Biotechnology and biodiversity: market-oriented research
San Jose, Costa Rica, February 22, 2013 (IICA). The use of biodiversity to produce natural inputs that increase agricultural productivity is a growing business opportunity for companies and laboratories in Latin America and the Caribbean, a trend that calls for robust biosafety frameworks in the countries of the region.
Pedro Rocha, coordinator of biotechnology and biosafety at the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), believes that using biotechnology to generate such raw materials, or bio-inputs, is also an innovative way to incorporate scientific research into agriculture and strengthen extension activities targeted at smallholders.
“Farmers have vast experience in this, they have been using fermentation and composting techniques to generate bio-products for a very long time, and these methods are essential for organic and ecological farming, and also very important in conventional agriculture,” Rocha noted in a webcast to all the Institute’s member countries in which he provided a summary of the main biotechnology developments around the world over the past year.
The webcast formed part of the support that IICA provides to the nations of the hemisphere to enable them to take decisions on biotechnology and biosafety based on scientifically validated information.
The bio-inputs used in agriculture must meet standards of traceability, effectiveness, and stability, for which standard research protocols have to be created.
“Although each place has specific biological characteristics, the research and the use of biodiversity must be the same, since inappropriate management could have harmful effects on human and animal health or the environment, or result in low productivity,” Rocha said.
As an example of the growth in commercially marketed bio-products, he mentioned a bio-fungicide developed by public researchers in Mexico and soon to be launched in Brazil, Ecuador, and the United States that could be used to prevent diseases in mango, avocado, and papaya, and to raise the productivity of those crops. The research work took 12 years to complete.
IICA is currently assisting countries such as Costa Rica, Ecuador, and El Salvador in strengthening their institutional frameworks and implementing biotechnology and biosafety policies. It also maintains a permanent dialogue on these issues with the Central American Agricultural Council (CAC) and the Southern Agricultural Council (CAS).
Pedro Rocha also reported on the status of genetically modified or transgenic crops worldwide.
According to a report from the International Service for the Acquisition of Bio-tech Applications (ISAAA), some 170 million hectares of land were planted with transgenics in 2012, a six percent increase over the previous year.
The crops were grown in 28 countries, only eight of which are classified as developed.
Developing nations accounted for 52% of the total. “For the first time ever, developing countries planted more transgenic crops than developed nations,” Rocha pointed out.
For more information, contact:
pedro.rocha@iica.int
www.infoagro.net