South-South Collaboration in Agricultural Biotechnology

Sachin ChaturvediKrishna Ravi Srinivas

SSC mechanism

• Technology development, transfer and diffusion.

• Support of the respective governments, with massive investments in R&D, some have developed home grown technologies in agricultural biotechnology

• They may range from tissue culture to development of GMOs and gene stacking.

RIS/UNESCO Study on Asia Pacific

• In Asia-Pacific while many countries remained in the low ends of biotechnologies, some have moved rapidly to high end technology.

• Picture in Africa and Latin America is no different.

• In Africa agricultural biotechnology has taken roots in few countries such as South Africa while in many countries it is in initial stages. Similarly in Latin America while countries like Argentina, Brazil and Mexico have applied this technology rapidly, despite controversies, in many countries it is in the initial stages.

Functional Innovation System

• Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is ratified and most of the countries are bound by the Protocol.

• Effective utilization of agricultural biotechnology, it is essential that the countries have a functional innovation system in the agricultural sector.

• Important for technology adoption and further development of agricultural biotechnology

Brief Case Studies

(1) Cooperation for Capacity Building in Biosafety Management

(2) Cooperation for Primary Biotechnology and

(3) India-Bangladesh Cooperation for Bt Brinjal

Biotechnology Capacity Building

• TERI (ITEC) course on ‘Applications of Biotechnology and its Regulations’.

• Facets of biotechnology including traditional and modern biotechnologies, micro-propagation, tissue culture, molecular breeding, bio-pesticide, bio-fertilizer, biofuels, bioinformatics, biosafety issues and regulatory guidelines.

• Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC) and Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE).

Technology Transfer

– Transferring second-generation biotechnologies such as tissue culture and micro-propagation technology to various other developing countries such as:

• Afghanistan (for Potato cultivation) • Thailand (for Eucalyptus and Acacia

cultivation) • Philippines (for Bamboo cultivation)

Biosafety Policy/Guidelines Development– BCIL has been instrumental in drafting biosafety

guidelines and providing training in countries such as:

• Bhutan (Bhutan Agriculture and Food Regulatory Authority: BAFRA)

• Bangladesh (Department of Environment)• Sri Lanka (Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment)

– These guidelines and trainings intend to cover issues such as:• Quarantine measures • Detection mechanisms• Control measures

Mahyco, Bt Brinjal and Bangladesh

• Mahyco (Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Private Ltd) is a major Indian private seed company

• Transferred its Bt Brinjal technology to Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) in 2005-06 through an USAID-funded and Cornell University-managed ‘Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project (ABSP)’

• Mahyco sourced ‘cry1Ac’ gene construct for its Bt Brinjal from Monsanto (USA), which also has 26% stake in the former.

• On Oct 29, 2013 Bangladesh’s National Committee on Biosafety (NCB) approved 4 Bt Brinjal varieties for commercial cultivation. First commercial production commenced on January 22, 2014.

• With this, Bangladesh became the first country in South Asia to allow the cultivation of Bt Brinjal.

• BARI released three more varieties of Bt Brinjal in 2015 for commercialization.

• In October 2014, India, Bangladesh and Nepal signed a historic agreement related to the cooperation in the seed sector (presently only related to rice). IRRI played a catalytic role in this.

• With this seed cooperation agreement, a rice variety that has been tested, approved, and released in one country can be released in other countries without undergoing further testing and evaluation, as long as they will be grown in similar agro-climatic conditions.

• This will save a lot of resources and the time required for a variety to be released in one country and thus enabling faster access and availability of high-yielding varieties to the farmers of the region.

Closing Remarks

• SSC in agricultural biotechnology should be based on an integrated approach that includes product development along with capacity building.

• IBSA/BRICS/AU/ASEAN may play an important role as

they can engage in SSC as a group complementing each others’ strengths.

• As the countries in these groups have the capacity to develop GM and non GM boutique of technologies in agricultural biotechnology, they can jointly promote SSC projects in this field.