CIMMYT
RELEASES GUIDING PRINCIPLES ON GM USE
The International
Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has released guiding
principles on the use of genetically modified (GM) maize and
wheat varieties. While the CIMMYT promotes plant breeding
that utilizes non-transgenic approaches, it does not exclude
GM technology, and recognizes its potential to contribute
to CIMMYT’s principal goals.
The
Center sets out a list of 11 CIMMYT-wide guidelines. These
state that CIMMYT will (1) engage in research into goods appropriate
for the use of resource-poor farmers, with (2) priority given
to wheat and maize research, (3) using as many options (GM,
conventional, etc.) as possible with (4) the highest standards
of safety in all its research activities. (5) The center will
continue to develop and implement measures that are feasible,
given current technology and funding, to protect the genetic
integrity of incoming (and already held) accessions, and to
maintain them according to international standards. It will
(6) promote and use GM varieties only in countries where biosafety
regulations are in place, and will (7) coordinate with local
authorities to perform safety testing of its products. (8)
CIMMYT will continue to abide by the letter and spirit of
its 1994 agreements with the FAO concerning the management
of collections of maize and wheat germplasm held “in
trust.” (9) All data will be posted on the CIMMYT website,
in its aim for scientific transparency, and the center will
continue 10) to acknowledge the importance of an open and
informed discussion and 11) conduct research into the social,
health, and environmental implications of the use of GM varieties.
The
press release can be viewed online at http://www.cimmyt.org/english/wps/transg/gmo_stmt.htm
INDIAN COUNCIL
OF AG RESEARCH OPTIMISTIC ABOUT GOLDEN RICE
Rice fortified
with iron and Vitamin-A will be ready for use in two years
time, Dr Mangla Rai, secretary of India’s Department
of Agriculture Research and Education in the Union Agriculture
Ministry, said, at the 'From Green Revolution to Gene Revolution'
symposium in Hyderabad.
At present,
Dr. Rai stated, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research
(ICAR) is concentrating on two varieties of rice fortified
with iron and Vitamin A. ICAR is mandated to coordinate agricultural
research and development programs, and has established various
research centers to meet the agricultural research and education
needs of the country.
Noted
rice scientist Gurdev S Khush, also a speaker at the symposium,
said the development of Golden Rice would take time, as it
is a transgenic variety and needs to be tested for environment
and food safety. He added that there was no need for environment
and food safety tests for rice fortified with iron as it was
already being grown through conventional methods.
ICAR,
in association with the Directorate of Rice Research (DRR),
Hyderabad, and the Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI),
jointly organized the three-day symposium, which addressed
issues such as whether rice can ensure food and nutritional
security in low-income food-deficit countries, and if developments
in biotechnology can translate into useable technologies to
meet the future challenges of rice demands.
Learn
more about the ICAR’s activities at http://www.icar.org.in
BANGLADESH
PRIORITIZES BIOTECHNOLOGY
Bangladesh
has given top priority to the use of biotechnology to help
solve the twin problems of hunger and food security. ”New
technologies should be adopted by Bangladesh to attain self
sufficiency in food,” said the country’s Minister
of Agriculture Abdul Halim during his keynote talk at a biotechnology
conference in Dhaka.
Halim,
who is also the chair of the National Committee on Crop Biotechnology,
said that Bangladesh has drafted the country’s first-ever
National Biotechnology Policy. The draft policy calls for
the increased use of biotechnology in agriculture and other
fields. It will serve as the basis for a 20-year strategic
government plan that will encourage greater public-private
participation.
The
Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(FBCCI) President Abdul Awal Mintoo added that, “Bangladesh
for its own sake should go on with the technology. The country
has to move fast, particularly in the implementation of biosafety
guidelines to hasten the transfer of appropriate technology.”
The
conference on “Harvesting the Benefits of Agricultural
Biotechnology in Bangladesh” was conducted by the Agricultural
Biotechnology Support Project II (ABSPII) led by Cornell University,
in partnership with Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council
and FBCCI. ABSPII is helping partner institutions in Bangladesh,
as well as India, Indonesia and the Philippines, on the safe
and effective development and commercialization of bio-engineered
crops as a complement to conventional agricultural approaches.
For
more information about the conference, contact Dr. K.Vijayaraghavan,
South Asia Regional Coordinator of ABSP II, at vijay@sathguru.com
or G.P. Das, ABSP II Country Coordinator, at gpdas@agni.com.
BANGLADESH INITIATIVES
IN BIOTECHNOLOGY
Research
initiatives are currently being undertaken for the establishment
of protocols for in vitro culture and micropagation of different
crops like cereals, vegetables, fiber and horticultural crops
in Bangladesh. This was reported by Dr. Haseena Khan of the
Dhaka University during the conference on “Harvesting
the Benefits of Agricultural Biotechnology in Bangladesh”
held at Pan Pacific Sonargaon in Dhaka.
Bangladesh
is focusing its research on four genetically modified crops
to help the country improve its agricultural productivity.
These are drought and saline tolerant rice, late blight resistant
potato, Bt eggplant, and Bt chickpea.
Drought
and salinity problems in rice cause 38% and 25% yield losses,
respectively. Dr. Nilufer Hye Karim of the Bangladesh Rice
Research Institute said that there is potential for transforming
Bangladesh’s high yielding varieties with abiotic stress-tolerance
genes to improve productivity where the present yield is less
than two tons per hectare. She added that the target production
of 37 M tons of rice could be achieved by 2020 if Bt rice
is eventually commercialized.
Potato
production in Bangladesh is affected by the potato late blight
disease. Up to half of total crop area has been damaged, causing
an annual loss of US$43 M. Dr. K.V. Raman of ABSP II said
that work on late blight resistant Bt potato will hopefully
help change this scenario.
Eggplant
is a common and key crop in Bangladesh grown by resource-constrained
marginal farmers, Farmers use toxic chemicals to control a
major pest, the fruit and shoot borer. With Bt eggplant, less
pesticide use is expected, as it is tolerant to the said borer.
Two streams of field trials for the technology by public and
private sectors are being carried out, said Dr. K. Vijayaraghavan
of the Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project II (ABSPII).
Chickpea
is a leading pulse crop and an important part of the Bangladeshi’s
cereal diet. The pod borer problem, however, is causing as
much as 48% yield loss. A pod borer resistant Bt chickpea,
which was developed by the International Crops Research Institute
for the Semi-Arid Tropics, is being verified under local conditions
for possible transfer into acceptable cultivars. The Bangladesh
Agricultural Research Institute is backcrossing lines in contained/limited
field trials. After a series of limited field trials and multi-locational
field trials, regulatory expert Dr. Partha Das Gupta projects
Bt cowpea to be available by 2010.
For
more information, contact Dr. K.Vijayaraghavan, South Asia
Regional Coordinator of ABSP II, at vijay@sathguru.com
or G.P. Das, ABSP II Country Coordinator, at gpdas@agni.com.
STRATEGIC
PLAN IN PROGRESS FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN EGYPT
Egypt
has formulated a strategy to link development of scientific
research and higher education. Using a plan drawn up by the
Supreme Council of Universities (SCU), the country aims to
strengthen research capacity, improve the quality of scientific
research, and foster innovation and promote public understanding
of science. These include plans to create science parks and
develop policies for protection of intellectual property rights,
as well as to set up and run a scientific research development
fund.
According
to Amer Ezzat Salama, minister of higher education and scientific
research and president of SCU, the strategy includes plans
to bring existing universities into the Information Age, and
build 11 new, science-focused universities within three years.
A distance learning university and four technical colleges
will also be established in the same period, and existing
and planned universities will all be linked to the Internet.
Salama
says the strategic plan will be evaluated and updated at a
national conference for higher education in June 2005.
Visit
the SCU at http://www.scu.eun.eg/eng/scu-eng.htm
SYSTEMIC RISKS
REPRESENTED BY GREEK MYTHS
Using
the findings of the German Scientific Advisory Council for
Global Environmental Change, Ortwin Renn and Andreas Klinke
expound on six risk clusters that need to be addressed when
performing risk analysis and management.
The ultimate
aim of classifying risks is to draft feasible and effective
strategies for risk management and to provide measures for
policies on different political levels, Renn and Klinke write
in the latest issue of EMBO reports. Ultimately, these strategies
pursue the goal of transforming unacceptable risks into acceptable
risks, by moving them into the normal area where routine risk
management is sufficient to ensure safety and integrity.
The six
risk clusters were illustrated with characters from Greek
mythology, chosen from stories that reflected the transition
from an economy of small subsistence farmers and hunters to
organized agriculture and animal husbandry, an advancement
reflected in agriculture today.
These
are Damocles, representing a threat coming from the possibility
that a fatal event could take place any time, even if the
probability is low; Cyclops, where only one side of the risk
equation can be ascertained while the other remains uncertain;
Pythia, a blind seer famous for her ambiguous prophecies,
who represents risks for which neither the maximum amount
of damage nor the probability of certain damaging events can
be estimated at the present time; Pandora, representing risks
whose damages are discovered only after the ubiquitous spread
has occurred; Cassandra, representing risks where the probability
of occurrence as well as the extent of damage are high and
relatively well known, but because there is a considerable
delay between the triggering event and the occurrence of damage,
such risks are ignored or downplayed; and lastly, Medusa,
where such phenomena have a high potential for psychological
distress and social mobilization that make them frightening
or unwelcome, although they are rarely assessed as a threat.
To
read more about the clusters, as well as the mythological
figures that represent them, download the full article in
PDF format at http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/
embor/journal/v5/n1s/full/7400227.html&filetype=pdf
SCIENCE JOURNALISTS
'PLAY CRITICAL ROLE IN DECISION-MAKING'
Science
journalists have a "critical role" to play in informing
communities and influencing policymakers in the developing
world, Maureen O'Neil, president of Canada's International
Development Research Centre (IDRC), said at the opening of
the 4th World Conference of Science Journalists in Montreal,
Canada.
The
IDRC is a Canadian public corporation that works in close
collaboration with researchers from the developing world in
their search for the means to build healthier, more equitable,
and more prosperous societies. O’Neil announced that
the IDRC has decided to welcome applications for support for
projects that will seek to strengthen science journalism in
developing countries, particularly in the areas of training
and course development.
"We
are supporting this conference because we would like to ensure
that the work of scientists in the South is recognized and
put into practice," said O'Neil. "Their discoveries
deserve to be given as much attention in developed countries
as in the developing world."
In
addition, she said, the citizens of developing countries need
to understand and celebrate the work of scientists living
in their own communities, and the ways that they contribute
towards building stronger economies and societies.
Visit
the IRDC at http://web.idrc.ca/ev_en.php.
ANNOUNCEMENT:
DHAKA
INTERNATIONAL BIOTECH CONFERENCE
The
fifth International Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology
Conference will be held at the Department of Botany, University
of Dhaka, Bangladesh on December 4 to 6, 2004. It is organized
by the Bangladesh Association for Plant Tissue Culture and
Biotechnology and is co-sponsored by the Ministry of Science,
Information and Community Technology, and University of Dhaka.
The
conference theme is “Sustainable Biotechnology for Developing
Countries.” For more information, contact Dr. R.H. Sarker
of the University of Dhaka at bhsarker2000@yahoo.co.uk
or baptcb@bd.drik.net. |