Advances in the life sciences offer opportunities for revolutionizing human welfare activities primarily through improvements in the quality and quantity of healthcare. The UN Human Development Report (HDR) "Making New Technologies Work for Development" (UN, 2001a) identified biotechnology as a key avenue for the socio-economic advancement of the developing countries. A goldmine of opportunities in the corporate world, biotechnology enriches the way we do and teach science which has emerged as a global player on the international scene. The enzymatic machinery of the invisible microbe and genetic tailoring are increasingly being used to obtain a variety of bio-based products (DaSilva, 2001). Biotechnology, varying in scope, scale and practice in many developing countries, is full of entrepreneurial opportunities for the technological progress of the developing world.

Hunger, poverty and food security

Over 80 low-income food-deficit developing countries (LIFDCs) possess neither the ability to produce sufficient food to feed their own populations nor the foreign-exchange reserves to import food supplies to meet the deficits. The sub-Saharan region, susceptible to political instability and weak economies, is most vulnerable since it is home to about 25% of the population in 67 low-income developing countries that are poverty-prone or poverty-stricken. In sub-Saharan Africa, people living on less than US$ 1 a day rose from 242 million in 1990 to 290 million in 1998 (WIDER, 2000). Poverty in urban areas, emerging in some industrialised societies, is soon expected to overtake rural numbers in the coming decades.

Opportunities and constraints in agricultural biotechnology in developing countries are of significance in responding to the challenge of poverty in the 21st century (Persley and Lantin, 2000) as they influence the development of national strategies that minimise environmental, health and social risks; and that address the nutritional needs of poor-resource farmers. The United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty Decade (1997 - 2006) focuses on the environment, development, human rights, and vulnerable groups. In the Horn of Africa ----- Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, about 70 million people suffer from malnutrition, food scarcity and famine in harsh and inhospitable climates not conducive for efficient agricultural productivity (FAO, 2000). Resilient communities live under harsh drought conditions i.e. little rainfall, soil erosion, and lack of access to opportunity in farming. Combating poverty involves actions to increase food security; to improve the availability and quality of basic services; to generate opportunities for sustainable livelihoods: to empower rural women in gaining land credit, in accessing training, commercial markets, emerging technologies, and in participating in community decision-making processes. It is in this context that biotechnology can make a contribution. Co-operation between the United Nations Development Programme and the West African Rice Development Association (WARDA) has resulted in the production of a New Rice for Africa (NERICA) variety that was obtained by crossing African and Asian species. Designed for resource-poor farmers, this new protein-rich variety is tolerant to drought and acid soils, and generally resistant to a wide range of African insect pests.

Active participation in community development assists in the way out of poverty. Karanja et al (2000) described close collaboration with participating NGOs in co-financed experimental trials in four Senegalese villages. These demonstration/training/information-cum-service activities are catalytic and rewarding for rural farmers and folk. Different kinds of technology, new crop varieties, floriculture, aquaculture and micro-enterprises such as mushroom production are tested with the active participation of eager to learn villagers. Talents and skills, individual and collective, are crucial to the constructive evolution of an important bridge between the rural poor and local governance, and between rural educational and urban research institutions. In India, UNDP pioneered the biovillage approach in 1999 with the Pillayarkuppam village in Pondicherry. Eighteen other villages, with a population of 25.000 people, participated in the biovillage experiment that provides technological empowerment; that transforms village communities into ecological entrepreneurs; that augments individual rural resources with additional incomes that improve gender involvement; and that contribute to food security through rural production of safe and nutritive food.

Plant biotechnology, which is one of the many approaches involved to solve the complex problems of hunger, poverty and food insecurity, may be an appropriate technology within reach of rural and disadvantaged farmers. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, tissue culture plays a vital role in helping establish food security that was affected by war and subsequent neglect. Cassava clones, obtained from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Nigeria, are propagated as disease-free plantlets to start-up crop productivity which is maintained through use of crop protection techniques (FAO, 2001). In Kenya, tissue culture of disease-free banana plantlets has helped raised yields, and secure farm household incomes threatened by the dwindling loss of the coffee cash crops. And, co-operation between the International Potato Centre in Peru and Ugandan National Agricultural Research Organization has resulted in the introduction and growth of disease-free potato crops in the Kabale District of southwest Uganda. In all three examples, the training of Congolese, Kenyan and Ugandan farmers in low-cost plant biotechnology techniques features prominently in long-term co-operation. A case study of how biotechnology can benefit the poor and the hungry (Wambugu, 2001) indicates the potential of biotechnology in tackling poverty and hunger (Spillane, 2000).

GMOs in agriculture and development

GMOs (known also as Living Modified Organisms -LMOs) are obtained from parent animals, plants and microorganisms. Concerns, fears, and promises expressed with GM crops and foods are not voiced with fermented foods that are prepared in near-safe hygienic conditions and that contain whole or parts of natural organisms. Debate concerning GM crops and foods is emotional and fierce, public and technical (Skeritt, 2000). Opposing arguments focus on the economic loss of crop genetic diversity and biodiversity; the threat to the use of generic medicinal products; the indiscriminate appropriation of native intellectual property resources and absence of adequate compensatory measures; non-conformity with religious, cultural, and ethical issues, and monopolistic trends given that 10 top life science industries have ownership of 15 major food and non-food crops.

There is a continuing need of safety assessment of GM foods and products to address health hazards possibly arising from the release of GMOs into the environment (WHO, 2000). Nutritional and safety assessment require a comparative approach between such foods and their conventional counterparts (FAO/WHO, 2000). In the industrialized societies and some developing countries public protest has led to demands for risk-assessment research in the cause-effect phenomena associated with GM crops; and subsequent stricter regulation has resulted in differing transatlantic viewpoints (Levidow and Carr, 2000). Benefits encountered are: improvements in the quality and quantity of meat, milk and livestock production; low dependence of poor-resource farmers on expensive chemical-based fertilizers, and enhanced market potential. Ancillary benefits are an environmental motivation for development of bio-based clean technologies, and defined methodologies for evaluation of the allergenicity of foods derived from biotechnology (FAO/WHO, 2001; Schlundt, 2001).

Several developing countries have embraced GM agriculture (Krattiger, 1994). Today, over 50 million hectares of GMO crops are grown worldwide involving especially Argentina, Canada, China and the USA. The developing countries' share amounts to 24%. In China, over 50 per cent of all crops are assumed to have been engineered genetically. Gene-altered crops ---rice, wheat, beet, potato, tomato, corn, peanut, rapeseed, sweet pepper and cotton crops have been grown since 1986. GM plants planned for release are expected to improve food yields in developing countries by up to 25%. These include caffeine-free coffee plants, tobacco plants containing a diabetes vaccine, and soybeans with a "heart-friendly and healthier" oil profile and an improved digestible protein content.

Arid land and desert biotechnology

The Middle East, with its varied characteristics in culture, economies, the environment, governance and religion, is home to semi-urban and urban agriculture that seems to have originated in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East homeland of the first farmers (Wilford, 1997). Arid lands and deserts make up a large part of Africa. Two-thirds of the continent is desert or drylands. Half the continent's population is found in these areas. Also, some of the poorest countries in the world, with heavy population growth, meagre national resources, a weak or negligible technological base, primary level education, and inadequate technical infrastructures, are found in Africa. Agriculture in several arid African developing countries is linked to water availability and security. Vulnerability of agricultural and water resources, ecosystems, food production, utility goods, shelter, and human health is high in regions with weak infrastructures. Against this background, the use of GM technology could make a beneficial impact through the use of improved seeds and disease-free high-quality plantlets to grow high-value commercial crops in low-rainfall areas. In addition, rural education could help promote the benefits of such technology in diversifying complementary agricultural practices such as fisheries and floriculture.

The containment of desertification in arid lands occurs in the ability to bioconvert their ecological disadvantages in to economic benefits coming from the cultivation of desert crops; development of saline agriculture and aquaculture, and the rational use of water, wastewater and other water resources. Seawater agriculture or the growth of salt-tolerant crops on land with ocean waters, and of a variety of halophytic crops ---grasses, shrubs and trees encountered in coastline marshes or in saline desert terrains is full of promise. (NAS, 1990). Of economic importance in coastal agriculture, halophytes are cultured for landscaping and use as fodder (Egypt); as ornamentals (Morocco); and for greening and landscaping arid soils (Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and the UAE).

Biotechnology parks and medicinal farms

In the continuing quest for economic advancement and technological development, several developing countries have embraced the concept of biotechnology parks that combine scientific enquiry with research and development biotech savoir-faire to yield potential market products. With this raison de faire, biotechnology parks use an amalgam of entrepreneurial energies and networking skills to promote co-development of biotech processes, to transfer biotech know-how, and to provide technical services. Biotechnology parks in several developing countries reveal a political commitment in transforming the potential of modern biotechnology knowledge into reality for the benefit of all strata of society. The Government of Tamil Nadu, and the Department of Biotechnology approved in 1997 the establishment of the first Women's Biotechnology Park in the country at Kelambakkam, near Chennai. The park promotes a series of high-tech biotechnology-based enterprises aimed at capturing a number of markets in the areas of Ag-biotech, Food biotech, Medical biotech etc. Moreover, the Park will host industrial incubation centres, an ultra modern multimedia information complex, and quality verification reference laboratories. The research and development institutions, the corporate sector and the financial institutions will assist the women entrepreneurs to achieve the objectives of the Park serving primarily as a model to foster the technological and economic empowerment of women.

The park also serves as a training centre promoting regional economic growth and collaboration between women entrepreneurs in the formulation of appropriate market strategies for marine and medicinal plant products.Medicinal plants have been used, since times immemorial in virtually all cultures as a source of medicine. Herbal remedies and plant-based healthcare preparations obtained from traditionally used plants, have been traced to the occurrence of natural products with medicinal properties. Moreover medicinal plants and herbal remedies are re-emerging medical aids whose contribution and significance in the maintenance of good health and well-being is widely accepted (Hoareau and DaSilva, 1999). In the industrialized societies, the use of traditional medicine and medicinal plants in the treatment of minor ailments is now more acceptable since such use helps lower the increasing costs of personal health maintenance.

Women and biotechnology

The "LDCs greatest assets are their women, men and children whose potentials as agents and beneficiaries of development must be fully realized" (UN, 2001b). Efforts in developing resources of much needed human capital in LDCs are affected by low school enrolment, low health, and lack of adequate nutrition and sanitary facilities. Natural and man-made disasters, communicable diseases like malaria and tuberculosis along with the prevalence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, especially in Africa, have eroded precious human resources. Women and children in most LDCs occupy a central role. Natural and normal transmitters of traditional civic customs and values, women are crucial in the assimilation and acceptance of new technologies as is evident from the range and number of TV advertisements aimed at women. In rural and village communities, women provide the first example of working together in a co-operative venture as they make ends meet with inadequate incomes.

Women in rural and lower middle-income societies make an economic contribution to agricultural and healthcare markets. Women farmers collect, keep, store, conserve and sow seeds for use by peasant societies. Women healers are, the keepers and providers of traditional knowledge concerning herbal- and plant-based medicine, and fermented foods. Their food recipes and medicinal preparations are closely guarded secrets that have been handed down from generation to generation and which are at the basis of sustaining nutritional and health inputs virtually on a daily basis. Indeed, women in rural and village biotechnology are the primary food producers, food gatherers, and food processors, worldwide throughout the developing world. The role of women in biotechnology in the developing world is "to provide opportunities for professionally qualified women to take to a career of remunerative self-employment through the organisation of environment friendly biotechnological enterprises".

Strategic biotech initiatives in the developing world

Developing countries are already devising and using strategic biotechnologies to solve problems of local, regional and global significance. Research institutes and universities are engaged in competitive breakthrough peer-reviewed research are constantly attracting scientific excellence. The horizontal flow of research amongst and between developing countries strengthens South-South regional and international collaboration which involves diversification of agricultural production, industrial enterprises and a well-developed human resource base. Self-sufficiency and self-reliance, the twin hallmarks of a "stand alone" market-oriented economy are crucial and can be achieved only through co-operative networking and sharing of experiences, and knowledge-rich resources.

Capacity-building in biotechnology for development

Biotechnology is a cross-cutting technology encountered in wide application across several sectors of development. An amalgam of a variety of disciplines -biochemistry, the engineering sciences, genetics, informatics, molecular biology and microbiology, the neurosciences and nanotechnology amongst others, biotechnology makes important contributions to the new knowledge-based economy and markets. Developing countries, and especially the LDCs, face challenges in setting up the agendas of international co-operation in deriving benefits from biotech markets. The lack of professionals, sophisticated equipment, relevant infrastructure, deficiency of national legal instruments concerning patents and intellectual property rights, and of financial support widen rather than bridge the gap of research and development in biotechnology between the industrialized and developing countries. Hence there is a distinct need for education and capacity-building --- important elements in the use of biotechnology for development.

The style, substance and scale of biotechnology in the developing world varies within a region, and from region to region. Hence the need for devising educational and capacity-building schemes that enable developing countries embark on sustainable development, possibly in network cluster groups once account has been taken of their level of research in biotechnology; of their capacities to produce and commercialise biotech products; of their degree of participation in developing national, regional and international biotech governance dealing with biosafety, conservation and trade of genetic diversity; of their capability and capacity for national education and training; and of their ability to engage in regional research since the scope and scale of biotech literacy varies amongst countries in a region.

In today's climate of competitive biotechnology and development, many of the advanced developing countries are faced with new challenges and problems as they engage in cutting-edge biotech research and participate in global biotech governance and technology systems. Environmental management and building of capacity in intellectual property rights are two areas of significance.

In the advanced or newly industrializing developing countries, the support to the generation of scientific knowledge has served as a sort of precursor in fostering a culture and desire for development. Building of research infrastructures and scientific and high-quality biotech institutions takes years of commitment and investment in development.

Developing countries and LDCs are already devising and using strategic biotechnologies to solve problems of local, regional and global significance. Their participation in several regional and international pedigree programmes contributes to an on-stream worldwide resource that reflects to some extent, the human face of globalization. Flexibility, scientific co-operation, and co-shared funding help developing countries respond to the common challenges that involve biotechnological solutions for the benefit of all humankind. South-South collaboration and capacity-building in technical development and economic co-operation programmes have proven useful in the transfer of biotechnology (Rath and Lealess, 2000).

Biotechnology is a motor of technological advancement in both the developed and developing countries though at different levels in scope and content. The simple production of cheese and fermented foods to the industrial production of antibiotics and the genetic elaboration of biopharmaceuticals and novel crops illustrate the breadth and depth of biotechnology endeavor and practice worldwide. One of the three new technologies that impact on our lives on virtually a daily basis in the international arena, biotechnology (and the life sciences) influence developments and issues in interactions between Europe and the USA, and between the developed and developing worlds (Schneider, 2000). Apt examples are the attention to the safety of GM foods and to the prevalence of AIDS by the G8 summit in Okinawa, 2000.

One of the main factors perpetuating poverty, hunger and population growth in the developing countries is the lack of education and of time for education. Capacity-building programmes would go a long way in eradicating doubts and fears of the use of biotechnology in different fields. Capacity-building, for example in the acquisition and use of GMOs in sgriculture and their assessment in field trials and effect on humans and in the environment may elicit a response opposite to that expressed in the absence of such education and training. Through national capacity-building programmes, regional networks and international co-operation developing countries can harness the potential of biotechnology as an effective tool for solving problems of hunger, poverty and disease. Gradual progress and successes will bear out the importance of biotechnology in the long-term for national economic growth and development. Also it is time for developing countries to become more pro-active in identifying their strengths, competencies and weaknesses in setting the agenda and speed in harnessing biotechnology for their own scientific and national development.

DASILVA, Edgar J. GMOs and development. EJB Electronic Journal of Biotechnology [online]. 15 August 2001, vol. 4, no. 2 [cited 7 December 2001]. Available from Internet: http://www.ejbiotechnology.info/content/vol4/issue2/issues/01/index.html. ISSN 0717-3458.

FAO. Action against undernutrition and poverty. Redirecting food assistance to those who need it most, 2001. In: The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2001. ISBN 92-5-104628-X. Available from Internet: http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/y1500e/y1500e05.htm#P0_0.

FAO. Food supply situation and crops prospects in Sub-Saharan Africa. Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture. December 2000, no.3, p. 66. FAO, Rome, Italy.

FAO/WHO Evaluation of allergenicity of genetically modified foods. Joint FAO/WHO Consultation. In: Report on Allergenicity of Foods Derived from Biotechnology. (22th - 25th January, 2001, Rome, Italy). FAO, Rome, Italy, p. 27.

FAO/WHO. Safety aspects of genetically modified foods of plant origin, Joint FAO/WHO Consultation. In: Report on Foods Derived From Biotechnology. (29th May - 2nd June, 2000, Geneva, Switzerland). WHO, 2000, Geneva, Switzerland, p. 5.

HOAREAU, Lucy and DASILVA, Edgar J. Medicinal plants: a re-emerging health aid. EJB Electronic Journal of Biotechnology. [online]. 15 August 1999, vol.2, no. 2, [cited 7 December 2001]. Available from Internet: http://www.ejbiotechnology.info/content/vol2/issue2/full/2/index.html ISSN 0717-3458.

KARANJA, Nancy; FREIRE, Jardim; GUEYE, Mamadou and DASILVA, Edgar. MIRCEN Networking: capacity-building in Africa and Latin America. Agbiotechnet. March 2000, vol. 2., ABN 041, (CAB International), p. 1-5.

KRATTIGER, Anatole, F. Field releases of genetically modified plants: world-wide data from 1986 to 1993/1994. In: KRATTIGER, Anatole, F. and ROSEMARIN, A., eds. Biosafety for Sustainable Agriculture: Sharing Biotechnology Regulatory Experiences of the Western Hemisphere. ISAAA: Ithaca SEI, Stockholm, Sweden, 1994, p. 247-266.

LEVIDOW, Les and CARR, Susan. Unsound science? Transatlantic regulatory disputes over GM crops. International Journal of Biotechnology. 2000, vol. 2, p. 257-253.

NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES (NAS). Saline Agriculture: Salt-Tolerant Plants for developing countries. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., USA, 1990, p. 143.

PERSLEY, Gabrielle J. and LANTIN, M.M. Agricultural biotechnology and the poor. In: Proceedings of an International Conference. (21st - 22th October, 1999, Washington, D.C.), Secretariat Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, The World Bank, Washington, D.C., USA., 2000. p. 233.

RATH, Amitav and LEALESS, Sherry. The forum on South-South co-operation in science and technology, an overview Document. In: UNDP Seoul Conference. (14th - 17th February, 2000, Republic of Korea). Policy Research Inc., May 2000, p. 77. Available from Internet: http://www.pri.on.ca/seoul/seoul.pdf.

SCHLUNDT, Jorgen. FAO/WHO Expert consultations - foods derived from biotechnology. In: International Conference on New Biotechnology Foods and Crops: Science, Safety and Society. (10th - 12th July, 2001, Bangkok, Thailand).Available from Internet: http://www1.oecd.org/bangkok/speeches.htm.

SCHNEIDER, Cynthia P. Biotechnology: the science and the impact. The Journal of Biolaw and Business, Special Supplement. 2000, p. 5-7.

SKERITT, John H. Genetically modified plants: developing countries and the public acceptance debate. Agbiotechnet. 2000, vol. 2 ABN 040 (CAB International), p. 1-13.

SPILLANE, Charles. Could agricultural biotechnology contribute to poverty alleviation? Agbiotechnet. 2000, vol. 2 ABN 042 (CAB International), p. 1-39.

UN. Making new technologies work for human development. UNDP Human Development Report. Oxford University Press, NC27513. 2001a, p. 274.

UN. Draft programme of action for the least developed countries for the decade 2001 - 2010. In: Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries. (14th - 20th May, 2001, Brussels, Belgium). Document A/CONF.191/L.18, 2001b. p. 62.

WAMBUGU, Florence. Modifying Africa: How biotechnology can benefit the poor and hungry, a case study from Kenya. In: Action against undernutrition and poverty ---Redirecting food assistance to those who need it most, FAO, 2001, In: The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2001. ISBN 92-5-104628-X. 2001. Available from Internet: http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/y1500e/y1500e05.htm#P0_0.

WHO. Release of genetically modified organisms in the environment: is it a health hazard?. In: WHO/EURO-ANPA Seminar Report. (7th - 8th September, 2000, Rome Italy) WHO European Centre for Environment and Health, Rome Division, 2000. p. 17.

WIDER. WIDER/UNU Growth and Poverty Conference. In: WIDER Angle Newsletter. (25th - 26th May, 2001, Helsinki, Finland) UNU/WIDER , No.1. p. 1.

WILFORD, John Noble. Tracing origins of farming - Genetic studies fix locations, International Herald Tribune, November 1997, Paris, France.

Note: EJB Electronic Journal of Biotechnology is not responsible if on-line references cited on manuscripts are not available any more after the date of publication.