PLANT BREEDING NEWS

EDITION 188
17 March 2008

An Electronic Newsletter of Applied Plant Breeding

Clair H. Hershey, Editor
chh23@cornell.edu

Sponsored by FAO/AGPC and Cornell University, Dept. of Plant Breeding and Genetics

Archived issues available at: FAO Plant Breeding Newsletter


1.  NEWS, ANNOUNCEMENTS AND RESEARCH NOTES
1.01  Major scientific push to tackle agricultural productivity and food security in developing world
1.02  The issues at stake for biofuels – food security, poverty reduction and environmental sustainability
1.03  University of Illinois study challenges assumption that improved technology has caused corn trend yields to increase at a faster rate
1.04  Reforming the approach to 'demand-driven' research
1.05  University of Wisconsin-Madison plant breeders contribute to newly awarded DOE bioenergy grant
1.06  Getting quality seed to maize farmers in eastern and southern Africa
1.07  North Africa to develop drought-resistant barley
1.08  Rice R&D confab to highlight poverty and malnutrition
1.09  Ug99 wheat killer detected in Iran - Dangerous fungus on the move from East Africa to the Middle East
1.10  NIAB announces major new research initiative to tackle rice productivity in the developing world
1.11  Iowa State University awarded $450,000 to enhance nutritional value and marketability of common beans in Uganda and Rwanda
1.12  Wheat breeding, Western Australian style
1.13  Scientists meet to launch a multi-million dollar project  to step up rice production in Africa and Asia
1.14  North Africa Biosciences Network (NABNet) to improve barley varieties for North Africa
1.15  The groundnut breeding program in the sudano-sahelian region of North Cameroon. Research activities, constraints and challenges
1.16  Government of the Philippines to test GM rice rich in pro-Vitamin A
1.17  Amflora potato: not this year
1.18  New CAST paper addresses gene flow from biotech plants
1.19  What role can agricultural biotechnologies play in helping developing countries cope with growing water scarcity?
1.20  Arctic seed vault opens doors for 100 million seeds
1.21  Svalbard not the only safe haven for crop diversity
1.22  Completely revised set of descriptors for wild and cultivated rice published
1.23  Genetic mapping and marker-assisted breeding of pearl millet for drought prone regions
1.24  Use of molecular markers to breed for high quality rices
1.25  Promising mutant lines of Roselle Variety Arab (Acc. 21)
1.26  Tearless onion discovery hits the headlines
1.27  Commercial production of GM eggplant in The Philippines within two years
1.28  Crop scientists discover gene that controls fruit shape
1.29  Gene that controls ozone resistance of plants could lead to drought-resistant crops
1.30  Completion of a draft sequence of the corn genome
1.31  Evolution of root nodule symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria
1.32  Mechanisms of plant-fungi symbiosis characterized by DOE Joint Genome Institute
1.33  Syngenta corn genetic stocks donation will accelerate research from genome map to advanced corn seed
1.34  Scientists unravel the genetic coding of the pea
1.35  Toward sequencing cotton (Gossypium) genomes
1.36  Diversity in conserved genes in tomato
1.37  Molecular tools to identify resistance sources to wheat yellow rust
1.38  Monsanto and Divergence sequence soybean cyst nematode genome

2.  PUBLICATIONS
2.01  CIMMYT Science Week 2008 Program and Book of Abstracts

3.  WEB RESOURCES
3.01  Interviews with pioneers of rice research from Rice Today: Peter Jennings
3.02  Latest News from John Innes Centre – Advances
3.03  Cornucopia's Challenge

4  GRANTS AVAILABLE
4.01  SEARCA Seed Fund for Research and Training

5  POSITION ANNOUNCEMENTS
5.01  NCGRP Research Leader vacancy announcement
5.02  Position Announcement : Leader for Subprogramme 4 -- Bioinformatics and Crop Information Systems, Generation Challenge Programme

6  MEETINGS, COURSES AND WORKSHOPS

7  EDITOR'S NOTES

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1.  NEWS, ANNOUNCEMENTS AND RESEARCH NOTES

1.01  Major scientific push to tackle agricultural productivity and food security in developing world

United Kingdom
£7M of new research is being launched today to tackle some of the most damaging and widespread pests, diseases and harsh environmental conditions which can devastate crop yields across the developing world. Three out of four poor people in developing countries live in rural areas and most depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Increasing agricultural productivity will benefit millions through higher incomes, more and cheaper food, and more jobs in both rural and urban areas.

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Department for International Development (DFID) are unveiling 12 new projects as part of their flagship initiative – Sustainable Agriculture Research for International Development (SARID) - to harness the UK’s world class bioscience research base to address the challenges of agriculture and food security in developing countries.

The new projects will look at how a variety of crops – from maize to coconuts, rice to bananas – respond at a molecular level to hostile factors including attack by pests and diseases as well as inclement conditions. Their findings will offer new and exciting opportunities to develop crops better able to survive and thrive in their changing environments. Such advances in crop science could revolutionise the way farmers are able to farm across the developing world and have a significant impact on reducing poverty.

Commenting on the new research, Gareth Thomas, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for International Development and Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, said: "Investing in science and research is essential to provide poor farmers with the seeds, knowledge and tools they need to make a better life for themselves. This research, bringing together UK, African and Asian scientists, has the potential to revolutionise farming in the developing world and reduce global poverty. The UK is delighted to support this initiative."

Welcoming the new research, Ian Pearson, Minister for Science and Innovation, said: "This is a true demonstration of how scientific research can help find solutions to the major challenges facing the world and improve the quality of life for millions in developing countries."

BBSRC Interim Chief Executive, Steve Visscher, said: “Bioscience research can make a vital contribution to improving sustainable agriculture across the globe. These projects will build on the world-leading research on fundamental plant science and plant disease in the UK and apply this to crops of importance in the developing world, increasing yields and helping to alleviate the suffering of millions living in poverty.”

All of the projects unveiled today involve unique partnerships between UK scientists and researchers from institutions in Africa, Asia and elsewhere.

Download a media briefing (PDF 616KB) containing details of all the projects being funded by the new initiative.

Examples include:
Halting armyworm rampage with biological pesticide - the African armyworm is a major migratory insect pest, which feeds voraciously on cereal crops. Using a radical new solution, researchers from the UK, Canada and Tanzania will investigate the use of a naturally occurring virus in armyworms with a view to using it as a biological pesticide.

Defeating witchweed famine threat - subsistence crops relied on by billions are at constant risk of attack by the noxious parasitic plant witchweed. Researchers the UK, India and Senegal are identifying ways to protect the livelihoods of some of the world's poorest farmers by developing resistant crops.

Improving food security for 500M people - Pearl millet provides food security for half a billion people in Africa and Asia. The crop is well adapted to harsh environments but climate change is threatening the predictable yields that subsistence farmers rely on. Scientists from the UK, India and Ghana will work to improve pearl millet’s genetic tolerance to drought.

Fighting nematode worms with fungus - Root-knot nematodes are microscopic worms that feed on plant roots, stunting their growth and causing yield losses of US$70 billion each year. UK scientists and their Kenyan colleagues are harnessing a natural soil fungus to destroy the worms' eggs reducing damage to crops.

Reducing arsenic levels in rice - arsenic contamination of rice paddies is a major problem in many parts of Asia, caused by irrigation with arsenic contaminated groundwater, pollution resulting from base and precious metal mining and the use of municipal solid waste as fertilizer. Researchers from the UK, India, Bangladesh and China will look at types of rice which have lower take-up levels of inorganic arsenic to unravel the genetic basis for this desirable characteristic.

BBSRC and DFID announced the SARID initiative in 2006 to foster high-quality research that will contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals for combating the eight major problems faced by the developing world including poverty and starvation.

The research announced today is the first from this initiative. A second grant round, focussing on animal health will be announced later in 2008.

Source: SeedQuest.com
21 February 2008

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1.02  The issues at stake for biofuels – food security, poverty reduction and environmental sustainability

The emerging revolution in biofuels has opened up new prospects for developing countries – stronger energy security, new sources of wealth and reduced greenhouse gas emissions and pollution from fossil fuels – which, even a few years ago, seemed almost unimaginable.

While generating much enthusiasm, though, the rapid rise of the biofuel industry is also raising difficult questions about its development impacts. Who will benefit from the biofuel revolution? Will it bypass large numbers of marginalized people in developing countries, like other booms and revolutions before, or perhaps even worsen their lot? What will be its impact on agriculture’s natural resource base? Is there some economically viable way to ensure that biofuel development benefits the poor and does not harm the environment?

A coordinated search for answers
Among the experts posing those questions, and seeking answers, are scientists supported by the CGIAR. The issues at stake – food security, poverty reduction and environmental sustainability – lie at the heart of their humanitarian mission. For that reason, 9 of the Centers are already working on different aspects of the biofuel conundrum.

To give this work greater cohesion, they recently formed the Bioenergy Platform of the Alliance of the CGIAR Centers. Through collaborative research on crops and cropping systems as well as land management and policy options, the Centers will help developing countries ensure that biofuels turn out to be a boon for the developing world’s poor and not the bane of their already precarious existence.

Following the leader
In recent years, Brazil has demonstrated impressively – through a pioneering program to promote production of sugarcane-derived ethanol – how agriculture can generate a resource that possesses strategic value in the global economy. Ethanol has displaced 40 percent of gasoline use in Brazil. And this has created large economic benefits by permitting savings on petroleum imports and by bringing more jobs and income to rural areas.

Rather than envy Brazil, some developing countries, particularly China and India, are starting to follow its example. According to a recent report from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), both of those countries have set ambitious goals for domestic production of biofuels, which in China currently depends on maize and in India on sugarcane.

China aims to increase its biofuel output fourfold, from the 2002 level of 3.6 billion liters of ethanol to around 15 billion liters by 2020. This increase would displace about 9 percent of the country’s projected gasoline demand. India is pursuing a similarly aggressive strategy. To meet their biofuel targets, China would need to produce 26 percent more maize and India 16 percent more sugarcane. These plans form part of a larger effort to curb sharp increases in petroleum imports, driven by rapid economic growth. Together, China and India account for nearly 70 percent of projected worldwide growth in oil demand between now and 2030.

Others are likely to pursue a similar path, since biofuels, unlike fossil fuels, can be produced in practically any country. In fact, some tropical nations may find that they have a particular advantage as producers and exporters of biofuels or biomass.

How biofuels can backfire for the poor
Strategies for aggressive development of biofuels may backfire, however, creating greater hardship for the poor. One of the principal concerns, voiced repeatedly in recent reports from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), is that the biofuels boom will drive up the prices of basic cereals.

Cereal prices have already risen drastically in recent years, and according to IFPRI economists, they are not likely to fall in the foreseeable future because of low world grain stocks, rapidly growing demand for feed (the result of rising consumption of meat and milk) and slow growth in agricultural productivity. Increased production of biofuels has intensified competition for grain supplies, contributing to higher prices and greater price volatility.

This marks a radical departure from the world food situation of the 1970s through the turn of the century. It was characterized by steadily lower food prices, made possible by technology-based growth in agricultural productivity within key food-growing regions.

Poor consumers were the main beneficiaries of the long-term price decline, because they spend such a large proportion of their income on food. By the same token, they will be hurt most by rising food prices, because this will prompt them to reduce food purchases and shift to cheaper foods, with dire consequences for family nutrition.

The environmental price of biofuels
Development experts are also worried that there will be a high environmental price to pay for the biofuel boom. Increased production of biomass might, in many ways, worsen the already serious fraying of tropical agroecosystems. Particularly alarming is the possibility of biodiversity-rich tropical forests being destroyed to make way for more sugarcane and oil palm plantations.

A further concern is the likely impact of biofuel production on water, particularly in China and India. The above-mentioned IWMI report warns that current plans to increase biofuel production in these countries will put greater stress on already strained water supplies, seriously jeopardizing their ability to satisfy future food and feed demand.

China and India merit special concern, the report notes, because in both countries the production of biomass is highly dependent on irrigation. Moreover, the amount of irrigation water needed to produce ethanol there is high, compared with water requirements for this purpose elsewhere. In Brazil, for example, where rainfed sugarcane serves as the main source of biomass, it takes, on average, just about 90 liters of water to produce 1 liter of ethanol. But in the dry agricultural lands of northern China, producing a liter of maize-based ethanol consumes 2,400 liters of irrigation water. In India, the requirement is even higher at 3,500 liters for irrigated sugarcane.

Dryland solutions
The outlook for biofuels in China, India and other countries could change radically if they take advantage of alternative crops and technologies now under investigation. One potentially revolutionary option involves the use of enzymes to convert plant cellulose into biofuel. But this technology is years away from being ready for commercial use.

A nearer term alternative is to invest in the development of crop and agroforestry species that are highly suitable for biofuel production and thrive in drylands. Several dryland species are at the center of a new pro-poor biofuel initiative, called BioPower, which is coordinated by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

One dryland crop that shows much promise for ethanol production is sweet sorghum. It is similar to normal sorghum (which is grown widely in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, mainly by poor farmers) but stores large quantities of sugar in its stalks, in addition to producing reasonable grain yields. Two other hardy dryland options are the tree species, Pongamia pinnata, and the shrub, Jatropha curcas, both of which produce fruits with a high content of oil suitable for biodiesel.

Pro-poor private-public partnerships
In conjunction with research on alternative crops and cropping systems, ICRISAT is helping devise an innovative model for private-public partnerships. Their aim is to develop biofuel industries that are highly competitive but also beneficial for the rural poor as well as environmentally sustainable. Through an agribusiness incubator at its headquarters in Hyderabad, India, ICRISAT is already working with several young biofuel companies (Rusni Distilleries Ltd. and Nandan BioMatrix Ltd., for example) as well as government agencies and civil society organizations.

In the production of both ethanol and biodiesel, a key challenge for these partnerships is to capture economies of scale, that is, maintain a steady and massive supply of biomass, so that processing facilities can be kept running at full capacity, keeping the production costs per liter of biofuel as low as possible. The conventional approach for achieving this end is through large-scale farming under a corporate model like that prevailing in Brazil and the USA. But in most developing countries, this approach would exclude the poor, even pushing them off their land and driving up the prices of staple foods.

In contrast, the private-public partnerships supported by ICRISAT are testing new varieties of sweet sorghum with thousands of small farmers. The distilleries provide them with improved seed and technical advice, offer them a guaranteed price for their crops and transport the harvested stalks for processing. These efforts are particularly advanced in India; but a new partnership has been formed in the Philippines, and the groundwork is being laid in sub-Saharan Africa.

A partnership has also been formed to provide the landless poor, especially women, in tribal areas of India with access to wastelands for planting biodiesel species in ways that do not threaten native biodiversity or wildlife habitats. Once the trees mature, women will collect the seeds and press out the oil in their villages for local use or sale or market the seeds to large-scale processors for much-needed cash.

A telling feature of these partnerships is that the rural poor, far from being marginalized, are chief protagonists in biofuel development. Their active participation through strong producer organizations is the best guarantee that biofuels will be boon rather than a bane for the world’s poor.

A longer version of this story was written by Nathan C. Russell, Senior Communications Officer at the CGIAR Secretariat , for Upsides, a magazine published in The Netherlands and focused on development and banking.

Source: CGIAR via SeedQuest.com
March , 2008

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1.03  University of Illinois study challenges assumption that improved technology has caused corn trend yields to increase at a faster rate

Urbana, Illinois
A new study by University of Illinois agricultural economists challenges the assumption that improved technology has recently caused corn trend yields to increase at a faster rate.

"There has been considerable discussion in the agricultural community that improved technology has caused corn trend yields to increase at an increasing rate in recent years," said Scott Irwin, who prepared the study with former graduate student Mike Tannura and Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics colleague Darrel Good. "There has been a fairly widespread acceptance that a new and higher trend began in the mid-1990s, and it should be used as a starting point for estimating future yields."

Their full report, "Are Corn Trend Yields Increasing at a Faster Rate?" ( http://www.farmdoc.uiuc.edu/marketing/mobr/mobr_08-02/mobr_08-02.html ) is available in the Marketing and Outlook Briefs section of U of I Extension's farmdoc website.

The authors investigated whether trend yields in the U.S. Corn Belt have actually accelerated since the mid-1990s. They examined the impact of weather and technology on corn yields from 1960 to 2007 in three states--Illinois, Iowa, and Indiana.

"We did not find evidence of a noticeable increase in the trend rate of yield growth for corn in Illinois, Iowa, and Indiana through 2007," said Irwin. "Much of the increase in observed yields since 1996 has been the result of generally more favorable weather than experienced in the prior two decades.

"At the same time, there is some experimental evidence from university trials and anecdotal evidence from producers that stacked trait corn hybrids may be increasing corn yields."

The authors, however, urged caution in assuming that there has been a biotechnology-driven jump in corn trend yields until the increase is confirmed in large-scale yield data.

If there is an escalating upswing in corn trend yields, how should producers and policymakers respond?

"This question is important not only to individual producers, but also to current policy debates about the amount of additional acreage that will be needed for corn production in the future to meet ethanol-driven demand growth," Irwin said.

The authors' comparison of the trend yield projections to the historical record of Illinois corn yields suggests two important conclusions.

"First, reaching a trend yield of 300 bushels per acre in Illinois in 2030 would require a rate of growth that is unprecedented--six bushels per year," said Irwin. "Second, a jump in the current trend yield growth rate from 1.7 bushels to three bushels per year is within the range of historical experience since 1940."

The authors also raise the possibility that something of a historical cycle may be at work. In 1969, Louis Thompson looked at the impact of weather and technology on corn production and concluded a prolonged cool period between periods of warmer than normal weather had led to an increase in production.

In 1975, Thompson again noted the importance of weather and questioned whether technological advances could ever overcome its influence.

"More unfavorable weather for the development of corn followed in 1980, 1983, and 1988," Irwin noted. "This further identified the 1960s through the early 1970s--the period that Thompson first studied--as a favorable weather period.

"The obvious question is whether a parallel should be drawn between the weather patterns over 1960-1972 versus 1973-1995 and 1996-2007 versus future years. Without taking a position on the existence of long-term weather cycles or the potential impacts of global warming, history certainly suggests a good deal of caution in projecting recent and favorable weather patterns into the future."

Source: SeedQuest.com
20 February  2008

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1.04  Reforming the approach to 'demand-driven' research

An evaluation of Dutch-funded research programmes in developing countries raises questions about the concept of local "ownership".

Anyone interested in learning more about the possibilities and limitations of demand-driven research ­ in which research programmes are determined by those who will benefit from their results ­ should look at the recent experience of Dutch organisations that fund research in developing countries.

In particular, they should read the report of an evaluation carried out by the Policy and Operations Evaluation Division of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, set up to look at the Dutch experience of providing funds during 1992–2005.

The report is based on detailed interviews in six of the countries where the projects were carried out ­ Bolivia, Ghana, Mali, South Africa, Tanzania and Vietnam.

It highlights several projects where having potential users of research results in the driving seat undoubtedly had a beneficial effect. Projects in Bolivia, South Africa and Tanzania, for example, proved to be highly successful, notably because they included a strong focus on research capacity building.

But the evaluation also identifies cases where projects failed. Understanding the reasons for this failure provides important indicators to the components of success. It is dangerous to ignore capacity building or to run projects isolated from other research communities, particularly those in the developed world.

Identifying operational flaws
As the evaluators point out, part of the problem lies in the relatively rigid way in which demand-driven policy was implemented. The approach was introduced in the early 1990s as part of a broader strategy designed to ensure that development projects in general were properly 'owned' by the community or country intended to benefit from them.

For example, Dutch researchers ­ many of whom had a strong reputation for working on problems relevant to the needs of developing countries ­ were explicitly excluded from participation in the design of research projects, and responsibility was passed to project teams within the developing country itself.

The overall situation was not helped by the fact that the Dutch government in the 1990s abandoned the priority it had previously given to research, focusing its efforts instead on the social sector. This led to the termination of many research projects in areas such as food security and agriculture.

But even taking these external factors into account, the report's conclusions make sobering reading.

Flaws in the demand-driven approach
The evaluators identify three particular problems with the demand-driven approach.

First, there may be situations in which such an approach is not necessarily the best or even the more appropriate solution. This can happen, for example, where the broad socio-political context is unfavourable ­ as the Dutch discovered in Vietnam and Mali.

Second, rigid adherence to the belief that all significant input should be bottom-up can result in individual programmes becoming isolated from the broader experience of the research community. A lack of dialogue with scientific peers, in both developed and other developing countries, can be damaging.

Third, the evaluators emphasise that the large amount of time required to start research programmes from scratch can hinder the growth of a more strategic and broad-based approach to research support.

"Participatory agenda-setting generated a fragmented programme, with many small-scale research activities," said one of the evaluators at a conference held in the Hague last week (26 February), organised jointly by the Institute of Social Studies, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, and the Netherlands Organisation for International Cooperation in Higher Education.

"These indeed responded to individual researchers' interests, but they did not lead to knowledge accumulation."

Adopting a broader perspective
None of this throws into doubt the essential value of community participation. Nor should it undermine a basic commitment to ensure that research claimed to be in the interests of the developing world must be seen as both valuable and relevant to its intended beneficiaries.

But it does strengthen the case for shifting away from the simplistic insistence that research be entirely demand-driven, and indeed from the concept that research results should ­ or even can ­ be 'owned' by the communities concerned. Rather, it points to a broader approach that seeks to achieve its objectives by focusing on social need, capacity building and empowerment.

In other words, development research programmes should seek to achieve relevance not merely through specifying who defines the research agenda ­ or even who carries out the research ­ but also by shifting emphasis to the way in which research fits into the broad patterns of national innovation. This can of course include consideration of how innovation policies can themselves be politically determined.

The Dutch development community has learnt the hard way. A new policy is now being implemented that seeks to learn from these lessons. It is to be hoped that others will do the same, without having to undergo experiences that are quite so disruptive or painful.

David Dickson
Director, SciDev.Net

Source: SciDev.net
7 March 2008

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1.05  University of Wisconsin-Madison plant breeders contribute to newly awarded DOE bioenergy grant

The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and in close partnership with Michigan State University, was recently selected by the DOE as one of three research centers for bioenergy.  With an award of $125 million in funding over five years, the new GLBRC facility is part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus and involves more than 50 UW-Madison researchers.  The mission of the GLBRC is to explore scientifically diverse approaches for converting sunlight and various plant feedstocks­agricultural residues, wood chips, and grasses­into biofuels.  In addition to its broad range of scientific research projects, the GLBRC is collaborating with agricultural researchers and producers to help develop the most economically viable and environmentally sustainable practices for bioenergy production.

GLBRC scientific research is organized into five focus areas:
1.  Improving Plant Biomass
2.  Improving Biomass Processing
3.  Improving Biomass Conversion
4.  Fostering Sustainable Bioenergy Practices
5.  Creating Technologies to Enable More Advanced Bioenergy Research

As part of the GLBRC, three faculty members from the Department of Agronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are working to increase maize biomass accumulation and improve digestibility for bioenergy conversion.  As members of the interdepartmental Plant Breeding & Plant Genetics program, Natalia de Leon, Shawn Kaeppler and Heidi Kaeppler are expanding upon previous efforts of the UW corn research program (developed by retired professor James Coors).  The UW corn research program represents the only public improvement effort for silage breeding in the U.S. and has traditionally studied the breeding and genetics of maize germplasm for ruminant nutrition.  The researchers have found that similar traits may be important for improving feedstock for energy bioconversion.

The research of de Leon and Kaeppler aims to use association analysis to identify natural quantitative variation for composition and digestibility of cellulosic biomass.  Complementing their traditional field breeding programs, the researchers also intend to develop rapid-flowering, small-statured maize varieties for high-throughput genetic and molecular analysis of biomass related traits.  This “mini-maize” would be of particular importance for other researchers in GLBRC who do not have access to agronomic production fields.  Through the creation of dominant-negative mutations for genes involved in lignin and cell wall synthesis, they will also identify loci which modify or interact with these genes, leading to a better understanding of the metabolic networks involved.  This research will lead to improved maize germplasm for bioenergy conversion and develop maize as a model system for future advances in other closely related biomass crops.

More information about the GLBRC can be found at www.greatlakesbioenergy.org

Contributed by Chad Kramer (cckramer@wisc.edu) and Margaret Broeren (mbroeren@glbrc.wisc.edu)

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1.06  Getting quality seed to maize farmers in eastern and southern Africa

El Batán, Mexico
Despite strong growth in the private seed sector in eastern and southern Africa over the last decade, most of region’s millions of small-scale farmers lack easy access to affordable, quality seed of maize, the number-one food staple. A major study by CIMMYT shows the need for active investments in the region’s seed sector and for policies to support its development.

Since the mid-1990s, when many countries in eastern and southern Africa opened maize seed markets to private enterprise, registered seed companies have proliferated­now numbering almost 80­along with other types of seed producers. Previously, improved maize seed was produced chiefly by public organizations or parastatal companies. In the 2006-07 cropping season, registered companies produced the bulk of just-over 100,000 tons of improved maize seed that were marketed in the region­enough to sow 35% of the region’s maize lands.

“This implies a significant, unmet demand for seed,” says CIMMYT economist Augustine Langyintuo. “The farmers who don’t purchase fresh seed are recycling from the previous harvest, meaning they are losing out on potential yield, or sowing unimproved, low-yielding local varieties.” Experts cite average yield losses of 5% for recycled seed of open-pollinated varieties, and more than 30% in the case of hybrids. In addition, more than half the maize area in the region is still under low-yielding traditional cultivars, partly because farmers lack knowledge of or access to affordable, quality seed of improved maize varieties.

Finding bottlenecks in seed supplies

As part of research by CIMMYT and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) on drought tolerant maize for African farmers, Langyintuo led a joint study to characterize seed providers and bottlenecks to seed supplies in eastern and southern Africa. A total of 116 representatives from 73 seed companies and 35 national agricultural research systems (NARS) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) participated, and information was gathered on the seed sectors in Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. “There was an extraordinary 100% return on questionnaires sent, evidence of partners’ trust in CIMMYT and interest in addressing the problem,” says Langyintuo.

The main finding was that investment capital requirements and a shortage of qualified staff hinder the growth of small, local seed companies that have emerged on the continent over the past decade, according to Langyintuo. “The costs of setting up and running an office, recruiting and retaining qualified personnel, and procuring and operating production, processing, and storage facilities are beyond what many local businesses can afford, and access to operational credit is limited or nil,” he says.

One operating expense that virtually no companies in the region have been able to take on is that of marketing seed. “Most companies rely on third-party agents such as agro-dealers, large retail stores, NGOs, or the government to retail most their seed,” says Langyintuo. “The bulk of the agro-dealers in turn lack funds to purchase seed, and so must take it on consignment, forcing companies to retrieve unsold seed at cost. The dealers are normally not knowledgeable enough about the seed they sell to promote it effectively, and have also been known to adulterate seed with mere grain.”

Other hurdles include poor infrastructure (bad roads and storage facilities), cumbersome varietal registration and seed certification regulations, restrictions on foreign trade or investment in seed, and low adoption rates of improved varieties.

Getting farmers the seed they want

Langyintuo suggests that governments, development investors, international centers like CIMMYT and IITA, and the region’s universities need to assist and support current seed companies to improve their seed outputs and profits. “They would benefit from access to credit, improved experimental maize, good seed production sites and affordable inputs, and training in effective business practices,” he explains. CIMMYT normally distributes its germplasm freely to everyone, but Langyintuo says that granting companies some degree of exclusivity in the use of CIMMYT inbred lines would facilitate branding and promote sales.

“Moreover, as long as seed companies are reluctant to invest in retail networks, agro-dealers need support with targeted loans from governments and development investors to buy and sell seed and maintain good storage facilities,” he says. “Farmers’ awareness of useful new varieties can be raised through extension messages, better retail networks, and access to credit.”

Sharpening business acumen

As part of its support to the seed sector, CIMMYT organized a course in the region in 2007 on good business practices for maize seed companies. As part of this, representatives from leading companies in Zimbabwe allowed participants to visit their facilities and learn how they operated. “We essentially asked them to show key parts of their business to 25 future competitors, and they agreed to it,” says CIMMYT maize seed systems specialist, John MacRobert, who organized the course. “Strengthening internal seed laws and regulations to police fake seeds, policies that stimulate the private seed trade, and avoiding undue delays in the release of cultivars could benefit the seed industry tremendously,” says MacRobert.

Where applicable, carrying out the distinctiveness, uniformity and stability (DUS) tests alongside national performance trials (NPT) could speed up the release to farmers of new, improved varieties, according to Langyintuo. “For rapid spillovers of cultivars released in one country to similar agro-ecologies in different countries, the regional harmonization of seed laws and regulations initiated by the sub-regional organizations, CGIAR centers, development investors, and other relevant stakeholders should be expedited.”

For more information: Augustine Langyintuo, economist (a.langyintuo@cgiar.org)

Source: CIMMYT e-newsletter vol 5 no 2 via SeedQuest.com
29 February 2008

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1.07  North Africa to develop drought-resistant barley

Agricultural researchers in Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia have teamed up to create drought-resistant and salt-tolerant varieties of barley better suited to the North African region.

The project, funded by the Canadian International Development Research Centre and overseen by the New Partnership for Africa's Development North Africa Biosciences Network, will see thirty scientists from five organisations spending the next two years developing the barley varieties.

Barley is traditionally used as animal feed in much of North Africa, but lack of alternative food sources is leading to human consumption.

Algeria's National Institute of Agricultural Research (INRAA), Egypt's National Research Centre and Agricultural Genetic Engineering Research Institute, and Tunisia's Centre of Biotechnology and National Institute of Agriculture Research will be involved in the project.

The researchers met in Borj Essedria in southern Tunisia last month (10–11 February) to discuss genetic techniques ­ including genetic modification ­ that could be used to increase barley's nutritional quality, as well as make it drought- and saltwater-tolerant.

"We want to develop two varieties of barley in each country, making a total of six varieties expected to be resistant to drought and high salinity," says Hussein Irikti, coordinator of scientific activities and research for INRAA, which is overseeing Algeria's role in the project.

"If we succeed in achieving the goal, we will launch another programme bigger and broader than this," he adds.

Irikti says they are focusing on barley because it is "exceptional, very adaptable to different climates, resisting drought and high temperature compared to other cereals ­ in addition to containing vitamins that are not found in other grains. It is a strategic challenge for North Africa, which suffers from drought and high degree of salinity."

Skander Mekersi, deputy director of INRAA, said researchers would share skills and equipment, adding that INRAA has invested equipment worth US$20,000 into the project.

by Hichem Boum

Source: SciDev.net
11 March 2008

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1.08  Rice R&D confab to highlight poverty and malnutrition

Manila, The Philippines
The 21st National Rice Research and Development (R&D) Conference is set next week March 11-13 at the PhilRice Central Experiment Station in Maligaya, Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija. This year’s conference theme is “Addressing poverty and malnutrition through rice R&D.”

The three-day event held annually by PhilRice will bring together updates and developments on rice R&D conducted by the rice R&D network members nationwide. More than 500 rice scientists, R&D workers from agencies under the Department of Agriculture, state universities and colleges, local government units, non-government and people’s organizations, and farmer-leaders are expected to attend the scientific meeting.

This year’s theme will focus on the technologies and strategies that enhance productivity and sustainability of the rice industry. It will also highlight the models being used to efficiently promote new technologies for better adoption.

During the conference, PhilRice’s economic impact on its stakeholders and to the country as a whole will also be presented.

PhilRice relentlessly strives to live up to the expectations of the Filipino farmers. Many accounts say that PhilRice has revolutionized the Philippine farming systems and has contributed to the country’s development in general especially in the agriculture sector. With the country’s gruesome poverty and malnutrition situation, PhilRice aligns its efforts to conceptualizing and implementing more comprehensive programs that would answer these pressing issues.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) noted that protein-energy malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies remain the leading nutritional problems in the Philippines. In addition, FAO confirmed that about 12 million Filipinos are underweight while about 28 million are unable to buy food to meet their nutritional requirements and other basic needs. The Social Weather Stations’ (SWS) December 2007 report noted that about 2.9M Filipino families suffered from involuntary hunger (no food to eat) for the last three months.

To address this, recent PhilRice researches are geared toward the development of locally adapted technologies that will provide consumers with higher yield and more nutritional values. These include breeding of varieties that are vitamin-enriched and resistant to major diseases.

In addition, the conference will also showcase research presentations on rice technology generation and promotion, scientific poster viewing, launching of new knowledge products, and exhibit of rice technologies.

Farmers’ Field Days, which will showcase the experiments on the 100-hectare experimental farm of PhilRice, will be held on the first two days (March 11-12) of the event. PhilRice's Technology Management and Services Division is expecting more than 2,000 farmers who will witness the PhilRice-generated technologies on rice and rice-based farming systems.

“Technologies generated from rice R&D so far address poverty and malnutrition. Rice R&D can contribute to the improvement of the possible productivity and sustainability options that farmers can employ in alleviating their poverty conditions,” says PhilRice Executive Director Leocadio S. Sebastian.

“We need to enhance the transfer of results of R&D whether it be knowledge or technologies so that farmers can benefit from them,” Dr. Sebastian adds.

With the members of the National Rice R&D Network during the conference, PhilRice hopes to identify concrete pathways that will unshackle policy and institutional bottlenecks and push the full potentials of rice R&D to address poverty among rice farmers.

Source: PhilRice via SeedQuest.com
7 March 2008

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1.09  Ug99 wheat killer detected in Iran - Dangerous fungus on the move from East Africa to the Middle East

Rome, Italy
A new and virulent wheat fungus, previously found in East Africa and Yemen, has moved to major wheat growing areas in Iran, FAO reported today. The fungus is capable of wreaking havoc to wheat production by destroying entire fields.

Countries east of Iran, like Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, all major wheat producers, are most threatened by the fungus and should be on high alert, FAO said.

It is estimated that as much as 80 percent of all wheat varieties planted in Asia and Africa are susceptible to the wheat stem rust (Puccinia graminis). The spores of wheat rust are mostly carried by wind over long distances and across continents.

“The detection of the wheat rust fungus in Iran is very worrisome,” said Shivaji Pandey, Director of FAO’s Plant Production and Protection Division.

“The fungus is spreading rapidly and could seriously lower wheat production in countries at direct risk. Affected countries and the international community have to ensure that the spread of the disease gets under control in order to reduce the risk to countries that are already hit by high food prices.”

The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has informed FAO that the fungus has been detected in some localities in Broujerd and Hamedan in western Iran. Laboratory tests have confirmed the presence of the fungus. Iran said it will enhance its research capacity to face the new infection and develop new wheat varieties resistant to the disease.

Ug99

The wheat fungus first emerged in Uganda in 1999 and is therefore called Ug99. The wind-borne transboundary pest subsequently spread to Kenya and Ethiopia. In 2007, an FAO mission confirmed for the first time that Ug99 has affected wheat fields in Yemen. The Ug99 strain found in Yemen was already more virulent than the one found in East Africa.

Ethiopia and Kenya had serious wheat rust epidemics in 2007 with considerable yield losses.

The Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI), established to combat wheat rusts around the world, will support countries in developing resistant varieties, producing their clean quality seeds, upgrading national plant protection and plant breeding services and developing contingency plans. The BGRI was founded by Norman Borlaug (known as "the father of the Green Revolution"), Cornell University, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry areas (ICARDA), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and FAO.

Disease surveillance and wheat breeding is already underway to monitor the fungus and to develop Ug99 resistant varieties. However, more efforts are required to develop long term durable resistant varieties that can be made available to farmers in affected countries and countries at risk. FAO urged countries to increase disease surveillance and intensify efforts to control the disease.

Source: SeedQuest.com
5 March 2008

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1.10  NIAB announces major new research initiative to tackle rice productivity in the developing world

Advances in crop science can contribute to global food security and mitigate the risks associated with climate change.  Today (21 February 2008) NIAB announced major new funding for research on rice genetics that will lead to the creation of climate resistant strains of rice for Africa and Asia.

It was one of 12 new research projects launched by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Department for International Development (DFID) at Westminster as part of their joint initiative, Sustainable Agriculture Research for International Development (SARID).  There were 250 applications for the 12 awards.

NIAB has been awarded a total of £733,000 for their three year rice research project. It will be led by NIAB in collaboration with the International Rice Research Institute, based in the Philippines.

Prof Wayne Powell, CEO of the Cambridge-based plant research organisation, said :

“This is the most wonderful time to be a crop scientist.  The opportunity to exploit our cutting edge science for developing world agriculture is very exciting and will help deliver solutions to the major challenges facing society.”

Rice is the staple food for over two billion people, but lack of water and disease limit its production across the developing world. There is an urgent need for new breeds of rice that can cope with changing climatic conditions and to improve food security across the developing world.

Researchers at NIAB will work collaboratively with the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. They will look at the genetic make up of rice as well as its genetic expression to identify genes which may be crucial in developing new types of rice resilient to climate change and diseases.

The inherited make-up of rice is well understood, but using their SARID grant, the researchers will use new techniques, usually used in human and animal studies, to look at gene expression in rice in response to different conditions. By doing this they hope to identify genes which are naturally tolerant to climate extremes and diseases and go on to use this knowledge to develop rice breeding programmes in Africa and Asia.

Welcoming the new research, Ian Pearson, Minister for Science and Innovation, said:

"This is a true demonstration of how scientific research can help find solutions to the major challenges facing the world and improve the quality of life for millions in developing countries."

BBSRC Interim Chief Executive, Steve Visscher, said:

"Bioscience research can make a vital contribution to improving sustainable agriculture across the globe. These projects will build on the world-leading research on fundamental plant science and plant disease in the UK and apply this to crops of importance in the developing world, increasing yields and helping to alleviate the suffering of millions living in poverty."

Contributed by Ellee Seymour
ellee.seymour@btopenworld.com

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1.11  Iowa State University awarded $450,000 to enhance nutritional value and marketability of common beans in Uganda and Rwanda

Ames, Iowa

Iowa State University’s Center for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods has been awarded a $450,000 grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development to enhance nutritional value and marketability of common beans in Uganda and Rwanda.

“Testing whether yield improving technologies result in beans with better nutritive value or processing characteristics is an important under-researched issue in this region,” said Robert Mazur, director of the Center for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods and lead investigator of the project, which begins this year and ends in 2010. “Activities will contribute to sustainable livelihoods of small scale farmers and their families, providing food security and income to the most vulnerable group, the women and children.”

Results of the research are expected to significantly improve yields and quality of beans varieties, enhance nutritional value and marketability of beans and increase marketing and consumption of beans and value-added bean products. Funding for the project comes from the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Dry Grain Pulses Collaborative Research Support Program.

Since 2004, ongoing collaboration of the Center for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods, Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, and a nongovernmental organization in Uganda have worked to improve food security and market readiness among 800 farm households in Uganda. “Our research approach is seen as a potential model for other parts of sub-Saharan African where beans, or pulses, are an integral part of traditional cropping systems,” said Mazur.

Mazur said the research will help meet the international community’s Millennium Development Goals of reducing hunger and poverty, since improved bean production, processing and consumption in Uganda and Rwanda can help address deteriorating food security there and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.

Other researchers in the project include Iowa State faculty in food science and human nutrition, agronomy and economics, and scientists at Makerere University in Uganda, the National Crops Resources Research Institute in Uganda, Volunteer Efforts for Development Concerns in Uganda and Kigali Institute of Science and Technology in Rwanda.

Source: SeedQuest.com
22 February 2008

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1.12  Wheat breeding, Western Australian style

Western Australia
Wheat, Australia’s major grain crop, is the product of thousands of years of human intervention in the form of selection and breeding.

Western Australia (WA) typically produces 40 per cent of the national wheat crop and of this approximately 95 per cent is sold overseas, mostly to the Asian and Middle Eastern markets, so it’s important to determine and meet market needs.

Last year InterGrain, the new WA wheat breeding company, released two promising varieties, the high yielding Australian Premium White (APW) variety Magenta and the premium quality udon noodle grade variety Yandanooka. Both are expected to have major market impact in WA and, in the case of Magenta, also in SA and Victoria.

The same wheat breeding team which produced high performing varieties such as Wyalkatchem , Carnamah , Calingiri, Arrino and Westonia has now produced Yandanooka and Magenta.

Average annual growth in wheat productivity in Australia has been about one per cent for the 20th century, until the 1980s, with the agronomic breakthrough associated with minimum tillage, when it became closer to four per cent, of which a quarter is attributed to better cultivars developed by wheat breeders.

While the systematic approach to wheat breeding began a century ago, the last decade has seen the emergence of a whole new toolkit for breeders associated with new discoveries in molecular biology. Plant breeders still work with the basics of crossing two plants with useful and contrasting characteristics to produce progeny with improved performance.

One particular application of the new techniques is to use molecular markers to complement traditional field and laboratory trials in the selection of the elite progeny with the desired combination of traits.

Senior InterGrain Wheat Breeder, Robin Wilson, says that the blend of traditional breeding with molecular marker techniques provides advantage in that breeders can better target genetic combinations they need to deliver simultaneously on yield, disease resistance, stress tolerance and quality.

InterGrain will work hard to speed up its processes, but farmers can already see benefits in the better varieties coming forward, according to Mr Wilson.

Source: GRDC's The Crop Doctor  via SeedQuest.com
March 5, 2008

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1.13  Scientists meet to launch a multi-million dollar project  to step up rice production in Africa and Asia

Cotonou, Benin
National and international rice specialists are taking part in a meeting to launch a multi-million dollar project on “Stress-tolerant rice for poor farmers in Africa and South Asia” at the Africa Rice Center (WARDA), Cotonou, Benin, 5–7 March 2008.

The project, which will be carried out by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and its partners, has been approved for funding by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through a grant to IRRI for US$19.9 million over three years.

The Africa component of this project proposal was developed by IRRI in partnership with the Africa Rice Center, which will be its main partner in implementing this component. Both IRRI and the Africa Rice Center are supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

The project targets resource-poor rice farmers in Africa and Asia, who produce their crop under rainfed conditions, in which drought, flooding, and salinity reduce yields and harm their livelihoods.

The project aims to make available to such farmers improved, stress-tolerant rice varieties, which in complement with improved management practices, is expected to bring about a 50% increase in yield in farmers’ fields within the next 10 years.

The project is expected to benefit at least 400,000 households in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa in the short term and 18 million households in the long term. In addition, the project aims to build the capacity of researchers and seed producers and promote the exchange of seed of stress-tolerant rice varieties.

The project member countries in Africa comprise Benin, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal in West Africa as well as Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda in eastern and southern Africa.

National program scientists from all the project member countries have been invited to the launching meeting, which will be inaugurated by His Excellency, Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, Government of Benin.

The scientists and the Directors General of the Africa Rice Center and IRRI are attending. IRRI’s delegation includes about 20 participants from its headquarters in the Philippines and its representatives from eastern and southern Africa.

Dr David Bergvinson, a program officer in Agricultural Development for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is also taking part in this meeting. The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) will be represented by Dr Issoufou Kapran, Program Officer for Seed Production and Dissemination.

Other special invitees include:

-The Directors General of national programs in Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo; 
-Key development partners from non-governmental and private sector organizations (SG 2000 from Ethiopia, African Seed Trade Association, Songhai Center and Tunde from Benin); and 

-Local and regional farmers’ associations in West Africa (ROPPA)

The first day of the meeting (5 March) will be devoted to the project launching ceremony, overviews and visits to the research facilities of the Africa Rice Center.

The second and third days (6-7 March) will be used to develop work-plans. A field visit to the non-governmental organization “Songhai Center” in Benin is scheduled for 8 March.

Link : http://www.warda.org/warda/newsrel-launch-mar08.asp

Source: SeedQuest.com
3 March 2008

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1.14  North Africa Biosciences Network (NABNet) to improve barley varieties for North Africa

The North Africa Biosciences Network (NABNet), one of the four networks of NEPAD/Biosciences Initiative, has started a project aimed at improving barley production in North Africa.

Poor yield of barley in the area has been attributed to lack of drought and salinity tolerant cultivars. Although the available varieties in North Africa are mainly suitable for livestock consumption, people are increasingly eating them due to lack of better alternatives, the director of NABNet Prof Mohamed Elarbi noted. I

t was with this in mind that WABNet organized a meeting of experts in Tunisia recently to review progress of the project titled "Genetic improvement of nutritional quality and drought and salinity tolerance of North African barley germplasm" aimed at improving the crop.

With funding from the Canadian International Development Agency, the NABNet Barley team agreed to seek collaboration from relevant regional and international organizations to undertake comprehensive genetic resources evaluation, physiological and biochemical characterization, biotechnological improvement and field assessment.

Institutions involved in the project include Egypt's National Research Centre (NRC) and Agricultural Genetic Engineering Research Institute (AGERI); Tunisia's Centre de Biotechnology de Borj Cedria (CBBC) and Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INERA) and Algeria's Institut National de La Recherche Agronomique (INRAA).

For more information contact Prof Elarbi (nabnet@nepadst.org) or Daniel Otunge of ISAAA AfriCenter (d.otunge@cgiar.org).

Source: CropBiotech Update via SeedQuest.com
22 February 2008

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1.15  The groundnut breeding program in the sudano-sahelian region of North Cameroon. Research activities, constraints and challenges

Prior to the introduction of cotton in 1951, groundnut was the major export crop in North Cameroon. Since 1976, groundnut is no longer exported due to high local demand and the strong competition of cotton . Nevertheless, groundnut remains an important cash and food crop which is planted over 140,000 ha of land. The annual production is up to 120,000 tons of pods and the corresponding yield is 800 kg/ha.

In order to improve groundnut production in quantity and quality, a breeding programme was established in 1982 at the Regional Centre of Agricultural Research for Development (RCARD), Maroua. The goal of the programme was to increase groundnut yield through cultivar introduction and selection.

Research activities were conducted on-station and on-farm during the past two years. On- station activities include groundnut collection, breeder and foundation seed production, confectionary and drought resistant variety trials. On-farm activities consisted of community-based seed production to facilitate uptake of the two new improved varieties, BIRMAR 6 and BIRMAR 7.

The major constraints are the lack of research funding and the scientific isolation of the programme. Since 2002, the end of the Groundnut Germplasm Project (GGP), the programme is running at a very low pace, using the low income obtained from the sale of seeds to carry out research activities.

With the current crisis of the cotton sector and the devaluation of the CFA francs, groundnut production is receiving more and more attention from farmers. The programme is requested to establish a groundnut variety map and revamp the seed sector through on-farm trials and farmer training. However, it is not possible to take up these challenges due to lack of research funding.

In spite of current interesting research activities, the programme is facing the major problem of research funding and scientific isolation that could lead to the interruption of the programme in few years.

Contributed by A.Hamasselbé
Groundnut Breeder, Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD
ahamasselbe@yahoo.com

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1.16  Government of the Philippines to test GM rice rich in pro-Vitamin A

Manila, The Philippines
The government is set to conduct a multi-locational testing of the genetically modified (GM) pro-Vitamin A-rich rice which should benefit in about three years nutrition-poor, rice-eating rural families.

Dr. Leocadio S. Sebastian, Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) director, said may start in September the first multi-locational field testing of the Vitamin A-rich rice, also known as "Golden Rice," at 's Muñoz, Nueva Ecija experimental station.

Another site may be at the International Rice Research Institute's (IRRI) testing fields in Los Banos, Laguna. Each site will have a 500-square meter area.

At least two seasons of testing will be conducted to comply with the requirements of the National Committee on Biosafety of the Philippines' (NCBP) on the propagation of GM crops.

has transferred to local rice varieties the desired trait, Vitamin A-enrichment through beta-carotene availability, in order to make its nutrition advantages benefit more people. Foreign rice varieties cannot be commercialized viably in the local rice fields.

The trait has been transferred to NSIC 128 and PSB RC 82, two of the most popular rice varieties in the Philippines that are extensively consumed particularly by government's targeted consumers.

Moreover, the varieties are inbred so that the trait is expected to be passed on to next generation seeds even after repeated planting unlike in expensive hybrid seeds which lose their hybrid vigor or traits after one cropping.

While certain groups contest the value of government's development of Golden Rice and question its benefits against the huge investment in its development, believes there can be no better alternative to developing a Vitamin A-enrichment in the country's staple food­rice.

"This has something to do with people's preference. There are other crops rich in Vitamin A like mungbean and malunggay. But most of the poor eat only the staple. Forty percent of the calorie intake of Filipinos comes from rice," said Sebastian in an interview.

While field testing of the rice variety's suitability and other agronomic considerations are on-going here, studies on bioavailability of the Vitamin A enrichment are being carried out in other countries. This will determine if Vitamin A from its source, corn into rice, can be made available for use of the human body.

And there are strong possibilities of efficient bioavailibity due to the trait's origin.

"The gene (carrying the Vitamin A-rich trait) came from yellow corn. There has been trials conducted on this showing high potential for bioavailability," Sebastian said.

The development of Golden Rice has been prompted by the infliction of Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) of millions of people in developing countries particularly by children and pregnant women. VAD can lead to total or partial blindness while its less serious form can weaken the immune system.

This raises risks of infection of measles and malaria on immune system-weak people. It was reported that this nutrient deficiency causes blindness on 350,000 pre-school age children yearly and the same deficiency is associated with one million deaths annually.
By Melody M. Aguiba

Source: Manila Bulletin via SeedQuest.com
29 February 2008

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1.17  Amflora potato: not this year

Genetically modified potatoes will not be cultivated commercially in the European Union this season. Voting members of the EU Commission have delayed approval of the "Amflora" variety. Effectively, this results in the prohibition of its planting in 2008.

Intended for industrial uses, e.g., the manufacture of paper and adhesives, the Amflora potato has been genetically modified to produce amylopectin starch exclusively.

The Amflora potato was developed by BASF and an application for its approval for cultivation was submitted in 2003. Subsequently, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) conducted a scientific safety assessment. Upon the conclusion of tests in 2005, the EFSA declared the Amflora line to be identical to conventional potatoes with regard to its effect on the environment.

On the basis of this declaration, the EU Commission recommended the approval of Amflora for cultivation within the Union. However, this recommendation was unable in 2007 to find support from a qualified majority of ministerial representatives of Member States in the European Council. As foreseen by EU law, ultimate responsibility for approval then was conferred to the Commission. This decision now has been delayed.

Spokespeople for BASF had expressed hope for cultivation in 2008. However, due to various factors which include yearly planning of crops and the early registration of the intention to plant genetically modified lines, approval would have been needed in February at the latest.

Source: GMO Compass via EurekAlert.org
12 March 2008

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1.18  New CAST paper addresses gene flow from biotech plants

The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) released an Issue Paper, Implications of Gene Flow in the Scale-up and Commercial Use of Biotechnology-derived Crops: Economic and Policy Considerations.  According to Task Force Chair David Gealy, USDA–ARS, “Humans have selected, adapted, and improved crops from diverse species for numerous purposes.  Many useful traits are being imparted into biotech and nonbiotech crops, most of which are likely to impact the dynamics of gene flow very little, especially outside of agricultural fields. Precommercialization procedures that take into account the specific trait being introduced will help to insure that impacts of gene flow remain low.” The paper (Issue Paper No. 37) may be accessed on the CAST website at www.cast-science.org

Contributed by Catherine Glaeser
clglaeser@ucdavis.edu

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1.19  What role can agricultural biotechnologies play in helping developing countries cope with growing water scarcity?

Summary document of an FAO e-mail conference, on biotechnology and drought and water scarcity.

The summary document of the FAO e-mail conference entitled "Coping with water scarcity in developing countries: What role for agricultural biotechnologies?" has now been published. It provides a summary of the main issues discussed during this moderated e-mail conference, hosted by the FAO Biotechnology Forum from 5 March to 1 April 2007, based on the messages posted by the participants, 75% of which came from people in developing countries. The major topics discussed were the application of biotechnologies (mainly genetic modification and marker-assisted selection) to develop crops with improved drought resistance or water use efficiency; the use of bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi in water-limited conditions; and the use of biotechnology in wastewater treatment. See the Executive Summary below. The full document is available at http://www.fao.org/biotech/logs/C14/summary.htm or can be requested via e-mail from biotech-admin@fao.org

Executive Summary
The availability of water is a challenge for all countries, but especially for those with scarce water resources and where the livelihoods of its people depend heavily on agriculture. The term 'biotechnology' includes a broad suite of tools that present varying degrees of technical sophistication and require different levels of capital input. A number of them can be used to mitigate water scarcity in agriculture, including a variety of plant biotechnologies, e.g. marker-assisted selection (MAS), and microbial biotechnologies, e.g. use of mycorrhizal fungi as a biofertiliser. Many examples of applications of biotechnology in developing countries were cited during this FAO e-mail conference. There was a general consensus that biotechnology has a valuable role to play in addressing the challenge of water scarcity in developing countries, although opinions differed on the relevance of different biotechnology tools. Despite much promising research and significant possibilities, the conference also indicated that many applications of biotechnology in this area have not yet met their full potential to deliver practical solutions to the end-user in developing countries.

Among the different plant biotechnologies, MAS and genetic modification elicited most discussion. Although the general opinion of participants was that MAS had significant potential, some underlined the obstacles to its practical application in developing countries, such as the relatively high costs of breeding using molecular markers and the complexity of traits involved in drought resistance and water use efficiency in plants. For genetic modification, promising research results were reported but many participants expressed doubts about the role of genetically modified crops in helping developing countries to cope with water scarcity, referring to the kinds of obstacles also relevant to MAS (costs, complexity of the traits to be improved etc.) as well as to a number of additional concerns, such as intellectual property rights issues and potential environmental impacts.

To ensure that research initiatives to develop drought resistant crops are successful and that the resulting products actually reach the farmers, participants called for increased collaboration between researchers in different disciplines and for all relevant stakeholders to be involved in the design of solutions to the problems of water scarcity in agriculture. Research should not neglect dryland (non-irrigated) agriculture. The role of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a strategic partnership supporting the work of 15 international centres, in developing drought resistance crops was emphasised.

A positive outlook was foreseen for microbial biotechnologies in managing water scarcity. Participants described the potential of applying mycorrhizal fungi and certain bacteria as a biofertiliser to assist plants to cope with water stress, calling for greater research in this area. Several applications of biotechnology were reported as playing a useful role in treating wastewater, mainly on a small scale, involving the use of plants and microbes, so that it could be re-used for agricultural purposes. Participants also discussed the potential to design biotechnology-based wastewater treatment systems in such a way that they yield co-products (e.g. biogas) that could be used to generate income locally.

Contributed by John Ruane
John.Ruane@fao.org

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1.20  Arctic seed vault opens doors for 100 million seeds

Ceremony marking unprecedented effort to protect global agriculture draws world leaders and seeds from over 100 countries

Longyearbyen, Norway
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened today on a remote island in the Arctic Circle, receiving inaugural shipments of 100 million seeds that originated in over 100 countries. With the deposits ranging from unique varieties of major African and Asian food staples such as maize, rice, wheat, cowpea, and sorghum to European and South American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley, and potato, the first deposits into the seed vault represent the most comprehensive and diverse collection of food crop seeds being held anywhere in the world.

At the opening ceremony, the Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg, unlocked the vault and, together with the African Nobel Peace Prize-winning environmentalist Wangari Maathai, he placed the first seeds in the vault. The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and a host of dignitaries and agriculture experts from around the globe deposited seeds during the ceremony. A variety of Norwegian musicians and choirs also performed in the opening ceremony held 130 metres deep inside the frozen mountain.

Built near the village of Longyearbyen on the island of Spitsbergen, the vault at its inception contains 268,000 distinct samples of seeds­each one originating from a different farm or field in the world. Each sample may contain hundreds of seeds or more. In all, the shipments of seeds secured in the vault today weighed approximately 10 tonnes, filling 676 boxes.

The opening of the seed vault is part of an unprecedented effort to protect the planet’s rapidly diminishing biodiversity. The diversity of our crops is essential for food production, yet it is being lost. This “fail-safe” facility, dug deep into the frozen rock of an Arctic mountain, will secure for centuries, or longer, hundreds of millions of seeds representing every important crop variety available in the world today. As well as protecting against the daily loss of diversity, the vault could also prove indispensable for restarting agricultural production at the regional or global level in the wake of a natural or man-made disaster. Contingencies for climate change have been worked into the plan. Even in the worst-case scenarios of global warming, the vault rooms will remain naturally frozen for up to 200 years.

“With climate change and other forces threatening the diversity of life that sustains our planet, Norway is proud to be playing a central role in creating a facility capable of protecting what are not just seeds, but the fundamental building blocks of human civilization,” said Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

“Crop diversity will soon prove to be our most potent and indispensable resource for addressing climate change, water and energy supply constraints, and for meeting the food needs of a growing population,” said Cary Fowler (photo*), Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is funded and established by Norway as a service to the world. The Global Crop Diversity Trust is providing support for the ongoing operations of the seed vault, as well as organizing and funding the preparation and shipment of seeds from developing countries to the facility. NordGen will manage the facility and maintain a public on-line database of samples stored in the seed vault, which has the capacity to house 4.5 million samples­some 2 billion seeds.

Prime Minister Stoltenberg and Wangari Maathai, founder of the African Green Belt Movement and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, delivered together the first box of seeds to the vault. It contained rice seeds specially prepared with varieties originating from 104 countries. The box was opened during the ceremony, and then resealed before being placed in the vault.

“The significant public interest in the seed vault project indicates that collectively we are changing the way we think about environmental conservation. We now understand that along with international movements to save endangered species and the rainforests of the world, it is just as important for us to conserve the diversity of the world’s crops for future generations,” Maathai said.

“The opening of the seed vault marks a historic turning point in safeguarding the world’s crop diversity,’’ said Fowler. “But about 50 percent of the unique diversity stored in seed banks still is endangered. We are in the midst of trying to rescue these varieties. Our success means we will guarantee the conservation and availability of these wildly diverse crops. Forever.”

Unique Building

The building of the vault itself has attracted much outside interest due to its location and its unusual engineering, security, and aesthetic features. Its engineering allows it to stay cool with only a single 10-kilowatt compressor, which is powered by locally generated electricity.

The vault consists of three highly secure rooms sitting at the end of a 125-metre tunnel blasted out of a mountain on Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. The seeds will be stored at minus 18 degrees Celsius (minus 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit) and sealed in specially-designed four-ply foil packages. The packages are sealed inside boxes and stored on shelves inside the vault. Each vault is surrounded by frozen arctic permafrost, ensuring the continued viability of the seeds should the electricity supply fail. The low temperature and moisture level inside the vaults will ensure low metabolic activity, keeping the seeds viable. If properly stored and maintained at minus 20 degrees Celsius (about minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit), some seeds in the vault will be viable for a millennium or more. For example, barley can last 2000 years, wheat 1700 years, and sorghum almost 20,000 years.

Anyone seeking access to the seeds themselves will have to pass through four locked doors: the heavy steel entrance doors, a second door approximately 115 metres down the tunnel and finally the two keyed air-locked doors. Keys are coded to allow access to different levels of the facility. Not all keys will unlock all doors. Motion detectors are set up around the site. Boxes of seeds inside the rooms are scanned before entering the seed vault.

A work of art also will make the vault visible for miles around. Artist Dyveke Sanne and KORO, the Norwegian agency overseeing art in public spaces, have worked together to fill the roof and vault entrance with highly reflective steel, mirrors, and prisms. The installation acts as a beacon, reflecting polar light in the summer months, while in the winter, a network of 200 fibre-optic cables will give the piece a muted greenish-turquoise and white light.

Svalbard Global Seed Vault (www.seedvault.no)
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is designed to store duplicates of seeds from seed collections from around the globe. If seeds are lost, e.g. as a result of natural disasters, war or simply a lack of resources, the seed collections may be reestablished using seeds from Svalbard. The seed vault is owned by the Norwegian government which has also financed the construction work, costing nearly NOK 50 million.

The Global Crop Diversity Trust (www.croptrust.org) 
The mission of the Trust is to ensure the conservation and availability of crop diversity for food security worldwide. Although crop diversity is fundamental to fighting hunger and to the very future of agriculture, funding is unreliable and diversity is being lost. The Trust is the only organization working worldwide to solve this problem.

Source: SeedQuest.com
26 February 2008

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1.21  Svalbard not the only safe haven for crop diversity

As the sun finally clears the horizon, signaling an end to the long winter night, the eyes of the world will be on the Global Seed Vault, dug into the mountainside above the town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway. The first boxes of 12 tonnes - a hundred million seeds - will be carried down the long tunnel to the deep freezers within, there to be kept in safety just in case. The specimens will all be what scientists call orthodox seeds, those that can be dried and stored at low temperatures without harm. Ironically, species that cannot be dried and stored have no place in the frozen Svalbard vault. They need cold, but they also need regular human attention. Where will they be secure? For some, in the sunny south of France.

The first few hundred samples of banana and plantain from the International Musa Germplasm Collection, managed by Bioversity International and supported by the Belgian government, have been safely delivered from the International Transit Centre (ITC) at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium to the French Research Institute for Development (IRD) in Montpellier, France.

The "black box" collection at IRD - in reality a large vat kept at an extremely chilly -196°C by liquid nitrogen - represents the same kind of safety backup that Svalbard offers for orthodox seeds. Should anything happen to the samples at Leuven, like the typhoon that damaged the Philippine rice genebank or the looters who wiped out the genebank at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, duplicates will be available at IRD.

"It's a mirror of the need for crop diversity itself," said Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity International, which is working closely with the Global Crop Diversity Trust to secure important collections of agricultural biodiversity. "Just as humanity needs different varieties of different crops, so different crops need different kinds of long-term storage."

Like bananas and plantains, crops such as coconut, cassava, yam, potato, sweet potato and taro are vitally important foods that are best conserved in field genebanks and tissue culture. But those methods are expensive, so scientists are working to develop protocols for cryopreservation, long-term storage at very low temperatures. KULeuven is a leader in this area and has been designated a Global Centre of Excellence on Plant Cryobiology. The experts there have been working with the genebanks of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and others to develop cryopreservation protocols and safety duplicates of important collections.

"The safety duplicates are at KULeuven in Belgium," Frison said. "But because the primary banana collection is already there, we had to put the safety duplicate somewhere else."

"We chose IRD to house the black box collection because of the expertise of their scientists in cryopreservation," said Professor Rony Swennen, Honorary Research Fellow at Bioversity and Director of the ITC. IRD researchers made an important contribution to cryopreservation by working out how many samples of each variety should be conserved.

"There is no guarantee that a thawed piece of plant tissue will regenerate into a fully viable plant," Swennen explained. "IRD scientists solved that problem by developing a method to calculate the number of samples needed to ensure a 95% chance that at least one of them will produce a plant."

The method is based on the survival rate of the accession, the risk level the genebank manager is willing to accept, and the time between regenerations. Armed with this information Bart Piette and Bart Panis, Belgian scientists at KULeuven, cryopreserved a batch of accessions three separate times, to minimise the risk that all might be contaminated. One of each repetition has gone to France while the other two remain in Belgium.

Just as the Trust is supporting the ongoing operations of the Global Seed Vault and the preparation and shipping of seeds to Svalbard, it is also supporting research into cryopreservation and safety backups for crops that need it. Tissue culture is expensive and time-consuming because fresh cultures must frequently be made, while field collections are vulnerable to environmental disasters. Research at the Global Centre of Excellence on Plant Cryobiology at KULeuven and elsewhere is delivering improved cryopreservation protocols that enable much longer storage without the need for human interference.

"The Trust's support in making sure that crops such as banana are safely stored for the global community is very much appreciated," said Frison. "But I think it is also important to recognize Belgium's contributions. The government has been a long-term supporter of research on the banana, from laboratory studies at KULeuven to field deployment of improved varieties and growing techniques. Without that, we might not have had any cryopreserved specimens to send to France."

Source: SeedQuest.com
26 February 2008

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1.22  Completely revised set of descriptors for wild and cultivated rice published

Bioversity International, with the International Rice Research Institute and the Africa Rice Centre, has just published a completely revised set of descriptors for wild and cultivated rice. Descriptor Lists are a vital tool for researchers interested in diversity to ensure that they have standardized metrics for describing varieties under study.

"The original list of descriptors for rice was published in 1980," said Adriana Alercia, who is responsible for descriptors at Bioversity. "It was in wide use and was considered the most valid system for rice." The new set of descriptors has been expanded to include wild relatives of the genus Oryza and to harmonize the descriptors as far as possible with those of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, which are geared to new commercial varieties. The list also highlights a set of minimum descriptors which can be used to discriminate among varieties with a high degree of certainty.

The new descriptor list has been drawn up in close consultation with experts at IRRI and the African Rice Centre and has been reviewed by 22 experts in the field.

Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton, who heads IRRI's rice genebank, welcomed the new descriptor list. "The descriptor list offers a universal language for describing rice diversity," he said. "If all rice researchers adopt this scheme it will produce a rapid, reliable and efficient means to store, retrieve and communicate information about rice diversity. And that is essential to make better use of the genebanks."

Also published recently by Bioversity International, a translation into Portuguese of the descriptors for cowpea.

A technical brief on how to develop crop descriptor lists is also available.

For further information, contact Adriana Alercia

Source: SeedQuest.com
19 February 2008

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1.23  Genetic mapping and marker-assisted breeding of pearl millet for drought prone regions

Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research  research into the genetic mapping and marker-assisted breeding of pearl millet to benefit subsistence farmers in drought prone regions of the world

Aberystwyth, Wales
Poor subsistence farmers in areas of Africa and Asia will be the direct beneficiaries of important research into the genetic mapping and marker-assisted breeding of pearl millet carried out by scientists at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER), Aberystwyth, Wales.

The four year project has received a substantial £700,000 Special Initiative Grant on Sustainable Agriculture for International Development from the Biotechnology and Biological Research Council (BBSRC) and Department for International Development (DfID) and will allow the research team led by Dr Rattan Yadav to research the genetic potential for improving pearl millet productivity in drought prone regions of Africa and Asia.

“Key segments of pearl millet DNA are already known to IGER scientists and plant breeders in India have already made use of fundamental genetic research carried out at IGER over the years, but declining water resources and unpredictable rainfall now call for further research into efficient breeding for drought-prone environments,” said Dr Rattan Yadav , Principal Investigator at IGER.

Pearl millet is the staple crop grown by subsistence farmers in the hottest driest regions of sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian subcontinent but declining water resources and unpredictable rainfall pose serious threats to crop productivity. Climate change scenarios indicate that water shortage and shortening of the effective growing season will be increasingly likely in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia , increasing the need for short-duration cereals such as pearl millet with enhanced drought tolerance.

“The ultimate goal of this project is to improve food security and farmers' livelihoods in the most vulnerable zones of the Semi-Arid Tropics which are dependent on rain-fed crop production by improving the drought tolerance of otherwise acceptable and adapted pearl millet plants cultivars,” added Dr Yadav.

Although pearl millet is better adapted to water stress compared to other cereals, drought remains one of the most important factors in reducing yield and yield stability of this staple food grain crop of the world's poorest people. In the marginal crop-livestock production systems of these regions, food security is a very big issue for most rural households. Improving pearl millet's tolerance to drought by genetic mapping and efficient plant breeding offers a sustainable route to alleviate poverty and food security of pearl millet farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia .

“Marker–assisted breeding methods have the potential to dramatically improve the efficiency of breeding pearl millet hybrids that have improved drought tolerance, together with local adaptation requirements combined with locally-preferred grain quality and improved yield attributes,” said Dr Yadav.

Generic knowledge and technologies developed in this Aberystwyth-led project will contribute to the global pool of knowledge in the important research area of drought tolerance across species and facilitate increased crop production in water-limited environments globally.

Commenting on the new research, Gareth Thomas, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for International Development and Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, said “Investing in science and research is essential to provide poor farmers with the seeds, knowledge and tools they need to make a better life for themselves. This research, bringing together UK , African and Asian scientists, has the potential to revolutionise farming in the developing world and reduce global poverty. The UK is delighted to support this initiative.”

While immediately applicable to pearl millet, much of the information generated for this important agricultural trait will have benefits to other cereals and forage grasses due to the close genomic relationships among these species and also indirectly benefit other agricultural crops.

The research is an international collaboration between IGER Aberystwyth, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics in Patancheru, India, the All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Pearl Millet, Mandore, India, and the University of Cape Coast, Ghana.

Source: SeedQuest.com
27 February 2008

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1.24  Use of molecular markers to breed for high quality rices

Introduction
Grain elongation on cooking and aroma are two major characteristics of high quality rices. Elongation of the grain after cooking without appreciable increase in width is a desired property for some fine-grained and aromatic rice such as Basmati from India and Pakistan. Grain elongation, like aroma, is a major component of the grain quality characteristics of Basmati types. This type of rice is an important commercial commodity for the economies like India, Pakistan and Thailand [2]. In Malaysia, there is an increasing demand for quality rice in domestic markets.

Quality Rice
Due to such demands, MARDI had initiated a special breeding programme to breed for high quality rices, alongside of the mainstream breeding programme. As a result, the special programme had successfully released two new high quality varieties, namely MRQ 50 (aka Puteri) [11] and MRQ 74 (aka Mas Wangi) [6]. Two special quality traits present in these varieties, but not present in previously released varieties, are grain elongation and aroma of cooked rice.

Grain elongation characteristic is derived from is a mutant line named “Mahsuri Mutant”, a product of the collaborative research initiated by UKM and MARDI in 1979 to use induced mutations in rice breeding [1, 9, 10]. Mahsuri Mutant possesses the grain elongation characteristic very much akin to that found in Basmati [4, 13], and is found to be controlled by one or two major genes [3]. This is the only known local source of grain elongation characteristic. Consequently, breeders have targeted the grain elongation of Mahsuri Mutant as one of the invaluable quality traits. Since then, efforts have been stepped up to transfer this special trait into elite breeding lines through conventional methods [4, 5]. The internal anatomical structure of grain, cell shape and arrangement might have influence on the water uptake and the nature of swelling on cooking [12]. Preliminary studies indicated that, the internal cracks for Mahsuri Mutant was substantially increased when it was artificially aged [3].

Results and Discussion
Seven sets of primer for grain elongation were used and tested in PCR amplification analyses. The results obtained showed that six sets out of seven selected and synthesised primers were functional. However, the expected fragment size between grain elongation and non-grain elongation could not be discriminated by agarose gel electrophoresis. Therefore, the amplicons were sequenced.

The sequenced regions of chromosome(s) were analysed using BLAST programme to identify their identity so that these could be used to generate new and better molecular markers that would tag closer to the gene of interest, i. e. the grain elongation gene in our rices.

In the sequence analyses, it was found that 93% (Mahsuri Mutant) were identical to Oryza sativa microsatellite MRG4671 containing (AAT)X12, closest to marker C1338 Oryza sativa chromosome 10 sequence (GenBank Accession No: AY022346; nt. 50-196), whereas 96% (Basmati 370) and 96% (MRQ 50) were both identical to certain region of Oryza sativa chromosome 10 BAC OSJNBa0015J15 genomic sequence (GenBank Accession No: AC026758; nt. 87205-87229) which is referred to Oryza longistaminata receptor-like kinase protein (Xa21). From the genetic map of rice chromosomes [2], grain elongation marker is close to rice blast disease marker (Xa21). Based on the present results, only Mahsuri Mutant’s nucleotide sequence would be used in adopting genome walking method to generate novel molecular markers. Subsequently, these new markers would be tested for their utility for marker-assisted selection in our rice breeding programme

Authors:
Mohamad, O.(1), Hadzim, K.(3), Azlan, S.(3), Abdullah, M. Z.(4), Zainah, M.(2), Salwa, A. S.(1), Nur Samahah, M. Z.(1) & Amiran, N.(1)

1 Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi
2 Malaysian Agricultural Research & Development Institute (MARDI)
3 Formerly with Malaysian Agricultural Research & Development Institute (MARDI)
4 Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Terengganu

Source: Poster exhibition at Malaysia Technology Expo (MTE 2008) held at Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC), Kuala Lumpur on 21-23 February 2008.

For the complete paper please contact the main author: mbopar@pkrisc.cc.ukm.my
Website: www.ukm.my

Contibuted by Dr. Mohamad bin Osman
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
mbopar@pkrisc.cc.ukm.my

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1.25  Promising mutant lines of Roselle Variety Arab (Acc. 21)

Abstract
Roselle is well known for its rich contents of vitamin C and anthocyanins. At present, two introduced varieties are available to growers, and these varieties are called “Terengganu” and “Arab”. Growers predominantly plant the Terengganu variety.  The Arab variety has higher productivity compared to variety Terengganu, but the former could be further improved for its quality.  A mutation breeding programme based on the Arab variety was initiated to generate new genetic variation, and has successfully yielded several promising mutant lines.  These selections have been evaluated for their morpho-agronomic traits and physico-chemical characteristics until M4 generation, and they show promise to be used as new varieties to increase productivity of our roselle industry.  In addition, these selections provide opportunity to diversify its product development activities.

Roselle
Genus  Hibiscus , which belongs to Malvaceae family, has more than 300 known species which are used as ornamental plants.  Many species are believed to have useful properties, among them is roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.), a tetraploid plant species.  Its origin is believed to be from West Africa.

Roselle is a relatively a new crop in Malaysia (Mohamad et al., 2002). It is well known  for its rich contents of vitamin C and anthocyanins. It was introduced into Malaysia in early 1990s, and its commercial planting was first promoted by DOA in Terengganu in 1993. In 2000, the planted area peaked at 506 ha. Today, the planted area is ca. 150 ha annually.  Only a handful of small companies are involved in processing, product development and marketing, largely for local market. DOA is presently making efforts to promote roselle, and is working closely with FAMA, entrepreneurs and growers.

Roselle has achieved as an important position as a pro-health drink in Malaysia due to its high contents of vitamin C and anthocyanins. To a small extent, the calyces are also processed into sweet pickle, jelly and jam, and are also used for making tea.

At present, two introduced varieties are available to growers, and these varieties are called “Terengganu” and “Arab”. Growers predominantly plant the Terengganu variety.  The variety Arab is considered a more recent introduction. Present varieties are reported to yield up to 8t/ha of fruits, or up to 4t/ha of calyces.  With good crop care, some growers have reported yields of some individual plants to exceed 4 kg of fruits per plant.

The Arab variety yields higher than Terengganu variety, both in terms of fruits and calyces, but the latter is better in terms of quality characteristics. The Arab variety, therefore, could be further improved for its quality.

Promising Selections
This paper highlights several promising mutant lines which had been developed using the Arab variety in a mutation breeding programme.  The selections include mutant lines HS2180-1-23-1-9-1, HS2180-1-31-20-17-1, HS2180-1-31-20-17-2, HS2180-1-31-20-3-1, HS2180-1-36-28-8-1, HS2180-1-36-34-16-1, and HS2180-1-36-49-4-1.  They have been evaluated for their morpho-agronomic traits and physico-chemical  characteristics until M4 generation. To date, they show good promise to be used as new varieties to increase productivity of our roselle industry.  In addition, these selections provide opportunity to diversify product development activities of roselle.

O. Mohamad(1), G. Ramadan(1), S. Herman1, A. A. Noor Baiti(1), O. Halimaton Saadiah(3), M.  M. Marlina(1), A. S. Kamaliah(1), K. Elfi(1), A. Rani(1), Jaswar(1), B. Ahmad Bachtiar(4), M. Ahmed Mahir(3), S. Mamot(2), A. L. Jalifah(2), A. Aminah(2),  H. Md. Rasli(5), M. Z. Mohd. Zulkifli(5), M. Abdul Rahman(5) dan A. Zainal Abidin(6)

1 PPSSSA, FST, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi
2 PPSKTM, FST, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi
3 Universiti Islam Sains Malaysia, Nilai
4 Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur
5 Insitut Penyelidikan dan Kemajuan Pertanian Malaysia
6 Universiti Malaysia Perlis

Source: Poster exhibition at Malaysia Technology Expo (MTE 2008) held at Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC), Kuala Lumpur on 21-23 February 2008.

Email of main author: mbopar@pkrisc.cc.ukm.my

For the complete paper please contact the main author: mbopar@pkrisc.cc.ukm.my
Website: www.ukm.my

Contibuted by Dr. Mohamad bin Osman
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
mbopar@pkrisc.cc.ukm.my

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1.26  Tearless onion discovery hits the headlines

New Zealand
A scientific breakthrough which puts ‘tearless’ onions within reach of consumers within a decade has put New Zealand research on the international media map this year.

Crop & Food Research senior scientist Dr Colin Eady and his collaborators in Japan have been testing tearless onions in the laboratory and last year presented their results to the 5th International Symposium on Edible Alliaceae, in the Netherlands.

Dr Eady describes ‘tearless’ onions as being in the developmental stages but if the research progresses well, would like to see them become the household and industry norm within the next decade.
It’s a story which has piqued the interest of media around the globe, with strong international coverage in major newspapers and broadcast media.

Dr Eady says the research is based on a gene-silencing technology, called RNAi, developed by Dr Peter Waterhouse at CSIRO in Australia. “This allows us to retarget the plant’s own natural regulation system without expressing foreign proteins in the plant,” Dr Eady says.

“Through RNAi, genes can be specifically shut down or turned off. By shutting down the lachrymatory factor synthase gene, we have stopped valuable sulphur compounds being converted to the tearing agent, and instead made them available for redirection into compounds, some of which are known for their flavour and health properties.”

Dr Eady says the research team has been unable to induce tearing by crushing their model tearless onions.

“What we have now is unique germplasm with a unique trait. We can home in and study what the consequences of this one effect are. We can detect differences in sulphur compounds known to be involved in flavour and health and actually measure them and assign a role to them.”

International onion trade journal Onion World featured Dr Eady’s work on the front cover of its final issue for 2007. The magazine quotes Dr Michael J. Havey, Professor of horticulture at the University of Wisconsin and USDA research geneticist, as well as a world-renowned onion scientist, as predicting that tearless onions will become a mainstay in household kitchens around the world. He said Dr Eady’s work was “clearly the No. 1 topic of discussion at the 5th International Symposium”.

Dr Eady says although the “tearless onion” is an exciting project, he is most interested in sustainable and efficient production and will want to be sure that the onions he is working on are also capable of being grown in an efficient manner. “We have a burgeoning population to feed, and with climate change and other challenges, available resources are being reduced. The gene silencing system can also be used to combat viruses, diseases and biotechnology in general can help us produce more robust crops.”

Dr Eady says in many countries onions already contribute a significant proportion of daily fibre requirements. “They are such a versatile and nutritious vegetable, so if we can manage to get more people cooking and eating fresh onions, then that has got to be a positive outcome.”

Source: Crop & Food Research Digest, Issue 60 – 2008 via SeedQuest.com
4 March 2008

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1.27  Commercial production of GM eggplant in The Philippines within two years

Los Banos, Laguna, The Philippines

Within two years, the Philippines will be a commercial producer of genetically modified (GM) eggplant and papaya.

This is the timetable of studies being done at the University of the Philippines Los Baños - Institute of Plant Breeding (UPLB-IPB).

In a 1.5-hectare fenced field experimental area within the sprawling UPLB complex, GM eggplants are lushly growing while biotech papaya plants have just been transplanted.

The progress of the project was assessed during a recent field day by representatives of international and national agencies supporting it, members of the research sector, and journalists, including this writer.

Among those present were Dr. Clive James, chairman of the New York-based International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA); Dr. Randy Hautea, ISAAA global coordinator; Dr. Frank Shotkoski, director of the Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project (ABSP) II-Southeast Asia; Executive Director Patricio Faylon of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD); UPLB vice chancellor Enrico Supangco; and UPLB-IPB officials led by Director Jose Hernandez.

The research on eggplant is being undertaken by UPLB-IPB in partnership with the Indian Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Ltd. (Mahyco). It is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through ABSP II, EMERGE, and ISAAA.

Mahyco has developed a high-resistant biotech eggplant with help from Monsanto Co. These eggplant lines have been used as source of the protection of biotech eggplants in India, the Philippines, and Bangladesh.

Dr. Desiree Hautea of UPLB-IPB told this writer in an interview that the eggplants were transplanted inside the fenced field last Dec. 21.

The seeds from the eggplants to be harvested will be used in the subsequent multi-location trials, which constitute the next phase of the multi-stage research process.

The first phase was the seedling establishment inside a greenhouse.

The first trial in the two-season multi-location experiments will be done in three to four selected areas in Luzon. The second will be conducted in about 10 sites in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

The GM eggplant is expected to be commercialized by 2010 upon approval by the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Plant Industry (DA-BPI).

The new plant type is projected to be the answer to the fruit and shoot borer (FSB), the most destructive pest attacking eggplant in Asia. In the Philippines, for instance, losses from FSB range from 51 to 73 percent. To date, there is no FSB-resistant commercial eggplant variety.

Eggplant is now the country's top vegetable crop, covering about 20,000 hectares and yielding annually 179,000 tons valued at about P2 billion.

The same process will be followed for the biotech papaya.

The papaya plants were transplanted last Feb. 8 and are expected to be harvested by November or December 2008, Dr. Pablito Magdalita told this writer.

This will be followed by the multi-location trials in Luzon and in the Visayas, and eventually the commercialization.

The new plant type is resistant to papaya ringspot virus (PRSV), which has been the scourge of the papaya industry since it was first discovered in Silang, Cavite, in 1982. It has since spread to other parts of the country, except Mindanao.

Infected papaya plants have stunted growth and produced deformed fruits with concentric rings on the skin surface. Eventually, the plants die.

A flagship biotech program of PCARRD, the papaya research is a collaborative effort with ISAAA, ABSP II, USAID, the UPLB-based Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), and Program for Biosafety Systems.
By Rudy A. Fernandez

Source: The Philippine STAR via SeedQuest.com
2 March 2008

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1.28  Crop scientists discover gene that controls fruit shape

WOOSTER, Ohio ­ Crop scientists have cloned a gene that controls the shape of tomatoes, a discovery that could help unravel the mystery behind the huge morphological differences among edible fruits and vegetables, as well as provide new insight into mechanisms of plant development.

The gene, dubbed SUN, is only the second ever found to play a significant role in the elongated shape of various tomato varieties, said Esther van der Knaap, lead researcher in the study and assistant professor of horticulture and crop science at Ohio State University’s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) in Wooster.

The discovery was reported, as the cover article, in the March 14 issue of the journal Science.

One of the most diverse vegetable crops in terms of shape and size variations, tomatoes have evolved from a very small, round wild ancestor into the wide array of cultivated varieties ­ some large and segmented, some pear-shaped, some oval, some resembling chili peppers ­ available through most seed catalogs and for sale in supermarkets. However, very little is known about the genetic basis for such transformations in tomatoes, and virtually nothing has been discerned about morphological changes in other fruits and vegetables.

“Tomatoes are the model in this emerging field of fruit morphology studies,” van der Knaap pointed out. “We are trying to understand what kind of genes caused the enormous increase in fruit size and variation in fruit shape as tomatoes were domesticated. Once we know all the genes that were selected during that process, we will be able to piece together how domestication shaped the tomato fruit ­ and gain a better understanding of what controls the shape of other very diverse crops, such as peppers, cucumbers and gourds.”

One of the first pieces in van der Knaap’s fruit-development puzzle is SUN, which takes its name from the “Sun 1642” cultivated variety where it was found ­ an oval-shaped, roma-type tomato with a pointy end. The gene also turned out to be very common in elongated heirloom varieties, such as the Poblano pepper-like “Howard German” tomato.

“After looking at the entire collection of tomato germplasm we could find, we noticed that there were some varieties that had very elongated fruit shape,” van der Knaap explained. “By genetic analysis, we narrowed down the region of the genome that controls this very elongated fruit shape, and eventually narrowed down that region to a smaller section that we could sequence to find what kind of genes were present at that location.

“In doing that,” van der Knaap continued, “we identified one key candidate gene that was turned on at high levels in the tomato varieties carrying the elongated fruit type, while the gene was turned off in round fruit. And after we confirmed that observation in several other varieties, we found that this gene was always very highly expressed in varieties that carry very elongated fruit.”

Once SUN was identified, the next step involved proving whether this gene was actually responsible for causing changes in fruit shape. To do so, van der Knaap and her team conducted several plant-transformation experiments. When the SUN gene was introduced into wild, round fruit-bearing tomato plants, they ended up producing extremely elongated fruit. And when the gene was “knocked out” of elongated fruit-bearing plants, they produced round fruit similar to the wild tomatoes.

“SUN doesn’t tell us exactly how the fruit-shape phenotype is altered, but what we do know is that turning the gene on is very critical to result in elongated fruit,” van der Knaap said. “We can now move forward and ask the question: Does this same gene, or a gene that is closely related in sequence, control fruit morphology in other vegetables and fruit crops?”

Something else van der Knaap and her team found out is that SUN encodes a member of the IQ67 domain of plant proteins, called IQD12, which they determined to be sufficient ­ on its own ­ to make tomatoes elongated instead of round during the plant transformation experiments.

IQD12 belongs to a family of proteins whose discovery is relatively new in the world of biology. So new that IQD12 is only the second IQ67 protein-containing domain whose function in plants has been identified. The other one is AtIQD1, discovered in the plant model Arabidopsis thaliana, which belongs to the same family as broccoli and cabbage. In Arabidopsis, AtIQD1 increases levels of glucosinolate, a metabolite that Ohio State researchers are studying in broccoli for its possible role in inhibiting cancer ( http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/goodbroc.htm).

“Unlike AtIQD1, SUN doesn’t seem to be affecting glucosinolate levels in tomato, since these metabolites are not produced in plants of the Solanaceous family (which includes tomato, peppers, eggplant and other popular crops),” van der Knaap explained. “But there appears to be a common link between the two genes, which is that they may be regulating tryptophan levels in the plant. Thus, SUN may be telling us more about the whole process of diversification in fruits and across plant species, perhaps through its impact on plant hormones and/or secondary metabolites levels.”

In the process of identifying and cloning SUN, van der Knaap’s team was also able to trace the origin of this gene and the process by which it cam