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</font></font><a class="date"><em><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#666666" size="2">Posted 24 January 2010</font></em></a><br><br><a class="country"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#336600" size="2"><strong>PHILIPPINES</strong></font></a><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"> <br>
1-CROP BIOFORTIFICATION, KEY TO MEETING MDGs<br>2-FILIPINO-LED TEAM DISCOVERS MALARIA VACCINE<br>3-FARM OUTPUT MISSES ’09 TARGET<br>4-AGRI OFFICIAL ENDORSES PROTOCOL FOR MORINGA MASS PROPAGATION<br><br></font><a class="country"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#336600" size="2"><strong>INDIA</strong></font></a><br>
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">6-Bt BRINJAL SAFE FOR HUMANS, SAYS SCIENCE MINISTRY <br><br></font><a class="country"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#336600" size="2"><strong>BANGLADESH</strong></font></a><br>
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">6-GM EGGPLANTS, POTATOES ON TRIAL <br><br></font><a class="country"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#336600" size="2"><strong>GLOBAL</strong></font></a><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"> <br>
7-CAN GM CROPS FEED THE HUNGRY?<br></font></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr>
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<div align="left"><font size="2"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><strong>1-CROP BIOFORTIFICATION, KEY TO MEETING MDGs</strong><br>by Jenny A. Panopio <br>22-January-2009 SEARCA BIC Press Release <br><br>Micronutrients are considered as “magic wands” as they are essential to growth, health, and wellness of all, especially the children and women. However, micronutrients deficiency is a global problem, contributing to world’s widespread malnutrition and high rate of children and women’s mortality. UNICEF and WHO World Food Programme estimate that more than 2 billion people in the world are deficient in Vitamin A, Iodine, Iron or Zinc. And most these people are deficient to more than one of these micronutrients.<br>
<br>According to Dr. Corazon Barba, nutritionist from the University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB), “Six out of the eight objectives in the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) are related to micronutrient deficiency. And together with conventional interventions, such as supplementation and industrial fortification, biofortification of crops with essential micronutrients could greatly contribute in the attainment of these MDGs”. Dr. Barba believes on the potentials of crop biofortification as one of the long term solutions in combating this widespread and persistent public health problem. Dr. Randy Hautea of ISAAA also trusts that biofortification can help in alleviating global malnutrition. <br>
<br>Crop biofortification is a strategy employed by agricultural research institutions to utilize genetic modification (GM) of crops to enhance levels of essential micronutrient. The potentials and safety issues of biofortified crops to address micronutrient deficiencies was the focus of a symposium held last January 18, 2010 at SEARCA, College, Laguna. <br>
<br>During the symposium, Dr. Gerard Barry, Golden Rice Network Coordinator of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), shared the current biofortification initiatives in rice for micronutrients Vitamin A, iron, and zinc. Of all these efforts, the pro-Vitamin A Golden rice is considered to be in most advanced stage and is expected to reach commercial approval in the Philippines by the Year 2012 or 2013.<br>
<br>Like any other biotech/GM crops, biofortified crops, such as Golden rice, are assessed for food and environmental safety prior to commercial release. The Philippines has set-up policies and regulatory framework that governs such assessment prior to commercial use.<br>
<br>The symposium was organized by the UPLB Institute of Human Nutrition and Food in cooperation with the </font></font><a href="http://www.isaaa.org/" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#0000ff" size="2">International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA)</font></a><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">, </font><a href="http://www.bic.searca.org/" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#0000ff" size="2">SEARCA Biotechnology Information Center</font></a><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"> and the </font><a href="http://www.bcp.org/" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#0000ff" size="2">Biotech Coalition of the Philippines</font></a><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">.<br>
<br>For more biotechnology updates in the Philippines, visit </font><a href="http://www.bic.agri.searca.org/" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#0000ff" size="2">www.bic.agri.searca.org</font></a><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"> or email </font><a href="mailto:bic@agri.searca.org" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#0000ff" size="2">bic@agri.searca.org</font></a><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">.<br>
<br><strong>------------------------------------------------------------</strong><br><strong>2-FILIPINO-LED TEAM DISCOVERS MALARIA VACCINE</strong><br>21-January-2010 </font><a href="http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/lifestyle/01/21/10/filipino-led-team-discovers-malaria-vaccine" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#0000ff" size="2">ABS-CBN News</font></a><br>
<br><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">MANILA, Philippines - A Filipino-led scientific team based in Maryland has discovered a vaccine that prevents the spread of malaria. <br><br>Rhoel R. Dinglasan, a fellow at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute (MRI) in Baltimore, has helped a team of scientists isolate an antigen (a substance that stimulates the immune system to produce antibodies) that prevents a mosquito from transmitting the malaria-causing Plasmodium parasite. <br>
<br>The substance also "treats" the mosquito in the process. <br><br>Dinglasan's research team had prevented mosquitoes from producing sugars in their stomach lining, which Plasmodium parasites need to multiply. <br>
<br>By stopping the production of sugar in a mosquito's belly, the parasites cannot multiply. <br><br>This prevents the mosquito from transferring the malaria-causing parasite to human blood through insect bites. <br>
<br>The team's discovery was published in a paper titled "Disruption of Plasmodium falciparum development by antibodies against a conserved mosquito midgut antigen." <br><br><strong><em>Hope for malaria cure</em></strong><br>
"The antibodies that we have produced are effective against multiple malaria parasites and therefore, this antigen may constitute the basis for a future 'universal' malaria transmission-blocking vaccine," Dinglasan told TIME Magazine in an article published on January 15, 2010. <br>
<br>The resulting vaccine, called AnAPN1, will be introduced into a human's body. A mosquito that bites that human will pick up antibodies that prevent it from spreading malaria. <br><br>The vaccine reportedly works against major types of malaria and a variety of mosquito species. <br>
<br>Dinglasan, 37, who headed the ground-breaking research, was a former president of La Salle Green Hills high school. <br><br>The research was a joint effort of the MRI Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, the Institute of Genetic Medicine of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and the U.S. National Institutes of Health National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. <br>
<br>Their research was published in 2007.<br><br><strong>------------------------------------------------------------</strong><br><strong>3-FARM OUTPUT MISSES ’09 TARGET </strong><br>by Riza T. Olchondra<br>20-January-2010 </font><a href="http://business.inquirer.net/money/topstories/view/20100120-248460/Farm-output-misses-09-target" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#0000ff" size="2">Philippine Daily Inquirer</font></a><br>
<br><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">MANILA, Philippines--The farm and fisheries sector missed its revised growth target of 0.5-1.5 percent for 2009.<br><br>The Department of Agriculture’s original growth target for 2009 was about 3.5 percent, or a bit lower than the 2008 growth of 3.8 percent.<br>
<br>Data from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS), however, showed that the agriculture sector grew by only 0.37 percent, as full-year figures were pulled down by the typhoon-riddled October-December period.<br><br>
“The gains of the first three quarters were cut by huge production losses during the fourth quarter of 2009,” Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap said.<br><br>In the fourth quarter alone, farm output shrank by 2.43 percent from year-ago level.<br>
<br>The crops sector bore the brunt of typhoons and floods.<br><br>Palay or unmilled rice production, which makes up a fifth of the total farm output, dropped in the last three months of the year by 13 percent to 5.36 million tons from 6.22 million tons in the same months in 2008.<br>
<br>The fisheries subsector was the agriculture sector’s top gainer in 2009, with a 2.45-percent production growth in the same period. Poultry production grew by 1.82 percent, followed by crops (1.42 percent) and livestock (1.24 percent) from year-ago level.<br>
<br>For the whole year, Palay production declined by 3.31 percent to 16.26 million tons from year-ago level, while corn output rose by 1.53 percent.<br><br>Coconut production grew by 2.2 percent but sugarcane output declined by 10.77 percent.<br>
<br>The agriculture department blamed Tropical Storm "Ondoy" and Typhoon "Pepeng" for the decline in farm output.<br><br>Concerned with food security, the DA said it would give priority to agriculture and fisheries biotechnology and post-harvest technology in an effort to increase productivity and incomes.<br>
<br>The government revised its growth targets for 2009 twice as extreme weather conditions pulled down harvests. The original farm output growth target for 2009 was 3.5 percent. It was scaled down to about 2.5 percent in the middle of 2009 and was later adjusted to 0.5 to 1.5 percent in the aftermath of “Ondoy” and “Pepeng.”<br>
<br>Sometime in December, the DA said the sector would likely meet the lower end of its adjusted growth target range.<br><br>The government had already made large rice tenders in a tight global market late last year to head off possible shortages of rice. With a report from AFP<br>
<br><strong>------------------------------------------------------------</strong><br><strong>4-AGRI OFFICIAL ENDORSES PROTOCOL FOR MORINGA MASS PROPAGATION </strong><br>11-January-2010 </font><a href="http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=539414&publicationSubCategoryId=77" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#0000ff" size="2">The Philippine STAR</font></a><br>
<br><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Agriculture (DA) is pinning its hope on a farmer-scientist’s malunggay seedlings propagation tech-nique to address the increasing demand for malunggay planting materials in the country, an agriculture official said.<br>
<br>Alicia Ilaga, outgoing director of the DA Biotechnology Program Office, is endorsing farmer-scientist Terso Rasco’s technique to farmers engaged in the massive propa-gation of seedlings of malunggay, scien-tifically known as Moringa oleifera.<br>
<br>Rasco developed a rooting method using bioculture technique to propagate malung-gay seedlings, improving the conventional stem cutting technique used by most farmers in propagating malunggay. <br><br>Using his technique, farmers could easily double, if not triple, and at a much shorter time the production of planting materials which is usually done also by harvesting the mature malunggay fruits and separating the seeds from the pods from a mature malunggay tree, Ilaga said.<br>
<br>Malunggay used to be a mere backyard tree, although Filipinos are already fond of eating malunggay leaves, and its fruit pods, as ingredients to some favorite Filipino dishes, like ‘tinolang manok’, ginisang munggo, and ginataang isda. The pods are cooked together with fish in the Ilocos Region.<br>
<br>Since the DA-BPO embarked on a mas-sive information, education and commu-nication about the nutritional value of malunggay, its economic importance was also highlighted. <br><br>The moringa seeds are now being eyed for the production of all-purpose oil, while the leaves are not only sold in the market, but are processed as well. <br>
<br>A number of farmers have since started planting malunggay, but the big demand for both the seeds and leaves of malunggay, requires more planting materials. The production of planting materials has become a stumbling block, as there are not enough nurseries to produce the number of seedlings needed to meet the demand, even of a single local investor who has challenged the DA to produce the seeds, as well as leaves, to meet the big market demand abroad.<br>
<br>Another way of producing planting materials is by chopping down a malunggay tree, chopping its trunk or branches, about a feet or 12 inches long. When planted, grows roots and produce new branches. This process, however, results in high mortality of the planting materials. <br>
<br>Harvesting the seeds from the malunggay fruit takes some time, while stem cuttings easily die when planted.<br><br>Rasco observed that malunggay has the ability to regrow a branch, or even roots, when cut or chopped down.<br>
<br>“By simply chopping a branch of malunggay and planting it like a malunggay seed, a new malunggay seedling can be grown,” Rasco said. “You just have to prepare a good seed bed for the chopped malunggay branch to grow new seedlings,” he said.<br>
<br>“This is what we need to produce enough number of planting materials for the commercial cultivation of this miracle tree,” Ilaga said.<br><br><strong>------------------------------------------------------------</strong><br>
</font><font size="2"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><strong>INDIA<br>5-Bt BRINJAL SAFE FOR HUMANS, SAYS SCIENCE MINISTRY<br></strong>By P. Sunderarajan<br>19-January-2010 </font></font><a href="http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article82528.ece" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#0000ff" size="2">The Hindu</font></a><br>
<br><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">Even as the debate over the release of Bt Brinjal for commercial cultivation continues unabated, Union Science and Technology Minister, Prithviraj Chavan on Tuesday asserted that the genetically modified variety of the popular vegetable was ``safe’’. <br>
<br>" We stand by the results of the trials done by the regulatory bodies. It is safe for all", he said, replying to a volley of questions over the controversy at an interaction with journalists here. <br><br>He pointed out that the country’s premier regulatory body for genetically modified products, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, had cleared Bt Brinjal for regular cultivation in October last year. <br>
<br>Mr. Chavan’s assertion comes even as the Union Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh has launched a nation-wide consultation with different stakeholders following opposition to the GEAC’s decision from some NGOs. <br><br>
Bt Brinjal has been developed by inserting into brinjal seeds, genes from a soil bacterium called bacillus thuringiensis, which had the ability to protect plants from a variety of pests. The new variety has been developed by Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds. <br>
<br>Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, M.K.Bhan, who was also present at the interaction, noted that eminent scientists had examined the science behind Bt Brinjal and had concluded that it was absolutely safe for human consumption and the environment. <br>
<br>Adding his voice in support of Bt Brinjal, Director General of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Samir Brahmachari said farmers would save a lot of money by cultivating it, instead of the normal variety of the vegetable. <br>
<br>The interaction was part of the annual conference of social sector editors of newspapers from different parts of the country organised by the Central Government’s Press Information Bureau. <br><br><strong>------------------------------------------------------------</strong><br>
</font><font size="2"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><strong>BANGLADESH<br>6-GM EGGPLANTS, POTATOES ON TRIAL <br></strong>by Sohel Parvez<br>14-January-2010 </font></font><a href="http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=121754" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#0000ff" size="2">The Daily Star</font></a><br>
<br><font size="2"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><em><strong>Scientists foresee new chapter in farm sector</strong></em><br><br>Bangladesh's farm sector is likely to enter an era of biotechnology, as agricultural scientists are advancing in research to develop genetically modified (GM) varieties of eggplants and potatoes.<br>
<br>Scientists said the move to introduce transgenic eggplant and potato crops is aimed at relieving farmers of insecticides and fungicides, boosting production and enabling consumers to get pesticide-free vegetables.<br>
<br>Eggplants, known as Bt eggplants, are now on trial in seven confined fields at various agriculture research stations. Bt eggplants are in its second year of trial in natural conditions. <br><br>Potatoes, termed Rb potatoes, are also on trial in two confined fields, said Dr Md Al-Amin, head of biotechnology at Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (Bari).<br>
<br>Prior to putting the crops on trial in confined fields, scientists kept the eggplants and potatoes in greenhouses after transforming the insect-resistant gene-Bacillus Thuringiensis in nine preferred varieties of eggplants and the Rb gene in two varieties of potatoes.<br>
<br>The scientist said the Bt eggplant crops yielded good results in previous field trials, expecting that the insect-resistant Bt eggplant could be given to farmers in the next three years, subject to government approval.<br>
<br>“We got good results in the confined field trials last year and found 85-95 percent infestation-free eggplants,” said Al-Amin.<br><br>If Bt eggplant proves safe for human consumption and harmless to the environment, it will be the first GM crop variety in Bangladesh, which now looks to ensure food security for a growing population by practicing modern agriculture technology, said stakeholders.<br>
<br>Environmental activists however opposed the move, arguing that genetically modified brinjals and potatoes will not be safe for human consumption and the environment. <br><br>“The way it will be modified leaves a toxic effect in brinjal, which aims at protecting crops from pest attacks. When an insect cannot eat crops, how will it be safe for human consumption,” said Farida Akhter of Nayakrishi Andolon, a platform of farmers who practise ecological agriculture.<br>
<br>“Above all, farmers will lose their right to preserve seeds,” she said, fearing that GM crops may lead to a mono crop culture by damaging the present multi-crop system.<br><br>“If crops fail, the farmers will suffer the most,” said Farida, suggesting that policymakers look back at the cases where farmers in India committed suicide after the crops failed. <br>
<br>Scientists however differed with Farida regarding toxicity in the human body.<br><br>“By the method we have modified, there is no possibility of toxicity in humans," said Al-Amin. <br><br>“It requires a receptor to create a toxic effect on humans. But the human body does not have that receptor. Our findings show that it does not create any health hazard.”<br>
<br>The move to introduce transgenic eggplants and potatoes, with the strength to resist 'fruit and shoot borer' (FSB) in eggplants and 'late blight' in potatoes, has come as farmers suffer from crop losses because of these two destructive diseases.<br>
<br>To avoid such losses, farmers use huge quantities of insecticides in one of the mostly consumed vegetable -- eggplants. It not only creates a risk to consumer health but also forces farmers to spend up to Tk 60,000 a hectare.<br>
<br>Farmers count Tk 26,000 a hectare in fungicides to save potatoes from late blight disease attacks, scientists said.<br><br>The initiative to develop GM eggplants and potatoes was taken based on technical collaboration with Cornell University under the Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project II, funded by the United States Agency for International Development.<br>
<br>Al-Amin said introduction of these two transgenic vegetables will boost production by preventing crop loss due to diseases. These crops will also relieve farmers of spending thousands of taka on insecticides and fungicides to avoid crop loss.<br>
<br>It will also enable consumers to get pesticide-free potatoes and eggplants, he said.<br><br>“Our main goal is to raise production by preventing losses from diseases in eggplants and potatoes. We also aim to minimise health hazards to consumers due to pesticides,” said the scientist.<br>
<br>“We are getting good results in eggplant. We have also found potatoes moderately disease-resistant in trials last year,” he said.<br><br>He expects that Bt eggplants could first be placed with the National Technical Committee on Bio-safety for approval next year. <br>
<br>“If we can prove that these transgenic crops are safe for human consumption and get environment clearance, we will be able to reach out seeds to farmers in the next three years,” he said, referring to eggplants.<br><br>
<em><a href="mailto:sohel@thedailystar.net" target="_blank"><font color="#0000ff">sohel@thedailystar.net</font></a></em><br><br><strong>------------------------------------------------------------</strong><br></font></font><font size="2"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><strong>GLOBAL<br>
7-CAN GM CROPS FEED THE HUNGRY?</strong><br>by Carol Campbell<br>20-January-2010 </font></font><a href="http://www.scidev.net/en/health/the-challenge-of-improving-nutrition/features/can-gm-crops-feed-the-hungry-.html" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#0000ff" size="2">SciDev.Net</font></a><br>
<br><font size="2"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><em>GM crops were supposed to rescue the world's one billion undernourished people. Carol Campbell discusses whether they will ever curb hunger.</em><br><br>[OUDTSHOORN] Golden Rice burst into the public imagination a decade ago, in the form of a cover article in Time magazine that claimed the genetically modified (GM) rice could "save a million kids a year". <br>
<br>The rice gets its golden hue from an excess of beta carotene, a precursor to vitamin A that could help half a million children who go blind each year from an often-fatal vitamin A deficiency.<br><br>But ten years later, Golden Rice is yet to cure blindness — and some believe it never will. <br>
<br><strong><em>The public versus GM</em></strong><br>Co-inventor Ingo Potrykus points to resistance to GM technology from pressure groups such as Greenpeace that has resulted in public and governmental resistance — including fears that rogue GM genes may contaminate wild varieties or that GM technology services corporate greed and will never help the poor.<br>
<br>This has led to "excessive" regulations that have choked efforts to roll out GM crops that might feed the poor, he says.<br><br>And there are other concerns — the cost; the slowness of the research; even the idea that a "magic bullet" approach to nutrition can provide the answer to what is, some argue, a social, cultural and economic problem.<br>
<br>Does this mean that all GM foods are fated never to solve the undernutrition of the poor? If public resistance dwindles, will the crops live up to their promise to help feed the world's undernourished (estimated by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to number one billion in 2009)? <br>
<br>Rowan Sage, one of the scientists working on the creation of 'C4 rice' — another engineered rice that could one day produce a radically improved yield — says it is crucial to get public approval if GM is to tackle malnutrition. The social obstacles are huge, he says, and acceptance is "critical" for C4 rice's success.<br>
<br>"We have got to get buy-in because they [the hungry poor] could easily just say they don't want it," says Sage, an ecological and evolutionary biologist at the University of Toronto, Canada, working with the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) on the project.<br>
<br>Guillaume Gruere, a research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) believes that most of the reasons behind the fact that there are no publicly-developed GM food crops available for the poor can be traced back to resistance.<br>
<br>Many of the obstacles in developing countries have "in large part resulted from influences from countries and organisations opposed to the use of GM food", Gruere says.<br><br>Some GM proponents are pessimistic that these issues will be resolved anytime soon. For example, HarvestPlus, a global programme aimed at creating more nutritious staple crops, is avoiding GM technology almost entirely and using conventional breeding instead. <br>
<br>But many people believe resistance will eventually wane. <br><br>Robert Ziegler, director-general of IRRI, says it's unlikely that those opposing GM will be able to hold back the technology forever. <br><br>"In general the issue in many developing countries is that they don't have a regulatory framework to handle them [GM crops]," Ziegler told a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago last year (2009).<br>
<br>"There are pretty strong, mostly Europe-based, lobbies who oppose their use in Sub-Saharan Africa. I think that as crops that have direct benefit to consumers come on board they will eventually be accepted." <br>
<br>Even Golden Rice is making some progress, he said. It is being field tested in the Philippines and the first batches may be commercially available by 2011–12.<br><br><strong><em>A balanced diet</em></strong><br>But even if opposition evaporates, there are other reasons why GM crops may fail to solve the problem of malnutrition — will tackling one particular nutritional deficiency ever bring broad success in a war that concerns so many nutrients?<br>
<br>For Doug Gurian-Sherman, a senior scientist in the Food & Environment Program at the US-based Union of Concerned Scientists, introducing genetically-engineered crops into a developing world environment is a piecemeal approach.<br>
<br>"Nutritional deficiency in an impoverished community would be better addressed by encouraging and helping people eat a balanced diet that includes green leafy vegetables and protein rather than trying to pack everything into cassava or rice," he says. <br>
<br>People with one deficiency often also have other nutrient deficiencies that will not be addressed by this kind of single-nutrient approach, he argues.<br><br>"I am not opposed to Golden Rice, if it works and is shown to be safe. But is it really a good use of development resources?"<br>
<br>Using GM to tackling a range of deficiencies in one go is the goal of the BioCassava Plus project, which aims to pack almost a full meal into cassava, a staple for 250 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa.<br><br><strong><em>Turning cassava into a square meal</em></strong><br>
The GM cassava is engineered to be more nutritious on several counts and to have a longer shelf life, disease resistance and lower cyanide levels. Early versions of the plant, with one or two characteristics introduced, are undergoing field trials in Nigeria and Puerto Rico, and is set to be tested in Kenya. <br>
<br>The initiative is under the supervision of Richard Sayre from the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in the United States.<br><br>Sayre rejects Gurian-Sherman's argument: "We know our cassava can help people," he says. "Initial estimates are that, in the first round of production, 35,000 lives will be saved in Nigeria. The long term impact is millions of lives saved."<br>
<br>Such claims are beguiling, but what about the cost when there's a limited international pot from which to fund nutrition?<br><br>Gurian-Sherman argues that the costs are so high that efforts should go elsewhere. A new biotechnology crop, he says, could cost up to US$100 million to produce (excluding regulatory costs) while the same crop improved through traditional methods would cost US$1 million. <br>
<br>In the case of C4 rice, the development costs are vast, says Sage.<br><br>"It is extremely expensive work," he told the AAAS meeting. "In order to create a sustained programme it needs US$10 million a year."<br>
<br>But, he argued, "it's cheap compared with the benefits". C4 rice could, he says, increase yield by 50 per cent — and the benefits of that are in the trillions of dollars.<br><br>The C4 project must therefore be viewed in the long term to understand its benefits. It will take two to three decades to come to fruition but could help solve the food challenges of 2050, he said.<br>
<br>So perhaps by 2050, with biosafety frameworks in place, resistance to GM subdued by the growing trouble of world hunger, and comprehensive GM solutions that solve a host of deficiencies in a single plant, GM might solve the problem of malnutrition? <br>
<br><strong><em>Is GM a crude solution?</em></strong><br>But there is still one major objection — that the problem of poor nutrition is so complex that it is crude to think it can be solved by GM.<br><br>The poor don't get enough food for a number of reasons: infrastructure, such as poor roads along which to take their goods to market; lack of fertiliser; lack of training in farming methods. <br>
<br>The rise of monocultures has reduced the variety of their diets. Land is distributed inefficiently or unfairly with the poor pushed onto unproductive land — and this requires legal reform followed by implementation. Popping a gene into a tomato is not going to solve these problems, it is argued.<br>
<br>Andrea Roberto Sonnino, a senior agricultural research officer at the Research and Extension Unit of the FAO in Italy, says: "GM can contribute to improved nutrition but we have to consider that nutrition is a result of many social, cultural, economic and political factors".<br>
<br>To improve the nutrition of the poor, action cannot be limited to the improvement of the nutritional quality of a particular crop, he says.<br><br>Bonnie McClafferty, head of development and communications at HarvestPlus agrees.<br>
<br>"The enormity and complexity of the problem means we need [many] solutions to be made available, including diversifying diets, commercially fortifying foods, administering nutrition supplements, and breeding crops to be rich in vitamins and minerals," she says. <br>
<br>"While the amounts of desired nutrient in food crops can be enhanced through conventional breeding, where these nutrients are not found in parent breeding lines, or cannot be increased in the amount needed to improve nutrition, GM foods can be seen as part of the solution." <br>
<br>"GM technology may well be able to go beyond where conventional plant breeding can take us."<br><br>Perhaps, as with the approach to climate change, the solution lies in a web of interventions of which GM may be one. <br>
<br>And, like climate change, it may be foolhardy to ignore any of them.<br><br><em>Carol Campbell is a freelance science journalist based in Oudtshoorn, South Africa</em><br></font></font><br><a class="footer"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#666666" size="1">--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
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