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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.
04/02/2007
The first Africa Rice Congress was held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from 31 July to 4 August 2006. Organised by the Africa Rice Center (WARDA), papers at the congress considered the issues of integrated pest management; socio-economics; natural resource management; technology transfer; and rice breeding and crop improvement (covering e.g. genomics and use of genetic markers). Presentations from the congress are now available on the web. See the presentations or contact [email protected] for more information.
03/02/2007
Official and information documents are now available on the web for a number of upcoming meetings to be held under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. The 3rd meeting of the ad hoc Open-ended Working Group on Liability and Redress in the Context of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety takes place on 19-23 February 2007 in Montreal, Canada - http://www.biodiv.org/doc/meeting.asp?mtg=BSWGLR-03. The 3rd Coordination Meeting for Governments and Organizations implementing and/or funding Biosafety Capacity-building Activities takes place on 26-28 February 2007 in Lusaka, Zambia - http://www.biodiv.org/doc/meeting.asp?mtg=BSCMCB-03. The 4th meeting of the Liaison Group on Capacity-Building for Biosafety takes place on 1-2 March 2007 in Lusaka, Zambia - http://www.biodiv.org/doc/meeting.asp?mtg=BSLGCB-04. The 3rd meeting of the Compliance Committee under the Protocol on Biosafety takes place on 5-7 March 2007 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - http://www.biodiv.org/doc/meeting.aspx?mtg=BSCC-03. Some of the documents from these meetings are available in English only and others are provided in all UN languages (i.e. Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish). Contact [email protected] for any further information.
02/02/2007
Jointly published by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the book entitled "Your right to a healthy environment: A simplified guide to the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters" is now available on the web in English, French and Russian. The 18-page guide aims to present the rights and obligations under the Aarhus Convention in plain, easy-to-understand language. At their 2nd meeting in Kazakhstan in 2005, Parties to the Convention adopted an amendment to the Convention aiming to strengthen the rights of the public to participate in decision-making on genetically modified organisms. See http://www.unep.org/dec/information/public_information.html#pp or contact [email protected] for more information.
01/02/2007
On 11 December 2006, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development held a workshop in Paris, France, on "Measuring the impacts of biotechnology" that was divided into four sessions: general issues of the impacts of biotechnology applications; the economic and non-economic impacts; user needs; and methodological issues and next steps. A preliminary workshop summary plus papers and presentations from the workshop, including one from FAO on the socio-economic impact of non-transgenic crop biotechnologies in developing countries, are now available on the web. See the summary or contact [email protected] for more information.
10/12/2006
The web-based searchable version of the FAO Glossary of Biotechnology for Food and Agriculture has now been extended to include Arabic. For each of the over 3,000 Arabic terms used in agricultural biotechnology that are covered in the database, the definition and English translation as well as links to related terms are provided. Addition of the Arabic glossary represents a further development of this multi-lingual biotechnology database which previously covered English, French and Spanish only. See http://www.fao.org/biotech/index_glossary.asp?lang=ar or contact [email protected] for more information.
09/12/2006
FAO has just launched a Research and Extension Portal, to act as a gateway to sound information on research, technology (including biotechnology), extension and their linkages for decision-makers, research institutes, extension services, regulatory bodies and the general public. The Portal offers free access to publications and databases covering topics related to policies, capacity building, human development and methodologies. It also integrates material from different databases on technology; funding for research and extension; and on contacts in research institutions worldwide. See http://www.fao.org/sd/sdrr/portal/ (in English, French and Spanish) or contact [email protected] with comments or to provide new content.
08/12/2006
As part of the global survey that FAO is carrying out to assess national plant breeding and associated biotechnology capacity, draft reports are now available on the web for an additional 12 countries: Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Lebanon, Moldova, Nicaragua, Niger, Oman, Slovakia, Thailand and Turkey, bringing the total up to 37 countries. See the "What`s new" section of http://apps3.fao.org/wiews/wiews.jsp or contact [email protected] for more information.
07/12/2006
On 18-20 October 2006, a workshop entitled "Los derechos de propiedad intelectual en el ámbito de los recursos fitogenéticos", on intellectual property rights (IPRs) in relation to plant genetic resources was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Presentations from the workshop, which also considered the role of IPRs in transfer of technologies, including biotechnologies, are now available on the web. The workshop was organised by FODEPAL, in collaboration with REDBIO, both of which are projects based at the FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean in Santiago, Chile. See http://www.fodepal.org/Seminarios/seminarioDPI/index.html (in Spanish) or contact [email protected] for more information.
06/12/2006
The 4th Session of the Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITWG-AnGR) takes place on 13-15 December 2006 at FAO Headquarters, Rome, Italy. During the meeting the ITWG-AnGR will, inter alia, review the first draft of "The State of the World`s Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture", which incorporates reports from 169 countries and international organizations, and represents the most comprehensive assessment of global farm animal genetic diversity attempted so far. The 449-page draft also covers issues such as applications of molecular markers and reproductive technologies. See the meeting documents at http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/programmes/en/genetics/angrvent-docs.html or contact [email protected] for more information. The ITWG-AnGR was established by the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture in 1997 to address issues relevant to the conservation and sustainable use of animal genetic resources for food and agriculture and is composed of a total of 27 Member Nations from the different world regions.
05/12/2006
As part of its FAO Fisheries Technical Papers series, the FAO Fisheries Department published in 2004 "Hatchery culture of bivalves: A practical manual" by M.M. Helm, N. Bourne and A. Lovatelli. It is a synthesis of the current methodologies applicable to the intensive hatchery culture of bivalve molluscs covering similarities and differences in approach in rearing clams, oysters and scallops in different climatic regions. Among other things, the manual covers culture of microalgae (as food for bivalves) as well as applications of molecular genetics and polyploidy. The manual is now also available in Chinese, French and Spanish. See http://www.globefish.org/index.php?id=3254 or contact [email protected] for more information.
04/12/2006
The 28th Session of the Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling takes place on 5-9 March 2007 in Budapest, Hungary. Item 6 on the provisional agenda is "Criteria for the methods for the detection and identification of foods derived from biotechnology". See the meeting agenda at http://www.codexalimentarius.net/web/current.jsp (in English, French and Spanish) or contact [email protected] for further information.
03/12/2006
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Yale University and leading science and technology publishers launched the Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE) initiative on 30 October 2006. For 70 low-income countries, free access is provided to over 1,200 environment related scientific journals, some of which cover applications of biotechnology in food and agriculture. Eligible institutions whose staff and students may have access to the journals are: universities and colleges, professional training schools, research institutes, Ministries of Environment and Natural Resources, government offices and agencies, academies of sciences, science libraries and indigenous non-governmental organisations. The initiative is built and managed in close partnership with the Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI) and Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA), two similar initiatives launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) and FAO for the medical and agricultural sciences respectively. See http://www.oaresciences.org/en/ (in English, French and Spanish) or contact [email protected] for more information.
02/12/2006
Issue number 17 (December 2006) of the OECD Biotechnology Update is now available. Presented by OECD`s Internal Co-ordination Group on Biotechnology, the 25-page newsletter provides updated information on the diverse activities at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development related to biotechnology. It contains items on news, recent and future events, recent and future publications (many are available free of charge) and provides web and e-mail contacts for the different areas of activity. See http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/37/35/37785967.doc (353 KB) or contact [email protected] for more information.
01/12/2006
As part of its EPT (Environment and Production Technology Division) Discussion Papers series, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has recently published "Parables: Applied economics literature about the impact of genetically engineered crop varieties in developing economies" by M. Smale and co-authors. The 83-page paper reviews the applied economics literature about the impact of transgenic crop varieties in non-industrialised agricultural systems, with an emphasis on methods rather than findings. See http://www.ifpri.org/divs/eptd/dp/papers/eptdp158.pdf (433 KB) or contact [email protected] for more information.
19/10/2006
As part of an overall strategy of enhancing interdisciplinarity within FAO, a number of priority areas for interdisciplinary action (PAIAs) were identified a few years ago. One of these was biotechnology and a major role of the Biotechnology PAIA has been to provide factual, comprehensive and updated information about agricultural biotechnology. This is done through, for example, the FAO Biotechnology website, the newsletter FAO-BiotechNews, and a series of e-mail conferences hosted by the FAO Biotechnology Forum. An evaluation of the Biotechnology PAIA took place at the end of 2005 where stakeholders were invited to fill out a questionnaire soliciting their views on the Biotechnology PAIA activities. In response, a total of 174 questionnaires were received, from over 60 different countries with over half of the questionnaires coming from people living in developing countries. A 7-page summary of the survey results is now available on the web. See http://www.fao.org/biotech/docs/surveyfaopaia.pdf or contact [email protected] to request a copy by e-mail.
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