Regional and international biotechnology programmes in the region

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The national biotechnology programmes of the developing Asian countries are being strengthened through various bilateral and multilateral programmes. The bulk of the external assistance is country-specific and is mainly directed towards the provision of infrastructure and equipment, and postgraduate training. Multilateral assistance from UNDP, FAO, the World Bank, UNIDO and the Asian Development Bank is the most important. As regards bilaterals, the overseas development cooperation wings, such as JICA (Japan), ACIAR (Australia) and USAID (United States) are quite active. The following regional/international biotechnology activities are important.

FAO/UNDP Subprogramme - Asian Biotechnology and Biodiversity

Launched in September 1993, this subprogramme is one of the seven subprogrammes of the Farmer-Centred Agriculture Resources Management (FARM) Programme. The Programme is a child of the Earth Summit and aims to empower farmers to judiciously exploit and conserve their natural resources in an integrated manner through the use of appropriate technologies to ensure sustainable development. The biotechnology biodiversity subprogramme, operational up to 1997 in the first phase, has three main objectives: (i) establishment of a regional bioinformatics network; (ii) assessment and application of biotechnology for integrated pest management, rainfed farming systems and agroforestry; and (iii) linking the application of biotechnology with the conservation and rational utilization of biodiversity. Eight countries China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam are participating in this regional network subprogramme. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India is the coordinating agency. UNIDO is one of the cooperating/implementing agencies and is playing an oversight role for the bioinformatics component.

FAO/UNDP project "Biotechnology Development Network for Animal Production and Health"

This regional project was operational from 1989 to 1993. Eight countries: China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea and Thailand, participated. The project had the following immediate objectives:

• Establishment of a network of biotechnology centres in eight countries to share the responsibility of research, training and information exchange essential to biotechnology development in the region.
• Development of a core of suitably trained personnel at various levels for research and development in new techniques in biotechnology in eight countries.
• Establishment of pilot projects in order to strengthen the research capabilities in one or more of the specialized subjects of the selected national centres in each of the eight countries.
• Preparation of at least one manual on each of the following subjects: use of recombinant DNA techniques in animal improvement, embryo transfer technology, biotechnology and animal disease diagnosis, biotechnology and development of vaccines, biotechnology and modification of rumen microbial ecosystem, biotechnology and production-related hormones, and biotechnology and improvement of feeds.

Most of the above objectives have been met to a large extent.

The Rockefeller Foundation's Rice Biotechnology Network

Operational since 1984, the network has been a very active and successful programme in the region. The programme has two objectives: to create biotechnology applicable to rice and with it produce improved rice varieties suited to developing country needs; and to ensure that developing country scientists know how to use the techniques and adapt them to their own objectives. A network of about 200 senior scientists and 300 trainee scientists are participating, in all the major rice producing countries of Asia and a number of industrialized countries.

UNIDO's International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB)

The centre has two laboratories, one in Trieste, Italy, and the other in New Delhi, India. The New Delhi laboratory has an active agricultural biotechnology programme, especially in plant molecular biology, and is seeking applications of biotechnologies to biotic and abiotic stresses on rice and other important crops of the region. It has already trained a number of young biotechnologists and organized several workshops. Since 1994, the centre has become autonomous and evolves its programme and strategy under the direction of its Board of Trustees and other bodies.

Other programmes

An ASEAN biotechnology project (supported by the ASEAN member countries and the Australian Government) has been active during the past five to six years. It provides support for several integrated subprojects in the six ASEAN countries. These subprojects are concerned with the utilization of carbohydrates produced as agricultural byproducts, and the identification of valuable natural products from indigenous plant species, such as starch from sago palm (Metroxylon sagus).

The Cassava Biotechnology Network, sponsored by the Netherlands Directorate General for International Cooperation, is yet another international initiative of high relevance to Asian countries. It aims to bring the tools of biotechnology to modify cassava so as to meet the needs of small-scale cassava producers and processors better. Over 125 scientists from major cassava-producing countries are participating in the network.

Two of the International Agriculture Research Centres (IARCs) of the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR), namely, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Los Baños, the Philippines, and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad, India, with substantive biotechnology programmes, are situated in the Asia-Pacific region. IRRI has a strong rice biotechnology programme and is interacting with NARS in the region and the Rockefeller Rice Biotechnology Network. Beside imparting training, it has been sharing its breeding lines derived through the use of advanced technologies, including hybrid rice materials. ICRISAT has essentially been concentrating on developing in vitro culture protocols for its mandate crops and in producing pre-breeding materials through distant hybridization. The two centres are using embryo rescue, anther culture, molecular marker-aided selection and transformation techniques to varying degrees.

An Asian programme for small-scale agricultural biotechnology, sponsored by Appropriate Technology International (ATI), in cooperation with NIFTAL, the Small Enterprise Development and Appropriate Technology Europe (SATE), and the Department of Biology and Society, Free University, Amsterdam, is developing a lab to land programme on biotechnology with focus on small farmers (Ferchak and Croucher, 1991). The overall objective of the Programme is to facilitate the movement of mature agricultural biotechnologies from research institutions into farmers' fields. The programme is headquartered in Nepal, and Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam are the participating countries. The technologies selected include plant tissue culture for micropropagation, plant and soil inoculants, biological pesticides, and mushroom spawn production.

Prospects of agricultural biotechnology in the Asia-Pacific region

The Asia-Pacific region has over 56 percent of the global population, about 73 percent of the world's farming households, but only 31 percent of the world's arable land. Per caput arable land availability in the region is only 0.26 ha against 1.51 ha in the rest of the world (FAO, RAPA, 1993). The region is, however, more favourably endowed with irrigation as compared with the rest of the world. It accounts for about 61 percent of the world's total irrigated area; almost one-third of the total arable land is irrigated, as against one-tenth in the rest of the world (Table 9).

Agricultural production in the region moved at a much faster rate than in other parts of the world (FAO, RAPA, 1993). It accounted for 44.4, 40.6, 28.9 and 53.4 percent of the world's productions of cereals, roots and tubers, fruits and vegetables, respectively. From 1982-92, production of these commodities increased at a much faster rate than in other regions; cereal production growth rate for the region was 2.3 percent as against 1.2 percent in the rest of the world. As regards meat and milk, the region's share was respectively 31.6 and 22.6 percent of the world's production, but the growth rates were 5.8 and 4.5 percent against 1.7 and 0.1 percent in the rest of the world. The region accounted for 46 percent of the world's fisheries production; not only did it have almost a monopoly in the world's aquaculture production, 83.1 percent, but it also recorded a high growth rate of 8.6 percent against 5.1 percent in the rest of the world (Table 9).

The higher production growth rates were stimulated through the development and adoption of improved technologies, coupled with appropriate government policies and programmes. Average cereal yield in the region was 2 929 kg/ha against 2 689 kg/ha in the rest of the world. In fact, the growth in cereal production in the region during the past decade accrued essentially through increase in yield, while the area remained stagnant or even declined. This trend needs to be maintained in the future since there is little scope for horizontal expansion of arable land.

Despite the impressive growth in food and agricultural production during the past 25 years in the region, 523 million people, about one-fifth of the region's population, are chronically malnourished (FAO, 1993b). The concentration of malnourished people is considerably higher in South Asia than in East Asia (Table 10). The population of developing Asia is expected to grow to 3 726 million by the year 2010, comprising about two-thirds of the developing world. Although the growth rate will decline, the annual increment will still be more than 50 million people (Table 11). Projected production and demand in South and East Asia will be neck and neck, but demand will marginally outstrip production (Table 12). This gap will be reflected in the number of chronically malnourished people in the different regions. By the year 2010, the number of malnourished in East Asia will drop to 70 million and in South Asia to 202 million from 252 million and 271 million in 1988/90, respectively (FAO, 1993b). In other words, while the number of malnourished in developing Asia will decline considerably, the region will still contain about 43 percent of the world's malnourished people (Table 13).

Table 9
Selected indicators of agricultural development in the Asia-Pacific region

Source: FAO/RAPA, 1993.

Table 10
Estimates of chronic undernutrition in developing countries

Source: FAO, 1993b

1/ Included in the FAO study, which accounted for almost all the developing countries, as in 1989 these had 3 905 million people of the 3 960 million in all developing countries in the world in 1989.

Table 11
Population projections

Source: FAO, 1993b

Table 12
Growth rates (% per year) of gross agricultural production and domestic demand (all uses)

Source: FAO, 1993b

Table 13
Per caput food supplies for direct human consumption (calories/day) and possible evolution of chronic undernutrition

Source: FAO, 1993b

While the need for further intensification of agricultural production in the region is clear, the ways of the intensification process must change in order to avoid the adverse effects associated with the past. Yield increases in the past three decades were triggered by widespread use of high-yielding modern varieties, expanded irrigation and increased use of chemical fertilizers. The Asian farmer on an average uses 127 kg NPK/ha against 78 kg/ha used in the rest of the world. These enhanced uses of irrigation and mineral fertilizers, which were often not really efficient, had their own negative side-effects such as soil salinity and nutrient leaching. With intensification, the biotic stresses of pests and diseases had also increased. Furthermore, about 70 percent of the total cultivated land is rainfed and subject to monsoonal vagaries and other abiotic stresses, and was generally bypassed by the "green revolution", thus exacerbating inequity.

In order to meet the unprecedented demand for food arising mostly from the burgeoning population and to meet development demands, forests were razed indiscriminately, causing a host of environmental and soil degradation problems. In Southeast Asia alone, 5 000 ha of tropical forests are cut every day. The region encompasses megacentres of biodiversity - the raw materials for biotechnology. But, because of wide adoption of a few often interrelated modern varieties, and because of deforestation, the treasure of biodiversity has been eroding fast. Because of soil degradation, increasing genetic vulnerability and intensifying pest incidences, there are increasing examples of plateuing off or even decline of yields, productivity a and profitability of major agricultural systems, such as rice-wheat cropping systems in several Asian countries.

Keeping the above developments and challenges in mind, it is clear that while the process of intensification of food and agricultural production in the Asia-Pacific Region must continue in order to feed its people, the ways of enhancing production must be altered. Encroachment on marginal lands and fragile ecosystems, deforestation, erosion of biodiversity and environmental deterioration must not only be avoided, but also reversed, in order to attain enhanced and sustained agricultural production. The "green revolution", with its strong positive and some negative impacts, was responsible for accelerating food and agricultural production, especially cereal production, over the past 30 years or so. But the revolution is now on the wane. At this juncture, biotechnology is considered by many to be the means of triggering the next green revolution (Singh, 1993).

In the context of intensifying the use of biotechnologies in Asian agriculture, Swaminathan (1991) has listed several features that confer comparative advantages to the region. First and foremost is the richness of biological and ecosystem diversity. The large population, especially women who could handle tissue culture and other simple biotechniques, provides a huge and not-so-costly labour force. Furthermore, there is a greater opportunity for "production-by-masses" rather than merely mass production to bring about equity. Finally, the most important industrial feedstock that most Asian countries have in rural areas is the agricultural biomass of plant, animal, fish or tree origin, providing vast opportunities for preparing value-added products.

In the Asia-Pacific region, as mentioned earlier, future increases in agricultural production must accrue essentially through increases in yields. Yields can be increased by (i) preventing the pre-and post-harvest losses; (ii) raising actual yields closer to the current production potential; and (iii) raising the production potential.

As discussed earlier under the country scenarios, biotechnologies are already being applied to one or the other, or all three options for yield increases in several countries of the region. Particular mention may be made of in vitro culture techniques in potatoes and cassava and plantation crops, haploids in rice, diagnostic kits for disease identification, new and recombinant vaccines, embryo transfer, increased productivity of fishes through sex reversal, polyploidy, hormonal treatments and disease control. These techniques should further be refined/standardized and rendered more cost-effective to improve their transfer to and adoption by the majority of small farmers. Plant tissue culture techniques are particularly suitable for Asian settings (Sasson, 1991).

Transgenics for new yields, adaptability and quality, are being designed not only in the developed countries, but also in several developing countries in the region, which may be commercialized in the future. The first contributions of biotechnology towards higher yield will come by protecting plants from diseases and pests, thereby cutting losses. Australia is contemplating the release of a pest-resistant transgenic cotton variety by the end of 1996 (Peacock, personal communication). However, for commercialization of the products under development, resolution and/or establishment of regulatory aspects, particularly biosafety and intellectual property rights should be undertaken simultaneously. The important role of the private sector and the proprietary nature of many of the new products and processes are significant in the context of biotechnology research and development. These features have implications for developing countries using and developing biotechnology (Persley, 1991). In order to promote equity, mechanisms should be developed and adopted for recognizing and rewarding both formal and informal innovations (FAO, 1993c, Swaminathan and Hoon, 1994).

Of the major crops of the region, rice is likely to benefit most through the use of biotechnology. This is happy news since rice is basic to food security in the region. Haploid production and embryo rescue techniques are already being exploited widely. Molecular marker-aided selection, DNA fingerprinting for identification of genetic variation in pests, pathogens and rice populations, protoplast transformation and production of transgenics for introduction of novel genes are in progress in the region. Genetically engineered tungro-resistant rice lines are being engineered at IRRI. Other expected early successes are transgenic hybrids of Brassica and sunflower, and virus-resistant potatoes and soybeans. Other distinct possibilities are biotechnologically derived biopesticides, biocontrol agents and biofertilizers.

In animal production, since several countries in the region have standardized multiple ovulation and embryo transfer technology and could produce desired sizes of breeding populations, a cooperative regional network on nucleus herd breeding system should be started. Buffaloes are a monopoly of South and Southeast Asia. A cooperative programme in these countries on buffalo biotechnology, including improved efficiency of embryo transfer and initiation of a buffalo genome project would be most appropriate.

In fisheries, the regional capability for production and sharing of fish hormones and vaccines should be improved to promote cost-effective and widespread use of these products. The use of biotechnology for production of fish feed using local resources would further boost and sustain the booming aquaculture industry in the region.

In forestry, including agroforestry, the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of techniques for micropropagation for various purposes should be critically analysed. In some species, such as poplars, biotechnology for pest and disease management is an attractive proposition.

Much biotechnology work in several countries is unfocused. Appropriate priority-setting mechanisms need to be evolved for identifying the most appropriate commodity and approach specific to the agro-ecological and socio-economic settings. Work must be diverted to the crops, animals and forest species of importance to the country and region within a country, and to the biotic and abiotic stresses these commodities face in those areas. The commodities of high food and non-food values in local settings, but of little economic significance to the capital-intensive markets of industrialized countries, often referred to as "orphan" commodities, should receive due attention from local biotechnologists. Commodities such as coconuts, oil palm, pigeonpea, jute and buffaloes are almost monopoly commodities of the region and responsibility for their biotechnological improvement should fall primarily to the countries of this region.

Each country should establish national biotechnology committee comprising government agencies, universities and scientific academies, the mass media, industry and financial institutions - into a symbiotic relationship (Swaminathan, 1991). The public sector in several Asian countries has allocated considerable budget and other resources and has further plans to strengthen biotechnology research and development. Since these are relatively costly fields of research, and recognizing that the indigenous capacity in frontline research is essential for sustained progress in application of the new technologies, governments must allocate adequate budgets to biotechnology and ensure the most judicious utilization of funds according to well-chosen priorities. The private sector is also active in biotechnology in some countries. Appropriate policies and measures must be established to promote private-sector involvement in this field and to forge synergistic links between the private and public sectors.

As mentioned earlier, a few regional cooperative networks on biotechnology are operational in the region, and more may be initiated in the future. Usually these networks are supported through external funding and often collapse with the termination of the external support. For instance, after the regional animal biotechnology project was terminated in 1993, very little regional collaboration exists in this field. Mechanisms to sustain such activities should be established. One such mechanism may be the continuation of some selected activities under the umbrella of the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI). Member countries should specifically contribute to agreed activities and a regional working group on biotechnology could be established under APAARI.

Notwithstanding its high potential, biotechnology should be seen essentially as a tool to complement the efficacy and effectiveness of conventional approaches to solve problems already on the agenda (FAO, 1993c). Countries should have mechanisms to decide priorities and a blend of the most appropriate technologies to attain the goals. The temptation of "quick fix" and using/promoting a novel technology just for the sake of the technology should be avoided. On the other hand, appropriate capabilities, policies and infrastructures must be created in each country to exploit new and emerging technologies judiciously and rationally and not miss new opportunities.

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