Publications: About ISAAA
Biotechnology Transfer Projects From
Science to Small-Scale Agriculture (Mexico/Monsanto/The Rockefeller Foundation) This project offers the most revealing picture of ISAAA's capabilities, accomplishments, and potential to date. With funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, ISAAA accessed the latest technology from one of the leaders in biotechnology (Monsanto) for Mexico's premier biological sciences establishment, CINVESTAV. Senior participants from CINVESTAV and Monsanto are convinced that ISAAA accelerated the application of these technologies and establishment of the related regulatory capacity by several years. They feel that in negotiating a workable agreement between the relevant parties and providing assistance with training and biosafety concerns, ISAAA has performed a uniquely valuable service. Recent accomplishments have been impressive:
A Diagnostic for Black Rot in Crucifers (AVRDC/WSU/USAID) This project emphasized the development and use of a simple cDNA-based assay to detect black rot disease, the most important disease of crucifers worldwide. Caused by the bacterial pathogen Xanthomonas campestris pv campestris (Xcc), black rot is a seed-borne, seed-transmitted disease. As few as 3 infected seeds in 10,000 can seriously infect an entire cabbage field. Because Xcc survives on crop residues and related Brassica weeds for several years after a field is infected, the economic and nutritional burden imposed by the pathogen endures longer than a single cropping season. In some parts of Asia, researchers have encountered entire fields of cabbage infected with black rot, even in the dry season. No seed treatment reliably eliminates Xcc. The only effective means of preventing the pathogen from spreading is for farmers to use pathogen-free seed, but an economical, accurate, and rapid diagnostic assay for infected seed has been lacking. The development of a cDNA-based assay for detecting infected seed will make it possible for national programs to operate more effective seed health programs, which will reduce crop losses, especially among farmers in tropical countries that rely entirely on imported seed. A further potential benefit is the possibility that DNA "fingerprinting" of Xcc strains will allow developing countries to pursue their own epidemiological studies on the spread of black rot and initiate effective disease management programs. At Washington State University in the USA, researchers developed a fast, sensitive, specific assay, incorporating polymerase chain reaction (PCR), for Xcc. The training phase of this project was completed at the university and AVDRC, Taiwan. AVRDC plans to further test, adapt, and transfer the diagnostic probe technology to its client countries in Asia through an intensive training program. The next phase of this project involves refining the probe for use under field conditions. Dr. Mike Daniels, of the John Innes Centre in the UK, observed during a review of the project that the use of a more commercially sensitive diagnostic probe and quarantine activities should be feasible as soon as work on sampling procedures is completed. He further recommended that, as an interim measure, researchers in Asia use the technique as a research tool to study the epidemiology of the disease. ISAAA will complete this significant transfer project in 1996.
A Selectable Marker Strengthens Cassava Research at CIAT (CIAT/Sandoz Seeds) Cassava is an important crop for countless poor farmers in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Oceania, and it is one of the global mandate commodities of CIAT, one of the 16 centers of the CGIAR. CIAT employs biotechnology to strengthen resistance to diseases and other pests attacking cassava and to enhance quality characteristics. At CIAT's request, ISAAA identified Sandoz Seeds as a partner willing to contribute to cassava improvement research. Sandoz Seeds donated one of its proprietary technologies for research and provided training for a CIAT scientist at Northrup King, a seed company in the USA and subsidiary of Sandoz Seeds, in new techniques for using nondestructive selectable markers in cassava transformation.
Towards Virus-Resistant Papaya (Brazil/Cornell University) Throughout the tropics, papaya production is affected severely by papaya ring spot virus (PRSV), which is transmitted by aphids and extremely difficult to control. Cultivated papaya do not have adequate levels of resistance. Smallholders throughout South America and Asia, who once produced papaya for home consumption, must now purchase papaya in the market. Commercial papaya producers have been affected as well. In Brazil, commercial growers moved production to areas where the virus was not present, but within one or two growing seasons the virus had invaded the new growing area. With proprietary technology donated by Cornell University, USA, this project is developing PRSV-resistant papaya lines. The availability of resistant varieties will, with time, increase production, reduce the use of insecticides, and promote sustainability of production, particularly among small-scale farmers. Cornell University serves as the primary center for developing the technology. Researchers at Cornell have developed transgenic papaya resistant to PRSV, but not to strains of the virus common in Asia or South America. Scientists from Brazil will be trained at Cornell, where they will work on perfecting varieties of papaya suited to conditions in their respective countries. The first target country is Brazil, the largest papaya producer in the world, although the project could expand to Mexico and Thailand. These countries could become regional centers responsible for further developing, field testing, and transferring the technology and germplasm to other interested countries in Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. The project will also include a socioeconomic study of the impacts of the research. To date, this work has been funded by the national program of Brazil.
Combating Cotton Pests in South America (CENARGEN/EMBRAPA/INTA/Monsanto) At least two-thirds of the world's cotton area lies in the developing world, where over US$1 billion of pesticides are applied to insect pests each year. More pesticides are used on cotton than on any other crop. The pesticide bill is a significant burden to developing nations, which must use scarce foreign exchange to import the chemicals, and pesticide is often a staggering expense for all but the most affluent farmers. Brazilian farmers can spend as much as US$100/ha to control insect pests. Poor farmers who cannot afford chemical control are simply driven out of cotton production. After the boll weevil was introduced into northeastern Brazil, cotton area plummeted from 1.5 million hectares in 1983 to 345,000 ha in 1991. Small-scale producers were hit the hardest. This project focuses on developing cotton lines for Brazil and Argentina that will contain Bt genes, which have been proven to confer resistance to Lepidopteran insect pests. ISAAA brokered a partnership between Monsanto, ENARGEN/EMBRAPA in Brazil, and INTA in Argentina to incorporate this resistance into South American cotton varieties. Monsanto is investigating the possibility of further enhancing the resistance of these varieties by incorporating additional genes for controlling boll weevil. This pest, particularly important in northeastern Brazil, threatens cotton production in Argentina as well, and a boll weevil monitoring and eradication program involving Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina is in effect. The benefits from all of this work are expected to be sizable. Yields will rise as losses from insect pests fall. Farmers will apply less pesticide, thereby reducing chemical residues in soil, groundwater, and aquifers. Governments benefit as well by saving urgently needed foreign exchange. Finally, poor farmers, once driven out of cotton production, may be able to produce this attractive cash crop once again. Biotechnology Support Projects Biotechnology support projects comprise more limited objectives and activities than ISAAA's major projects, which we have just described. Support projects are generally one-time activities, although some of these projects may eventually lead to full-fledged projects.
The Quest for Late Blight Resistance in Potatoes (CINVESTAV/Purdue University/Cornell University) Purdue University, USA, developed and patented several genes (osmotin-based) that may confer a moderate level of resistance to late blight, the most important disease of potatoes worldwide. ISAAA brokered an agreement between Purdue University, Cornell University, and CINVESTAV for testing experimental, potentially resistant lines in the USA (this is an initial step; later testing could include more advanced materials). ISAAA secured the biosafety permit and Cornell University conducted the field trial. Although the expression of disease symptoms was delayed, the materials tested at Cornell in 1995--a year of particularly severe disease incidence--eventually proved susceptible to the fungus causing late blight. Additional field tests of new constructs with a better expression of resistance are planned for 1996. If the new constructs prove effective, they might be transferred to CINVESTAV in Mexico so that researchers there can further improve potato varieties for poor farmers.
The Testing of PLRV-Resistant Potatoes in Egypt (AGERI/SCRI) Egypt requested assistance from ISAAA in obtaining potato materials with potential resistance to PLRV from the Scottish Crop Research Institute, UK, as well as information on biosafety needed to test the materials for resistance under Egyptian conditions. Transgenic potatoes with a coat protein gene were transferred to Egypt. Dr. Magdy Makour, Director of AGERI, an Egyptian research institute, reports that the necessary biosafety clearance was obtained, the materials were multiplied using tissue culture, and the first round of field trials has been completed. The materials performed well in the field, and additional trials are planned to confirm field resistance to local PLRV isolates. Projects in Development Reviving Banana Production in Eastern Africa (initially JKUAT/KARI/South Africa) Banana is an important staple food and an important cash crop in many parts of Eastern Africa, particularly Kenya and Uganda. Most bananas are produced on holdings comprising from a few plants to a few hectares, and they are marketed locally. Recently, Kenya's banana industry has been devastated by panama diseases, sigatoka, and weevil/nematode complexes. Small-scale farmers have unwittingly made the situation worse by using banana suckers that spread diseases and pests. (Diseased and infested suckers are estimated to reduce the banana harvest by as much as 50-90% compared to yields obtained when farmers use modern varieties and disease-free stock.) Bananas no longer serve as a ready supply of food for rural populations, and poor yields limit the cash earnings of small-scale farmers, particularly women. To revive Kenya's failing banana industry, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and the Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) have been collecting disease-resistant varieties of banana, both for germplasm conservation and for replanting through collaborations with NGOs. Also, JKUAT has been producing limited tissue culture material, demonstrating the feasibility of the technology in Kenya. Because the demand for banana plantlets is so great, estimated to be 4-8 million plantlets per year, these joint efforts have had only limited success to date. Hence JKUAT and KARI requested ISAAA to assist in developing and implementing a pilot project to improve small-scale and resource-poor farmers' access to clean, improved banana planting material in several ways. First, the project would source diverse popular parent banana stocks for rapid micropropagation. Second, it would establish a pilot tissue culture unit at JKUAT with an initial capacity of 250,000 plantlets per year. This will be done by creating links with the South African banana research community and experts in large-scale banana production, distribution, and commercialization. Finally, the project will ensure effective distribution of the improved, clean banana plantlets to small-scale farmers through effective links with end users. The project will have other positive outcomes as well. Proper linkages with benchmark sites will be established through partners who will participate in selecting and sourcing planting material and in demonstrating, promoting, and distributing the multiplied, improved planting material among target farmers at each site. A monitoring, analysis, and documentation effort will assess the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of the process. On-farm agronomic/management research will be conducted to optimize target farmers' use of improved, disease-free planting material. Finally, the project will help establish regional collaboration in an important research area.
Laying the Foundation for Effective Fruit Tree Improvement in Zimbabwe (Horticultural Research Centre/South Africa) Zimbabwe traditionally has obtained fruit tree germplasm from South Africa. However, South African germplasm is adapted to subtropical and temperate conditions, and nearly half of Zimbabwe has a tropical climate. Zimbabweans have sought to expand their fruit tree industry by importing improved tropical fruit germplasm from other potential sources, including India, Florida in the USA, and Eastern Europe, but such introductions carry a risk of introducing disease, and very few have been made. As a result, Zimbabwe lacks the modern, high-yielding germplasm needed for competing in export markets or even assuring a secure supply of fruit for the domestic market. With assistance from ISAAA, Zimbabwe developed a full-scale project and obtained modest initial funding from GTZ for enhancing the necessary infrastructure and obtaining the training to use disease diagnostics and tissue culture techniques to introduce and multiply improved tropical fruit tree germplasm. In 1995, a GTZ Biotechnology Fellowship was awarded and is described more fully in the special report on Biotechnology Fellowships. Eventually, the project seeks to develop an operational tissue culture and disease diagnostic laboratory. Such a laboratory will be immensely important in enabling Zimbabweans to accept and maintain exotic germplasm under strict quarantine; grow in vivo and in vitro material in isolation; and develop a state-of-the-art capability to screen imported material for disease.
Innovative South-South Collaboration for Virus-Resistant Potatoes (KARI/CINVESTAV/Monsanto/Resources Development Foundation) This project features a South-South transfer of technology, in which Kenya will receive and test virus-resistant potatoes developed by CINVESTAV, Mexico. ISAAA's first project in Mexico (described earlier in this report) generated transgenic varieties of potatoes that are resistant to the ubiquitous viruses PVX and PVY; PLRV-resistant lines will follow in 1998. The variety to be transferred to Kenya, upon the request of KARI, is Rosita, which is a moderately resistant to late blight and grown exclusively by small-scale farmers in the highlands. Transfer has been initiated with a fellowship awarded by ISAAA to build the necessary biosafety capacity, and field trials are planned by KARI, possibly in collaboration with CIP. Fatuma Omari Ghelle, a root crop breeder from KARI, completed training in Mexico and the USA on biosafety measures for introducing and field testing Rosita in Kenya. The Resources Development Foundation provided the William Brown Fellowship Funds to cover her training. Ghelle says that this training enabled her to prepare and submit the regulatory permits needed to introduce transgenic Rosita into Kenya, and she is certain that Kenya will conduct its first field trial with transgenic potatoes, once the biosafety review has been completed in Kenya, by Kenyans. Indeed, one of the objectives of the project is the building of biosafety regulatory capacity on the basis of a concrete application developed by KARI (for more information on this project, see the special report on the ISAAA Biotechnology Fellowship Program).
Understanding the Mode of Resistance to Maize Streak Virus (Initially KARI/ICIPE/John Innes Centre/University of Cape Town) Maize streak virus (MSV) has become an increasingly worrying disease of maize throughout Eastern and Southern Africa. Although MSV is indigenous to Africa, in recent years the disease appears to have gathered strength. Epidemics of MSV are on the rise, perhaps because maize is adapting to a wider range of growing environments, or because more maize is grown under irrigation, or because more maize is grown in periurban areas. Leafhoppers transmit the disease, but the use of insecticides and other management practices are not cost-effective options for most farmers. Although researchers have developed maize varieties that tolerate MSV reasonably well, large numbers of farmers remain unaware of these new varieties. Furthermore, the basis for resistance to MSV is not well understood. The tools of biotechnology should enable researchers to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms of resistance to MSV. One application, the technique of agroinoculation developed by the John Innes Centre, UK, holds particular promise. Used in combination with established techniques, agroinoculation enables the differentiation of resistance against the leafhopper, against transmission of the virus, and against the virus spreading within the plant. This kind of information is crucial for developing more effective breeding and control strategies. Under this project, several institutions from around the world will come together to achieve several objectives:
Toward this end, a pilot project is being developed with three sets of player--KARI and ICIPE in Kenya, the John Innes Centre in the UK, and the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Eventually, this collaboration could gradually (and pragmatically, as dictated by the needs and abilities of participants in the project) expand to include other institutions, such as CIMMYT, IITA, and CIRAD and research organizations in Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Uganda.
Multiplying Multipurpose Trees for Kenya's Smallholders (FHMC/Mondi Forests) For Kenya's smallholders and their counterparts throughout Africa, forests are a vital resource. But can Africa's forests become a renewable resource rather than a threatened one? In Kenya alone, more than 93% of rural households' energy needs are met by fuelwood. By 2000--in a few short years--more than 65% of the demand for fuelwood will not be met unless Kenya implements a major change in forestry policy. Fuelwood shortages will have critical socioeconomic consequences for the rural poor, the national economy, and the environment. One promising means of ensuring that Kenya's trees become a renewable resource is the development and utilization of tree plantlets derived through tissue culture. This pilot project aims to develop Kenya's capacity for the tissue culture production and distribution of several tree species. Its broader objective is to improve the living standards of rural families in Kenya. An important facet of this project is to build awareness of the potential of tissue culture products and to promote interaction among the major players involved in forestry, leading to a sustainable long-term program. Several species have been selected for this project, based on the needs and priorities of smallholders in Kenya and the development of the tissue culture technology and its proven application in South Africa:
During the three-and-a-half years of the project, testing sites will be established at strategic locations in Kenya and distribution channels will be developed to reach smallholders. Equally important will be a fully operational tissue culture facility and pilot production nurseries, again at strategic locations. These will be developed through collaboration with Mondi Forests, a Division of Mondi Ltd., South Africa, and training at the University of Natal-Durban Campus. This project is unique in the broad range of benefits that it will confer on agroforestry and domestic wood production for poor communities in Kenya. Institutionally, the project represents a model for strengthening South-South cooperation, through donating, sharing, and transferring proprietary biotechnologies to meet the needs and priorities of the poor farmers. This will open new ways of transferring technologies and extending the benefits of biotechnology. The experience gained could be used as a model for sharing experience and technology with other countries in the region which face similar challenges.
Transferring Sweet Potatoes with Resistance to Feathery Mottle Virus (KARI/Monsanto) Developing countries produce virtually all (98%) of the global sweet potato crop. In Africa, sweet potatoes are a particularly important staple for women and children. The crop is viewed as a promising means to combat hunger, because it is a good source of calories and essential vitamins and minerals. Despite the importance of sweet potatoes for human nutrition, yields in Africa remain low--about 6 t/ha--compared to the global average yield of 14 t/ha and a yield potential of 18 t/ha. Even so, several countries in Eastern Africa produce considerable amounts of this important staple each year: Uganda (1.7 million tons); Kenya (1 million tons); Rwanda (900,000 tons); and Tanzania (340,000 tons). These statistics may be deceptively low; in Kenya, for example, it is estimated that as much as half of national production never enters the marketing system. Low yields result partly from disease pressure, especially sweet potato feathery mottle virus (SPFMV). This virus, in the presence of several other common viruses that affect sweet potatoes, reduces yields by 20-80%. Effective control of SPFMV alone could lead to very significant yield increases. Women farmers in particular would benefit from a means of controlling SPFMV, because they grow most of the sweet potatoes produced in Africa. In a joint initiative between KARI, USAID/ABSP, and Monsanto, Kenyan scientists at Monsanto developed transgenic sweet potatoes resistant to SPFMV. It is noteworthy that this work did not focus on exotic materials; it was specifically targeted to eight important sweet potato varieties already grown by Kenyan farmers. KARI has requested ISAAA's support in transferring and applying this technology in Kenya (particularly in developing finished varieties for resource-poor farmers) and for sharing with neighboring countries. Sharing the technology with these countries will significantly increase the number of beneficiaries of this work. In response, ISAAA has formulated a pre-proposal for the project and is seeking funding.
Other Projects in Exploration One potential macro project would focus on the root and tuber crops that are the staples for countless poor people throughout Africa. The project would facilitate the donation and transfer of biotechnology from the private sector, which by and large has had few incentives to invest in research on this group of crops in developing countries. The project would feature an appropriate mix of three potentially useful technologies--tissue culture, disease diagnostics, and transgenics--and initially would emphasize producing and distributing healthier improved propagating material to smallholders. Other high-priority projects identified by national programs include diagnostics for pesticide residues in Asia; cryopreservation of coffee genetic resources; and the delayed-ripening gene for a series of fruits, particularly papaya, upon the request of several countries in Southeast Asia. << Previous | Back to Table of Contents | Next >> |
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