Climate change will create the need for new plant varieties and improved public policies

San Jose, Costa Rica, March 28, 2011(IICA). During a visit to the headquarters of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), in Costa Rica, prominent Mexican scientist Luis Rafael Herrera Estrella called attention to the urgent need to develop new plant varieties which can help to meet two of the greatest challenges in the world today: climate change and food security.

Both he and Rene Asomoza, the Director of the Center for Research and Advanced Studies (CINVESTAV) of Mexico, visited IICA at the invitation of its Director General, Victor M. Villalobos, who, until a few years ago, directed one of the campuses of CINVESTAV, located in Irapuato, Mexico.

Herrera, who is Director of the National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity (LANGEBIO), is recognized internationally for heading the group that in 2008 unraveled the complete genome of maize, an essential part of the Mexican diet and those of many other countries of the Americas.

IICA is attempting to establish partnerships with internationally renowned institutions. CINVESTAV, with campuses throughout Mexico, has 29 Master’s degree and 27 Doctor’s degree programs, coordinated by 610 researchers.

Meeting challenges

In Herrera’s opinion, in addition to developing new varieties of plants, it is necessary to make improvements in public policies for agriculture that will promote the development of technology and increase food security.

In Herrera’s opinion, in addition to developing new varieties of plants, it is necessary to make improvements in public policies for agriculture that will promote the development of technology and increase food security.

According to Herrera, biotechnologists will have to develop fertilizers that are more efficient and have less of an environmental impact, with most of the nitrogen and phosphorous they contain being absorbed by the plants rather than ending up in the soil and water.

As for public policies on agriculture, he underscored the design of better systems for irrigating crops, the promotion of research on the biodiversity of the Americas, and plant breeding.

This would involving knowing more about their photosynthesis process and how to make it more efficient (in other words, the plants would derive greater benefits from water, which could become scarce in some areas), and controlling when they bloom so that it will not vary as climatic conditions in the hemisphere change.

Research in this field would also lead to the development of plant species that produce more biomass, which is useful in the manufacture of biofuels, without threatening food production, Herrera said.

The Director of Management and Regional Integration of IICA, Victor del Angel, concurred with Herrera on the importance of innovation and added that the development of new varieties of plants must be accompanied by the adoption of effective biosafety measures. For IICA, he said, biotechnology and biosafety are inseparable.

More information: 
bryan.munoz@iica.int 

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