Posted April 2000
FAO has added a hot topic to its e-mail conference list - biotechnology in developing countries. The Electronic Forum on Biotechnology in Food and Agriculture opened on 9 March. The first e-mail conference of a series to be hosted by the forum began on 20 March. Practical details, rules and background information are available on the forum's website.
The forum is designed to address one of the many objections voiced against biotechnology in its various forms: that it caters primarily to the needs of farmers and food producers in developed countries. The figures back this up - in 1999, just 18 percent of the land planted to transgenic crops was in developing countries, and nearly all of this was in Argentina. Yet the FAO Statement on Biotechnology argues that genetic engineering "could lead to higher yields on marginal lands in countries that today cannot grow enough food to feed their people."
As a result, the new electronic forum will focus specifically on biotechnological tools for use in developing countries. The title of the first conference is "How appropriate are currently available biotechnologies in the crop sector for food production and agriculture in developing countries". This conference will run for two months.
FAO's Senior Agricultural Research Officer Dr Maria Zimmerman and consultant Dr John Ruane stress that the electronic forum is not just about transgenic or genetically modified organisms. According to Dr Zimmerman: "There are lots of approaches to biotechnology, and it holds lots of promises."
Regarding the first e-mail conference, three major kinds of recently developed biotechnologies that could be used in practice for food production and agriculture in developing countries are currently available in the crop sector:
Micropropagation is currently the crop biotechnology most widely used in developing countries. It allows the rapid cloning of disease-free planting material and is applied for a wide range of crops, including woody and fruit plants. Another example of biotechnology currently applied to crops in the developing world is the planting of herbicide-resistant soybeans in Argentina.
The forum aims to provide an opportunity for the discussion and exchange of experiences and information about the ways biotechnology is or could be used in developing countries. It is open to everyone - NGOs, private industry, researchers, regional networks, private individuals - but the main target group is policy-makers, particularly in developing countries.
"We expect to get a variety of viewpoints and replies. No standard reply will do for all the world," says Dr Zimmerman. "We expect that different regions and different countries in the developing world will have different needs and interests. The forum is intended to be a learning experience for all of us."
The second conference is scheduled to begin on 25 April, with the theme of "How appropriate are currently available biotechnologies for the forestry sector in developing countries". This will be followed by two conferences on the same theme, but dealing with the animal and fisheries sectors, respectively.
"The forum may last for a long time," says Dr Zimmerman. "The discussion topics will change, but the forum will continue as long as there is interest in the issue of biotechnology in food and agriculture. The aim is not to provide technical information, but to focus on the social and policy implications of biotechnology and to provide neutral and unbiased information to the debate on the issue."
 
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