Plant biotechnology and food security in Latin America and the Caribbean

Juan Izquierdo *
FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean
REDBIO/FAO-Technical Co-operation Network on Plant Biotechnology for Latin America and the Caribbean
P.O. Box 10095, Santiago, Chile
E-Mail: juan.izquierdo@fao.org

Gustavo A. de la Riva
Centre of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Havana, Cuba

*Corresponding author
Paper based on the keynote presented by the main author to the III Latin American Meeting on Plant Biotechnology
(REDBIO´98), 1-5 June 1998, Havana, Cuba

Keywords: Andean crops, Food security, Institutional development, Plant biotechnology, Plant genetic engineering, REDBIO network, Sustainable crop production.

The Latin America and the Caribbean Region´food sector is characterised, among other factors, by the growing dependence on food imports: in first term the cereals; poverty affecting wide sectors especially the rural population; and the decelerated growth of the agricultural production. As suggested by the Nobel Peace Laureate, Norman Bourlag, biotechnology and genetic plant engineering, complemented with conventional plant breeding, are needed to boost crop yields to feed the world. Fifteen years ago, plant biotechnology comprised only a few applications of tissue culture, recombinant DNA technology and monoclonal antibodies. Plant biotechnology applications must respond to increasing demands in terms of food security, socio-economic development as well as for conservation and diversify but sustainable use of plant genetic resources as basic inputs for the future agriculture of the Region. The scientific results obtained in the last two decades substantiate biotechnology as an option to increase food production.

Food security is defined by FAO as access by all people at all times to the food needed for a healthy and active life. The factors that determine the degree of food security in any Region, country or zone in particular are food availability, production stability and access to food by all the members of a community. Food availability is a factor directly related to the productivity of raw food supplies, as grains, root and tubers, oil and molasses. Access to food is a factor directly related with the prevailing socio-economic conditions in a particular zone or country. The causes and consequences of food insecurity and poverty are inextricably linked. The world food supplies "per capita" were 2 300 daily calories as an average in 1970. 75% of the population of the developing countries, around 1 600 million, correspond to countries whose daily average "per capita" was near 1 850 calories.

Within the above context, food production growth should be sustained as a guarantee of food security considering the differences among the RLAC countries and internally among the different social sectors. This inequality is increasing and a society under such conditions cannot have food security.

To improve the levels of food security in countries with low income and food deficit, FAO has implemented the Special Program for Food Security (SPFS) as an assistance program to increase the food production and productivity on those countries least able to meet their food needs with imports with the objective of cutting the present number of malnourished people in the world by half, by the year 2015. Agriculture is a fundamental sector for the establishment of an appropriate food production system. Consequently, appropriate agricultural development can generate increased food availability, improving social development and providing better access to food.

Agricultural biotechnology development in the LAC Region is characterised by a repetitive and academic model in where many of the project objectives do not respond to the real needs of crop production and food security in the Region. Frequently, research projects and laboratories repeat work that has already been conducted by advanced research groups of developed countries without any further innovation and with a low degree of scientific creativity. The regional situation was surveyed in 1990 by the Technical Co-operation Network on Plant Biotechnology (REDBIO/FAO), where 63.4% of the plant biotechnology activities were focused on tissue culture with the support of the private sector; 10.1% corresponded to projects on plant disease diagnoses while genetic engineering and the functional genomic analysis represented the 8.6 and 2.7% respectively. This situation reduces opportunities for the development of projects on plant biotechnology with a significative impact on crop production or food security. In 1990, 29% of the activities were directed to fruit-bearing plants, 28% to roots and tubers, and only 1.1% to ornamental plants.

Plant biotechnology offers a wide scope of possibilities for increasing productivity, diversification and growth of the production and the development of a more sustainable agriculture. This technology includes biopesticide production, plant tissue culture techniques, and the use of advanced molecular biology techniques for plant transformation, genomic analysis coupled with breeding and plant-disease diagnoses.

Agricultural biotechnology has different levels of implementation and development according to its degree of complexity and infrastructure costs and investment. The highest level contemplates the use of molecular biology, genetic engineering, large-scale industrial production of biological products and complex plant cell and tissue culture techniques like liquid-bioreactors. This level is characterised by its complexity and high costs of research and development.

The use of modern plant biotechnology for the conservation and sustainable agricultural use of those essential genetic resources needs to be strengthened. For this purpose, biotechnologies such as cell and tissue culture, molecular genome analysis, plant genetic transformation, molecular plant disease diagnosis and germplasm cryo-conservation coupled with plant breeding and physiological integrated crop management, can be successfully used to cope with genetic erosion, to reinforce ex-situ collections and in-situ conservation, to upgrade the supply of improved and healthy seeds and planting materials for farmers and to integrate a new approach into the development programmes for food production and food security.

The success of projects and activities is limited by the present basic knowledge on plant biotechnology of the different research groups. Coupled with other technologies, biotechnology can surely provide new solutions for some of the old problems hindering sustainable rural development and achievement of food security. Plant biotechnology requires both human resources ad infrastructure. The REDBIO Network has detected for this region technical constraints in terms of scarcity of human resources, limitations to technology development and use, infrastructure; institutional capacity and lack of information/data banks on plant biotechnology.

The development of biotechnology in the Region should be analyzed considering the real possibilities of the Region, country or among its different regions. Biotechnology is an emergent technological sector with the consequent economic risks. Up-grading of research infrastructure, quantity and quality of trained human resources as well as appropriate norms for intelectual property rights would facilitate the implementation and financing of joint collaborative biotechnology research and development projects.

Although the Region is characterised by low development in plant biotechnology, the total number of researchers under the national research systems is aproximately 11 000. At the present time, more than 1800 scientists, of which 1000 are postgraduates, are working in biotechnology projects within laboratories placed mainly in the universities, international research centers, and public and private institutions (REDBIO database,1999). However, due to the dispersion of the groups, faulty links with the productive sector and the absence of national and regional programs able to organize and promote scientific activities, the coefficient of the real impact of all this mass is considerably limited. National Programs should identify objectives and priorities in each country, in order to promote regional collaboration, find financial support and strengthen the transfer of appropriate biotechnology and biosafety norms to the producers by promoting the application of valid results.

Institutional support is reflected in all the stages of scientific development, not only in research but also in the technological transfer to local producers. National institutions should promote the use of biotechnological advances for rural communities and the knowledge stemming from positive experiences to the whole system of agricultural-food production. Institutional support has been fickle in our Region and should be revitalized.