A national plant breeding and associated biotechnology capacity assessment was conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations to enable actions to be proposed to strengthen national capacity in the use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. Results of the study reveal that:

• The number of plant breeders and biotechnologists and the trends vary among countries and regions without a global upward or downward tendency.
• The capacity to use biotechnology tools varies but the lack of linkages with applied plant breeding is a major issue.
• Allocations vary from crop to crop and from region to region.

The survey, authored by Elcio Guimaraes of FAO and colleagues, was presented in several workshops where the main issues raised were capacity building as a main priority, access to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, access to biotechnology tools, and awareness of plant breeding characteristics and their impact. The Global Partnership Initiative for Plant Breeding Capacity Building was launched to assist countries in strenghtening their competence.

Email Elcio Guimaraes at elcio.guimaraes@fao.org or read the full article published in the journal Crop Science, December 2007 issue.