Agricultural biotechnology: risks and opportunities for developing country food security

This paper provides a substantial input into the debate on the role of modern agricultural biotechnology in developing countries. The potential contributions of biotechnology to poverty alleviation and enhanced food security and nutrition in developing countries has received little attention beyond blanket statements of support or opposition.

The paper particularly highlights:

• adaptive research on agricultural biotechnology can contribute to food security in developing countries, provided that it focuses on the needs of poor farmers and consumers in those countries, identified in consultation with poor people themselves
• public sector research, particularly through international agricultural research centres and national agricultural research systems, is essential for assuring that molecular biology-based science serves the needs of poor people
• public international agricultural research centres are devoting less than 10% of their research budgets to biotechnology. The possibilities for cooperation between the public and private sectors, such as publicly funded private sector research, have barely been tapped
• It is urgent that global biosafety standards and local regulatory capacity within developing countries be strengthened within developing countries
• agricultural biotechnology must be viewed as one element in a comprehensive sustainable poverty alleviation strategy focused on broad-based agricultural growth, not a technological quick fix for world hunger
• the biggest risk of modern biotechnology for developing countries is that technological development will bypass poor people
• if agricultural biotechnology research is prohibited in the developed countries, opportunities for reducing poverty, food insecurity, child malnutrition, and natural resource degradation will be missed, and the productivity gap between developing and developed country agriculture will widen.

[adapted from author]