Sustainable Agriculture In Developing Countries

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Issue in Brief:
Agricultural Biotechnology Can Help Developing Countries Gain Food Security

Providing enough food for the world's poor is a continuing challenge. According to a study issued by the International Food Policy Research Institute, by 2020 world population will increase to at least 8 billion. Most of this growth will take place in the developing world and will account for about 85 percent of the increase in demand for cereals and meat. Already, almost 1 billion people live in poverty and suffer chronic hunger-about two-thirds of whom are farmers. The United Nations Population Division has made similar population projections.

The amount of arable land available to meet increased demand from a burgeoning population is limited. Only about 10 percent of the world's land surface is suitable for farming, and soil erosion and overfarming are becoming problems in some areas. With no significant room to expand areas of cultivation, increased demand for food in developing countries will have to be met through improved yields of the most widely grown staple crops at a time when the rapid yield growth that characterized the Green Revolution is beginning to peak.

The lack of arable land also can lead to environmental problems. In many developing countries, for example, biodiversity is threatened because wilderness areas such as tropical rainforests are being converting to farmland to meet the demand of food production. Therefore, farmers need to find new ways to boost production using fewer natural resources.

Biotechnology can play a major role in helping countries become self-sufficient in food. The National Academies and six other international scientific organizations recently issued a report discussing the role of biotechnology to meet global food needs. It concluded that "GM technology, coupled with important developments in other areas, should be used to increase the production of main food staples, improve the efficiency of production, reduce the environmental impact of agriculture, and provide access to food for small-scale farmers." Many other scientific and international development organizations-the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), United Nations, Royal Society, Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and others-have reached similar conclusions.

There are many optimistic signs that the means for developing and delivering biotechnology solutions are or soon will be in place. Most public-sector research sectors in developing countries are stronger today than they were 25 years ago. A great strength of these systems is their close links with farmers and extension services. Moreover, many of the genes for resistance to the environmental stresses that limit agricultural production in developing countries are already present in their crops, either in traditional landraces or in improved varieties.

Scientists from developing countries also are forming valuable partnerships with research institutions, such as Michigan State University, in the United States and other industrialized countries. International aid agencies also are involved. CGIAR, for example, operates 16 international agricultural research centers throughout the world. CGIAR is an informal association of public- and private-sector members, including the World Bank and the United Nations. The U.S. government, primarily through U.S. Agency for International Development, also funds projects aimed at improving understanding of agricultural biotechnology in developing countries. A new Rockefeller Foundation program, African Agricultural Technology Foundation, has also been created to facilitate the transfer of technology to Africa. Biotechnology companies also have taken the lead in providing opportunities for researchers from developing countries to study and work in the U.S.

Biotechnology already is beginning to make a contribution. Recent developments and ongoing projects include the following:

• "Golden rice" enriched with beta carotene and iron that can help combat vitamin-A deficiency, a major cause of blindness in the developing world, and anemia. Researchers also are working on a "Golden mustard" that will yield cooking oil enriched with provitamin A. Mustard oil is widely used in northern India to prepare food.
• A new variety of African sweet potato that resists the feathery mottle virus is beginning to improve yields of this important staple crop in Africa.
• New varieties of corn, sorghum, sweet potato, and wheat that are being developed to provide more amino acids such as lysine, an important dietary protein.
• Cucurbit crops that resist viruses and increase yields of these important staples throughout Southeast Asia, India, and the South Pacific.
• "Pharma foods" that may help prevent or cure diseases such as cholera and diarrhea, leading causes of infant mortality in developing countries.
• New banana varieties resistant to Black Sigatoka that could reduce the need for chemical controls, improve production agronomics, and increase the quality of bananas.
• Foods with extended shelf lives that can reduce food losses caused by spoilage.
• Plants resistant to toxic metals that will increase the areas available for farming. Aluminum, for example, is a serious problem in acidic soils in South and Central America, Northern Africa, India, and China.
• Salt-tolerant plants that that would allow crops to grow in salt-contaminated soils or be irrigated using salty or low-quality water.
• Insect-resistant cotton that provided better yields is improving the lives of farmers in China, South Africa, and elsewhere.

These are just a few examples of what can be accomplished through biotechnology to improve the lives of poor people in the developing world. It should be noted that many of these and other products are being developed with the assistance of U.S. biotechnology companies.

Estimates published by ISAAA notes that more than one quarter (27%) of the global transgenic crop area of 145 million acres in 2002, equivalent to 39.5 million acres, was grown in developing countries where growth continued to be strong. Whereas the absolute growth in GM crop area between 2001 and 2002 was higher in industrial countries (8.9 million acres) compared with developing countries (6.2 million acres), the percentage growth was more than twice as high in the developing countries (19 percent) than in the industrial countries (9 percent).

While not a total solution, it is clear that biotechnology will continue to play an important role in helping developing countries overcome persistent problems and achieve food security.

Resources:
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research:

• Agricultural Biotechnology and the Poor Report, CGIAR (2000).
  "[M]olecular biology and other tools of modern biotechnology add elegance and precision to the pursuit of solutions to thwart poverty, malnutrition and food insecurity in too many countries around the world. In agriculture these enemies are manifest as pests, diseases, drought and other biotic and abiotic stresses that limit the productivity of plants and animals" [from Section 1].
• Ismail Serageldin and G.J. Persley, Promethean Science: Agricultural Biotechnology, the Environment, and the Poor, CGIAR (2000).
  "Prometheus changed the world forever when he unleashed the forces of innovation and creativity. The Promethean scholars of today seek to use the new discoveries in molecular biology and genetics to understand and protect the natural world and to improve the productivity of agricultural systems."

• Per Pinstrup-Andersen, Rajul Pandya-Lorch, and Mark W. Rosegrant, World Food Prospects: Critical Issues for the Early Twenty-First Century, IFPRI (October 1999).
  "This report will discuss new evidence on the opportunities offered by agroecological approaches, the potential role of modern biotechnology, and the relevance of new information technology and precision farming for small farmers in developing countries."
• IFPRI, Biotechnology for Developing-Country Agriculture: Problems and Opportunities, 2020 Focus 2 (October 1999).
  A series of briefs on various aspects of biotechnology in developing countries.

• Clive James, Global Review of Commercialized Transgenic Crops: 2001, ISAAA Issue Brief 24 (2002).
  Read other ISAAA issue briefs here.
• Poverty and Technology, ISAAA Strategic Plan 2001-2005.
  "ISAAA believes that the well-targeted use of crop biotechnology is a crucial, necessary element for reducing poverty and improving food security in the developing world."
• Asian Food Information Center and ISAAA, Food Biotechnology: A Communications Guide to Improving Understanding (October 2001).

• U.N. Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2000 Revision (2001).
• U.N. Development Program, Human Development Report 2001: Making New Technologies Work for Human Development (2001).
  "Technology networks are transforming the traditional map of development, expanding people's horizons and creating the potential to realize in a decade progress that required generations in the past."
• U.N. University, Institute for New Technologies, Agricultural Biotechnology, Technology Policy Briefs, Volume 1, Issue 2 (2002).
• Simonetta Zarrilli, International Trade in Genetically Modified Organisms and Multilateral Negotiations: A New Dilemma for Developing Countries, U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (2000).

• ADB, Agricultural Biotechnology, Poverty Reduction, and Food Security, Working Paper (May 2001).
  "Agricultural biotechnology is expected to contribute significantly toward poverty reduction and food security in Asia through increased productivity, lower production costs and food prices, and improved nutrition."
• World Bank Institute, Global Dialogue on Food Security and Biotechnology (2002).

• Royal Society of London, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Brazilian Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, Mexican Academy of Sciences, and Third World Academy of Sciences, Transgenic Plants and World Agriculture (2000).
  "GM technology, coupled with important developments in other areas, should be used to increase the production of main food staples, improve the efficiency of production, reduce the environmental impact of agriculture, and provide access to food for small-scale farmers."
• National Agricultural Biotechnology Council, World Food Security and Sustainability: The Impacts of Biotechnology and Industrial Consolidation, NABC Report 11 (1999).
• Nicola Cabibbo, "Study Document on the Use of 'Genetically Modified Food Plants' to Combat Hunger in the World," Science and the Future of Mankind: Science for Man and Man for Science, Pontifical Academy of Sciences (2001).
  "The rapid growth in the world population requires the development of new technologies to feed people adequately; even now, an eighth of the world's people go to bed hungry. The genetic modification of food plants can help meet this challenge."
• International Association of Plant Breeders (ASSINSEL), Feeding the 8 Billion and Preserving the Planet (May 1997)./a>
• Nuffield Council on Bioethics (U.K.), Genetically Modified Crops: The Ethical and Social Issues (May 1999).
  "The scope of improvements offered by genetic modification in the future is much wider and consumer benefits much more evident. However, concentrating exclusively on the safety and environmental impact of (biotechnology) crops in the UK and Europe may distract both the public and governments from giving the proper attention to benefits they could bring to developing and developed countries."

• Potrykus, I. 2001. Golden rice and beyond. Plant Physiology 125: 1157-1161.
• Potrykus, I. 1999. Vitamin-A and iron-enriched rices may hold key to combating blindness and malnutrition: A biotechnology advance. Nature Biotechnology 17: 37.
• John C. O'Toole et al., The Rockefeller Foundation's International Program on Rice Biotechnology: An Experiment in International Collaborative Research, Training, and Capacity Building (2001).
• Nature Biotechnology Editors. 1999. A golden bowl of rice. Nature Biotechnology 17: 831.

• The African Agricultural Technology Foundation.
• A Harvest Biotech Foundation International
• Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project, Institute for International Agriculture, Michigan State University.
• Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre and Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection, What Is the Impact of GMOs on Sustainable Agriculture in Zambia? (2002).
  Read the response:
  Andrew Apel et al. To Die or Not to Die, This is the Problem, Comments to the Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre and Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection Study: What Is the Impact of GMOs on Sustainable Agriculture in Zambia? (2002).
• Lorraine Mitchell, Biotechnology and Food Security, USDA Economic Research Service, Agriculture Information Bulletin Number 765-11 (June 2001).
• International Rice Research Institute, BT Rice: Research and Policy Issues, IRRI Information Series No. 5 (June 1997)./a>
• San Diego Center for Molecular Agriculture, Food from Genetically Improved Crops in Africa.
• U.S. Agency for International Development, Collaborative Agriculture Biotechnology Initiative Fact Sheet.
• Wambugu, F. 2002. Modifying Africa: How biotechnology can benefit the poor and hungry, A case study from Kenya.
  "Judging by Kenya's experience, it seems likely that agribiotechnology will eventually take root in Africa."

• AgBioForum, The Economics of Biotechnology in Developing Countries, 2 (3 & 4), 1999.
  This issue of the online journal is devoted to the economics of biotechnology in developing countries.
• Bowles, D., and Klee, H. 2002. Introduction to the special issues on plant GM technology. The Plant Journal 31(4): 481-482.
• Conway, G. 2000. Genetically modified crops: Risks and promise. Conservation Ecology 4(1): 2.
• Chrispeels, M.J. 2000. Biotechnology and the poor, Plant Physiol 124: 3-6.
• Frommer, W.B., Ludewig, U., and Rentsch, D. 1999. Taking transgenic plants with a grain of salt. Science 285: 1222-1223.
• Goto, F., Yoshihara, T., Shigemoto, N., Toki, S., and Takaiwa F. 1999. Iron fortification of rice seed by the soybean ferritin gene. Nature Biotechnology 17: 282-286.
• Huang, J., Pray, C.E., and Rozelle, S. 2002. Enhancing the crops to feed the poor. Nature 418: 678-684. Read the abstract here (requires registration, full article requires paid subscription).
• Ismael, Y., Bennett, R., and Morse, S. 2002. Benefits from Bt cotton use by smallholder farmers in South Africa, AgBioForum 5(1): 1-5.
• Juma, C. 2002. Biotechnology and international relations: Forging new strategic partnerships. Int. J. Biotechnology 4 (2/3): 115-128.
  Read the abstract here (full article requires paid subscription).
• Juma, C., et al. 2001. Global governance of technology: Meeting the needs of developing countries. Int. J. Technology Management 22 (7/8): 629-655.
  Read the abstract here (full article requires paid subscription).
• Kramer, K.J., et al. 2000. Transgenic avidin maize is resistant to storage insect pests. Nature Biotechnology 18: 670-674.
• Moffat, A.S. 1999. Engineering plants to cope with metals. Science 285: 369-370.
• Moffat, A.S. 1999. Crop engineering goes south. Science 285: 370-371.
• Pray, C.E., Huang, J., Hu, R., and Rozelle, S. 2002. Five years of Bt cotton in China-the benefits continue. The Plant Journal 31(4): 423-430.
• Serageldin, I. 1999. Biotechnology and food security in the 21st century. Science 285: 387-389.
• Smirnoff, N., and Bryant, J.A. 1999. DREB takes the stress out of growing up. Nature Biotechnology 17(3): 229-230.
• Sussman, M.R. 1999. Pumping iron. Nature Biotechnology 17(3): 230-231.
• Trewavas, A.J. 2001. The population/biodiversity paradox. Agricultural efficiency to save wilderness. Plant Physiology 125: 174-179.
• Trisha, G. 1999. New genes boost rice nutrients. Science 285: 994-995.
• Wambugu, F. 1999. Why Africa needs agricultural biotech. Nature 400: 15-16.

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