of different biotechnology tools.
Despite much promising research and significant
possibilities, the conference also indicated that
many applications of biotechnology in this area have
not yet met their full potential to deliver
practical solutions to the end-user in developing
countries.
Among the different plant biotechnologies, MAS and
genetic modification elicited most discussion.
Although the general opinion of participants was
that MAS had significant potential, some underlined
the obstacles to its practical application in
developing countries, such as the relatively high
costs of breeding using molecular markers and the
complexity of traits involved in drought resistance
and water use efficiency in plants. For genetic
modification, promising research results were
reported but many participants expressed doubts
about the role of genetically modified crops in
helping developing countries to cope with water
scarcity, referring to the kinds of obstacles also
relevant to MAS (costs, complexity of the traits to
be improved etc.) as well as to a number of
additional concerns, such as intellectual property
rights issues and potential environmental impacts.
To ensure that research initiatives to develop
drought resistant crops are successful and that the
resulting products actually reach the farmers,
participants called for increased collaboration
between researchers in different disciplines and for
all relevant stakeholders to be involved in the
design of solutions to the problems of water
scarcity in agriculture. Research should not neglect
dryland (non-irrigated) agriculture. The role of the
Consultative Group on International Agricultural
Research (CGIAR), a strategic partnership supporting
the work of 15 international centres, in developing
drought resistance crops was emphasised.
A positive outlook was foreseen for microbial
biotechnologies in managing water scarcity.
Participants described the potential of applying
mycorrhizal fungi and certain bacteria as a
biofertiliser to assist plants to cope with water
stress, calling for greater research in this area.
Several applications of biotechnology were reported
as playing a useful role in treating wastewater,
mainly on a small scale, involving the use of plants
and microbes, so that it could be re-used for
agricultural purposes. Participants also discussed
the potential to design biotechnology-based
wastewater treatment systems in such a way that they
yield co-products (e.g. biogas) that could be used
to generate income locally. |
Full doci=ument:
http://www.fao.org/biotech/logs/C14/summary.htm |
|
