ISAAA in Brief

Mission

Food, feed, fiber, and fuel for the world’s 800 million people who suffer from hunger and poverty – this is the formidable task for many countries, development agencies, and other interest groups. Of the many strategies that have been forwarded to address the issues of global poverty and environmental degradation, crop biotechnology is seen as a viable contribution to the solution. As early as 1991, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) saw the potential of crop biotechnology to improve the lives of small-scale farmers in developing countries. By facilitating the transfer of technologies to developing countries through public-private partnerships, and by sharing and disseminating scientific knowledge to the global community, ISAAA has established its role and contribution in world efforts to help achieve agricultural sustainability and development.

ISAAA's Niche

ISAAA is a not-for-profit international organization that delivers the benefits of agricultural biotechnology to resource-poor farmers in developing countries. By identifying and matching agricultural problems with possible biotechnology-based solutions in developing countries, it aims to share these powerful technologies to those who stand to benefit from them the most.

ISAAA’s unique approach is to facilitate the transfer and delivery of proprietary biotechnology applications by engaging partners from the public and private sectors in the research and development continuum. This entails the building of partnerships between public institutions in the South and the private sector in the North, and by strengthening South-South collaborations. Complementing these efforts are an array of support services to ensure that the agricultural environment is synergized by external inputs, such as capacity building for policy makers and scientists; regulatory oversight on such issues as biosafety, food safety, and intellectual property rights; impact assessment; and knowledge sharing and public awareness.

Since ISAAA does not own or use the technologies it transfers, it is able to have a high degree of independence and credibility as “honest broker” as it interfaces with different partners.