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Agricultural Biotechnologies
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The News items relate to applications of biotechnologies in food and agriculture in developing countries and their major focus is on the activities of FAO, other UN agencies/bodies and the 15 CGIAR research centres. The News items cover all food and agricultural sectors (crops, forestry, fisheries/aquaculture, livestock, agro-industry) and a wide range of biotechnologies (e.g. use of molecular markers, artificial insemination, triploidisation, biofertilisers, micropropagation, genomics, genetic modification etc.). New documents are included as News if they are freely available on the web and, for people who can't download them or who wish further information, an e-mail contact is also provided. The News service was launched in January 2002 and all News items posted since then (there were 800 in the first 9 years) are available here. The news and event items on this website are also disseminated through an e-mail newsletter called FAO-BiotechNews that is published in six different versions, one per language i.e. Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. To subscribe, send a message to FAO-Biotech-News@fao.org indicating which e-mail addresses are to be subscribed and in which language they wish to receive the newsletter.
14/07/2010
Three main sections of the FAO biotechnology website have recently been updated. The first, on `FAO Documents`, provides an annotated list of freely-downloadable documents and now includes 210 web links to a wide range of articles, books, meeting reports, proceedings and studies published by FAO, or prepared in collaboration with FAO, over the last 13 years concerning agricultural biotechnologies. The second, on `Country policy documents` provides an annotated list of freely-downloadable biotechnology policy documents from 18 FAO members. Most of the 25 documents are national policy documents, covering applications of biotechnology in food and agriculture as well as in other areas, such as pharmaceuticals, the environment and human health care. The third, on `Sectoral overviews`, provides an overview of the application of biotechnologies in the agro-industry, crop, fisheries and aquaculture, livestock and forestry sectors in developing countries. See http://www.fao.org/biotech/ (in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish) or contact biotech-website@fao.org with any comments.
13/07/2010
On request from its member countries, FAOs Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP) supports countries through small projects which address specific problems in their agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors. In May 2008, a TCP was launched for Bangladesh on Assistance in the formulation of enabling regulatory measures for research and sustainable application of biotechnology, implemented jointly by FAO and the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC). Under this TCP, a training course was organized in Gazipur, Bangladesh on 21-30 November 2008, covering five modules, namely, agricultural biotechnology; ecological aspects of biosafety; biosafety guidelines including risk analysis; post-release monitoring; and legal aspects, including plant variety protection. A 293-page book entitled Biosafety of genetically modified organisms: Basic concepts, methods and issues, edited by M.K.A. Chowdhury, M.I. Hoque and A. Sonnino, comprising the proceedings of the training course is now available on the web. See http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/i1252e/i1252e00.htm or contact imdadul57@yahoo.com for more information.
12/07/2010
In September 2007, FAO released "The State of the Worlds Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture", a comprehensive 511-page publication drawing on 169 Country Reports and a range of other sources to provide the first global assessment of animal genetic resources and their management. It also contains many sections indirectly or directly relevant to biotechnology, such as applications of molecular markers and reproductive technologies. The publication is now available in all six official FAO languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish). A 37-page summary version is also available in all FAO languages plus German, Japanese and Polish. In addition, a CD-ROM is available containing both the full and summary versions in all six FAO languages. See the full or summary versions at http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a1250e/a1250e00.htm and http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a1260e/a1260e00.htm respectively. To request the publication (or the CD-ROM), contact dad-is@fao.org providing your full postal address and indicating the version and language you wish to receive.
11/07/2010
The International Symposium on Induced Mutations in Plants was held on 12-15 August 2008 in Vienna, Austria organised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and FAO through the Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture. It comprised an opening session, two plenary sessions and ten concurrent sessions, covering topics such as induced mutations in food and agriculture, genetic diversity and crop domestication, abiotic stress tolerance and adaptation to climate change, crop quality and nutrition, seed and vegetatively propagated plants, gene discovery and functional genomics. A 458-page publication entitled "Induced plant mutations in the genomics era", edited by Q.Y. Shu, is now available, with a compilation of peer-reviewed full papers contributed by participants. See http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/i0956e/i0956e00.htm or contact Q.Y.Shu@iaea.org for more information.
10/07/2010
The Global Partnership Initiative for Plant Breeding Capacity Building (GIPB), FAO and partners have previously carried out a worldwide assessment of national plant breeding and related biotechnology capacity (PBBC). To analyse these results, the GIPB recently held four regional e-consultations (for Latin America and Caribbean; South-Eastern and Southern Asia; Sub-Saharan Africa; and Western Asia and Northern Africa). For each one, a background note was prepared before the consultation and a report was prepared afterwards. See the GIPB website or contact gipb@fao.org for more information.
09/07/2010
FAO recently published "Building biosafety capacities: FAOs experience and outlook", aiming to illustrate the main findings and lessons learned from FAOs past and ongoing biosafety capacity building initiatives. This 53-page book, by A. Sensi, K. Ghosh, M. Takeuchi and A. Sonnino, is now also available in French and Spanish. See http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/i1033e/i1033e00.htm or contact charlotte.lietaer@fao.org to request a copy, providing your full postal address and well as indicating which language version you wish to receive.
08/07/2010
The 5th meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP-MOP 5) takes place on 11-15 October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan, back-to-back with the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 10), on 18-29 October 2010. The meeting will address a number of standing issues on the COP-MOP agenda (i.e. compliance; operation and activities of the Biosafety Clearing-House; capacity building; financial mechanisms and resources; cooperation with other organizations, conventions and initiatives; and administration and budgetary matters). It will also address a number of substantive issues arising from the medium-term programme of work and previous COP-MOP decisions (i.e. handling, transport, packaging and identification of living modified organisms; risk assessment and risk management; liability and redress; monitoring and reporting; assessment and review; and public awareness and participation). See https://www.cbd.int/mop5/ for background information and access to official documents (in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish) or contact secretariat@cbd.int for more information.
07/07/2010
The e-biosafety training network of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) aims to address the demand of biosafety regulatory systems in developing countries for intensive training in biosafety. It combines distance-learning with on-campus training, including laboratory practice, and the programme is currently given in cooperation with the Marche Polytechnic University (Ancona, Italy), the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) and Ghent University (Ghent, Belgium). Registration for the academic year 2010-2011 is now open for the training course in Italy (registration deadline 1 October, course begins 5 November), Brazil (course begins in early October) and Belgium (registration deadline 15 September, course begins 1 November). See http://binas.unido.org/moodle/mod/resource/view.php?id=133 or contact m.bosse@unido.org for more information.
06/07/2010
Issue number 20 (July 2010) of the OECD Biotechnology Update is now available. Presented by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Internal Co-ordination Group for Biotechnology, the 34-page newsletter provides updated information on OECD activities related to biotechnology. See http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/13/7/45604987.pdf (517 KB) or contact icgb@oecd.org for more information.
16/06/2010
FAO has just published Building biosafety capacities: FAOs experience and outlook, which aims to illustrate the main findings and lessons learned from FAOs past and ongoing biosafety capacity building initiatives, in order to improve future interventions and better shape strategic planning, in line with the Cartagena Protocol and other related international instruments. The 53-page book, by A. Sensi, K. Ghosh, M. Takeuchi and A. Sonnino, presents a brief overview of 26 biosafety capacity building projects, whose total funding amounted to about 7.5 million US dollars, launched by FAO since 2002. They include 18 national projects as well as six that are subregional, regional or interregional and two that are global. Conclusions in the book propose key operational elements for future initiatives to maximize results and fully meet countries` needs. See http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/i1033e/i1033e00.htm or contact charlotte.lietaer@fao.org to request a copy, providing your full postal address.
15/06/2010
As part of its Animal Production and Health Guidelines series, FAO has just published Breeding strategies for sustainable management of animal genetic resources whose aim is to help countries plan and develop effective genetic improvement programmes and to maximize the chances that such programmes will be sustained. The 132-page guidelines are intended for use by policy-makers and organisations involved in livestock development. They provide countries with advice on how to specify their objectives and priorities; identify the conditions necessary for sustainable development of their animal genetic resources; benefit from the experiences of other countries with similar conditions; and find practical guidance on how to initiate or improve breed development programmes (including whether to use reproductive biotechnologies such as artificial insemination). See http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/i1103e/i1103e00.htm or contact badi.besbes@fao.org for more information.
14/06/2010
The report of the 31st Session of the Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling, that took place on 8-12 March 2010 in Budapest, Hungary, is now available. Agenda item 3 was dedicated to the "Proposed draft guidelines on criteria for methods for detection, identification and quantification of specific DNA sequences and specific proteins, in particular in foods derived from modern biotechnology" and is covered in paragraphs 13-33 of the report. See the report (ALINORM 10/33/23), together with the agenda providing links to the meeting`s documents, at http://www.codexalimentarius.net/web/archives.jsp or contact codex@fao.org for further information. The Committee agreed to forward the proposed draft guidelines to the 33rd Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (to be held 5-9 July 2010 in Geneva, Switzerland) for adoption at Step 5/8 with the recommendation to omit Steps 6 and 7. The Codex Rules of Procedure, describing also the 8-Step elaboration procedure, are available at http://www.codexalimentarius.net/web/procedural_manual.jsp (in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish).
13/06/2010
The report of the 38th Session of the Codex Committee on Food Labelling, that took place on 3-7 May 2010 in Quebec City, Canada, is now available. Agenda item 6 was dedicated to "Labelling of foods obtained through certain techniques of genetic modification/genetic engineering" and is covered in paragraphs 134-161 of the report. See the report (ALINORM 10/33/22), together with the agenda providing links to the meeting`s documents, at http://www.codexalimentarius.net/web/archives.jsp or contact codex@fao.org for further information.
12/06/2010
The manual on Selection and breeding of cattle and buffalo in Asia: Strategies and criteria for improved breeding is now available, which was prepared under the framework of the Regional Cooperative Agreement for Asia and the Pacific Region (RCA) programme, with the technical support of the Joint FAO/IAEA Programme of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture. The publication includes information about trends in livestock production and cattle breeding management in Asia; the important traits for dairy and beef cattle, their selection criteria, and breeding objectives; proposed systems for operating a cattle breeding and genetic improvement programme in Asia; and an overview of current and future technologies (including molecular and reproductive technologies) for improvement of cattle breeding. See the manual (651 KB) or contact M.Garcia-Podesta@iaea.org for more information.
11/06/2010
Following the first symposium, held in Beijing, China in 2005, the 2nd International Symposium on Genomics of Plant Genetic Resources was held on 24-27 April 2010 in Bologna, Italy. Abstracts from the symposium are now available. The scientific programme was organised in nine different sessions, covering themes such as harnessing plant diversity: From sequence to function or genomics-assisted crop improvement for food security in developing countries. The symposium was organised by Bioversity International, the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) and the University of Bologna, and took place with the patronage, inter alia, of FAO. See http://www.gpgr2.com/ or contact roberto.tuberosa@unibo.it for more information.
10/06/2010
The 64th Session of the UN General Assembly considered a number of agenda items with preparatory documents and/or resolutions relevant to biotechnologies, including items 53 (a) on Agricultural technology for development; 55 (c) on Science and technology for development; and 60 on Agriculture development and food security. See the preparatory documents (numbered A/64/258, A/64/168 and A/64/221 respectively) for each item at http://www.un.org/ga/second/64/documentslist.shtml (in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish) and the resulting resolutions (numbered A/RES/64/197, A/RES/64/212 and A/RES/64/224 respectively) at http://www.un.org/ga/64/resolutions.shtml or contact inquiries2@un.org for more information. For example, in resolution A/RES/64/224, the General Assembly, inter alia, Reaffirms the need to mobilize the resources needed to increase productivity, including the review, approval and adoption of biotechnology and other new technologies and innovations that are safe, effective and environmentally sustainable.
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