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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 [email protected] indicating which e-mail addresses are to be subscribed and in which language they wish to receive the newsletter.
16/06/2009
FAO has just published a report entitled The status of agricultural biotechnology and biosafety in Belarus. The 33-page report gives a brief overview of the national situation regarding agriculture, including policy and research, and biotechnology, in particular GMOs, concerning issues such as policy, research and regulatory frameworks. See http://www.fao.org/tempref/docrep/fao/011/ak226e/ak226e00.pdf or contact [email protected] for more information.
15/06/2009
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 three regional electronic discussions: for Latin America and the Caribbean, South-Eastern and Southern Asia and for Western Asia and Northern Africa. Final reports from the first two regional consultations are now available. See the documents or contact [email protected] for more details. The GIPB is a global platform facilitated by FAO.
10/03/2009
FAOs Research and Extension Division has just published Socio-economic impacts of non-transgenic biotechnologies in developing countries: The case of plant micropropagation in Africa. The 75-page publication comprises three papers. The first, by A. Sonnino and co-authors, discusses some approaches used in impact assessment of innovations and presents a general overview of the literature about the impacts of non-transgenic biotechnologies. The second, by Z. Dhlamini and co-authors, surveys the extent of micropropagation application in Gabon, Mali, Nigeria, Uganda and Zimbabwe. The third, by P. Warren and co-authors, reports the findings of two field studies, on micropropagation of banana in Uganda and of sweetpotato in Zimbabwe, aimed at better understanding the process of adoption of micropropagated planting materials and its impacts on livelihoods. See http://www.fao.org/docrep/011/i0340e/i0340e00.htm or contact [email protected] to request a copy, providing your full postal address.
08/03/2009
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 also available in Chinese and French, with Arabic in the pipeline. A 37-page summary version is now also available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Polish, Russian and Spanish, with other languages, such as Korean, Portuguese and Thai, to follow. 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 or contact [email protected] for more information.
07/03/2009
As part of its Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper series, FAO`s Fisheries and Aquaculture Department has just published Understanding and applying risk analysis in aquaculture, edited by M.G. Bondad-Reantaso, J.R. Arthur and R.P. Subasinghe. The 304-page publication is organised in two parts. Part 1 contains 12 peer-reviewed technical papers presented during an expert workshop with the same title, held on 7-11 June 2007 in Rayong, Thailand, organised by FAO and the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia and the Pacific (NACA). One of the 12 papers, entitled Application of risk analysis to genetic issues in aquaculture, by E. Hallerman, covers genetically modified organisms. Part 2 contains the proceedings of the workshop. See http://www.fao.org/tempref/docrep/fao/011/i0490e/i0490e.pdf (4.3 MB) or contact [email protected] for more information.
06/03/2009
The Research Group of the Standing Technical Committee of the European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (EUFMD) met in Closed and Open Sessions on 14-17 October 2008 in Erice, Italy. The meeting report as well as papers and posters from the Open Session, covering issues such as novel vaccine delivery approaches and development of new diagnostic test systems, are now available on the web. Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious viral disease of cloven-hoofed animals and the EUFMD is a regional body, established under the auspices of FAO in 1954, specialised in supporting member countries (currently 35) in the European region to prevent FMD. See the meeting website or contact [email protected] for more information.
05/03/2009
The 39th Session of the FAO Desert Locust Control Committee (DLCC) takes place on 10-13 March 2009 at FAO Headquarters, Rome. The provisional agenda contains four items on environmental management, two of which deal with use of bio-pesticides (based on the insect pathogenic fungus Metarhizium). Papers related to these items are now available on the web. The DLCC was established in 1955, meets every 2-3 years and is the primary forum that brings together locust-affected countries, donors and other agencies to advise FAO on Desert Locust management. See the meeting website or contact [email protected] for more information.
04/03/2009
As part of its FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Circular series, FAO has just published "A review on culture, production and use of spirulina as food for humans and feeds for domestic animals" by M.A.B. Habib, M. Parvin, T.C. Huntington and M.R. Hasan. Spirulina are multicellular, filamentous blue-green microalgae that are popular in the health food industry and increasingly as a protein and vitamin supplement to aquaculture diets. The main objective of this 33-page document is to assess and evaluate existing knowledge on the culture, production and use of spirulina for both human consumption and animal feeds. Gene manipulation of spirulina is discussed in Section 5. See http://www.fao.org/tempref/docrep/fao/011/i0424e/i0424e00.pdf or contact [email protected] for more information.
03/03/2009
The 37th Session of the Codex Committee on Food Labelling takes place on 4-8 May 2009 in Calgary, Canada. Item nr. 6 on the provisional agenda is "Labelling of foods and food ingredients obtained through certain techniques of genetic modification/genetic engineering". See the meeting agenda at http://www.codexalimentarius.net/web/current.jsp (in English, French and Spanish) or contact [email protected] for further information.
01/03/2009
As part of its IFPRI Discussion Papers series, the International Food Policy Research Institute has just published "Biosafety decisions and perceived commercial risks: The role of GM-free private standards by G. Gruere and D. Sengupta. The paper studies the interactions between importing food companies and their GM-free private standards and biotechnology decision making in developing countries. See http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/dp/IFPRIDP00847.pdf or contact [email protected] for more information. IFPRI Discussion Papers contain preliminary material and research results and are circulated in order to stimulate discussion and critical comment.
04/02/2009
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 the results, the GIPB is holding three electronic discussions (for Latin America and the Caribbean; South-Eastern and Southern Asia; and Western Asia and Northern Africa). For each one, a background note has been prepared summarizing the key findings from countries in the region. The main objective of these regional consultations is to discuss and recommend appropriate strategies to strengthen capacity to use plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. See http://km.fao.org/gipb/ or contact [email protected] for more details. The GIPB is a global platform facilitated by FAO.
03/02/2009
The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity has just published the 5th issue of Biosafety Protocol News. The 15-page issue presents a series of articles describing experiences and lessons learned from eight recent biosafety capacity-building initiatives, one of which is dedicated to "Best practices and lessons learned from the FAO regional project on capacity-building in the biosafety of GM crops in Asia", by A. Sonnino. See http://www.cbd.int/doc/newsletters/bpn/bpn-03-05-en.pdf or contact [email protected] for more information.
01/02/2009
A new research funding opportunity has recently been announced, aiming to create a network of research laboratories involved in the study of plant and animal pathogens that affect agricultural productivity in developing regions. It is jointly financed by the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) and the International Basic Sciences Programme of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO/IBSP). The deadline for submitting expressions of interest is 31 March 2009. See http://www.icgeb.org/icgeb-twas-unescoibsp-joint-project.html or contact [email protected] for more information.
07/01/2009
As part of its Land and Water Discussion Papers series, FAO has just published "Coping with water scarcity: What role for biotechnologies?" by J. Ruane, A. Sonnino, P. Steduto and C. Deane. The publication brings together the background paper and the summary report from a moderated e-mail conference that was organised by FAO as one of its initiatives to mark World Water Day 2007, whose theme was "Coping with water scarcity". The conference`s main focus was on the use of biotechnologies to increase the efficiency of water use in agriculture, while a secondary focus was on two specific water-related applications of micro-organisms, in wastewater treatment and in inoculation of crops and forest trees with mycorrhizal fungi. See http://www.fao.org/docrep/011/i0487e/i0487e00.htm or contact [email protected] to request a copy, providing your full postal address.
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