Conference 14 was dedicated to the subject of "Coping with water scarcity in developing countries: What role for agricultural
biotechnologies?"
It was organised in collaboration with FAO's water
programme and and was one of the many activities planned to coincide with the
World Water Day, which is celebrated each year on 22
March. It began on 5 March and finished on Sunday 1 April 2007
A Background Document was prepared before the conference whose aim was to provide some brief background to the subject as well
as to mention the issues to be considered in the conference.
During the conference, 78 messages were posted from people living in 24 different countries, the greatest numbers by
far coming from India, followed by France, the United States and Nigeria. 75% of the messages were posted by
participants living in developing countries.
In one of the last messages, Xavier Rakotonjanahary from Madagascar, thanked the participants for "their valuable information and exchange of experiences about agricultural biotechnologies coping with growing water scarcity". We support this fully and wish to thank him and the other 49 people who sat down and invested their time and effort in sharing their views and experiences on the many diverse issues raised in this conference, such as the development of drought tolerant crops, through marker-assisted selection or conventional breeding; the use of genetic modification and alternatives to genetic modification in solving water scarcity; use of bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi inoculants; and use of biotechnologies for treating wastewater to be used in agriculture. etc. etc. To each one of you, a special thanks.
See the Archives of messages posted
