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Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Crop and Grassland Service (AGPC), Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy
* Corresponding author (elcio.guimaraes{at}fao.org).
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 TOP ABSTRACT INTRODUCTIONMaterial and MethodsResults and DiscussionREFERENCES |
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Abbreviations: CGIAR, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research • CIMMYT, Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo • FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations • FAO-BioDeC, FAO database on Biotechnology in Developing Countries • FAO-WIEWS, FAO World Information and Early Warning System on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture • FTE, full time equivalent • GIPB, Global Partnership Initiative for Plant Breeding Capacity Building • ICARDA, International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas • IFPRI, International Food Policy Research Institute • IITA, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture • IPGRI, International Plant Genetic Resources Institute • IT-PGRFA, International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture • MAS, marker-assisted selection • NGO, nongovernmental organization • PGRFA, plant genetic resources for food and agriculture
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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Received for publication April 7, 2007.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Crop and Grassland Service (AGPC), Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy
* Corresponding author (elcio.guimaraes{at}fao.org).
Developing countries rely on agriculture and in particular on plant breeding for economic growth, poverty alleviation, and income generation. Therefore, knowledge of countries' capacity to develop improved cultivars is essential. The objective of this article is to present and discuss the results of the national plant breeding and associated biotechnology assessment performed worldwide by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and to propose actions to strengthen national capacity in the use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA). Data were collected on countries' capacity to carry out plant breeding activities, including the application of biotechnology tools, through a questionnaire submitted to each institution involved in the sector. Data gathered through the questionnaire are checked for quality and completeness and analyzed at country and regional levels. Results reveal variable numbers and trends: the number of plant breeders and biotechnologists and the trends vary among countries and regions without a global upward or downward tendency; the capacity to use biotechnology tools varies but the lack of linkages with applied plant breeding is a major issue; allocations vary from crop to crop and from region to region; and even within a given region there is not necessarily coincidence in priority crops regarding the allocation of resources. To extend awareness coming out of these surveys, and to further discuss and design appropriate strategies to strengthen capacity to use PGRFA, national and regional workshops were held. The main issues stressed in these events were capacity building must have the highest priority, followed by access to PGRFA, access to biotechnology tools, and awareness of plant breeding characteristics and their impact. The Global Partnership Initiative for Plant Breeding Capacity Building (GIPB) was recently launched to further support countries in strengthening their competence through promoting capacity building.
Abbreviations: CGIAR, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research • CIMMYT, Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo • FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations • FAO-BioDeC, FAO database on Biotechnology in Developing Countries • FAO-WIEWS, FAO World Information and Early Warning System on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture • FTE, full time equivalent • GIPB, Global Partnership Initiative for Plant Breeding Capacity Building • ICARDA, International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas • IFPRI, International Food Policy Research Institute • IITA, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture • IPGRI, International Plant Genetic Resources Institute • IT-PGRFA, International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture • MAS, marker-assisted selection • NGO, nongovernmental organization • PGRFA, plant genetic resources for food and agriculture
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INTRODUCTION |
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TOPABSTRACTINTRODUCTIONMaterial and MethodsResults and DiscussionREFERENCES |
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Developing countries rely on agriculture for economic growth, poverty alleviation, and income generation. In this context, plant breeding represents a potential for increasing the productivity of agriculture (Evenson, 2003). Therefore, knowledge of countries' capacity to develop improved cultivars is essential for designing strategies to strengthen plant breeding and contribute to development.
The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (IT-PGFRA) supports both conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (FAO, 2004) and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from their use. The Global Plan of Action for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (FAO, 1996) (Article 14 of the IT-PGFRA) draws countries' attention to the importance of strengthening the use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA).
In 2002, FAO and its partners initiated a global assessment of national plant breeding and associated biotechnology capacity to help countries cope with their IT-PGRFA obligations. Guimarães et al. (2006a, 2006b) have summarized information on plant breeding capacity in Central Asia and in Africa. Similar work was performed in the United States by Frey (1996).
This article provides the results of the survey performed in a group of 46 randomly selected countries covering all regions of the world, while paying special attention to the less developed countries. In addition, suggestions and recommendations regarding the results that ensued from discussions at country and regional level are highlighted. This article concludes with a description of an initiative created to help strengthen national plant breeding and associated biotechnology capacity in the use of PGRFA.
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Material and Methods |
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TOPABSTRACTINTRODUCTIONMaterial and MethodsResults and DiscussionREFERENCES |
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One of the first questions raised by the experts during the event was about the definition of breeders and biotechnologists. The group agreed to consider not only scientists with plant breeding and biotechnology degrees but also scientists involved in breeding and biotechnology activity, therefore, the questionnaire used full time equivalent (FTE) as the measure for defining the number of scientists in each field.
In each surveyed country, a scientist was identified and hired as a consultant to gather information. In general, selection was based on criteria such as expertise in the field of plant breeding or biotechnology, familiarity with the plant breeding and biotechnology activities being performed in the targeted country, status and reputation within the local scientific community, and access to plant breeding and biotechnology information available in the public and private sectors. The task was to survey all public and private institutions involved in plant breeding and associated biotechnology. The consultant had the responsibility of collecting and analyzing the data and preparing a report on the overall status of the country's plant breeding programs. In addition, he or she had to produce a short document suggesting strategies for strengthening the national plant breeding and associated biotechnology capacity.
The questionnaire was submitted to each single private and public institution involved in plant breeding and associated biotechnology in the country. The questions covered aspects related to the type of institution and number of years of its involvement in plant breeding and associated biotechnology activities. For 5-yr periods starting in 1985, the questionnaire enquired about the institution's capacity in terms of FTE breeders and biotechnologists, which is defined as the work done by a person who has any responsibility linked to plant breeding activities during one calendar year. The resource allocation (human and financial) is also referred to on a 5-yr basis and is expressed in terms of crops or crop groups handled by plant breeders. The questionnaire also enquired about the type of biotechnology tools the institutions were using to enhance plant breeding. More details about the questions and the questionnaire are available in Guimarães et al. (2006b).
Once the preliminary results were obtained and made available to the countries, a series of workshops was organized. The objective of these events was to validate the information gathered and to suggest strategies for strengthening the national capacity to use PGRFA. In general, these workshops were jointly organized by FAO and the CGIAR centers, such as the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Africa, the Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT), and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Central Asia, or national institutes such as the Maize and Rice Institute in Albania and the "Fundación PROINPA" in Bolivia. Participating in these meetings were representatives from different institutes in the countries, the private sector, NGOs, donors, and policymakers, amongst others.
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Results and Discussion |
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TOPABSTRACTINTRODUCTIONMaterial and MethodsResults and DiscussionREFERENCES |
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For a specific crop, such as rice (Oryza sativa L.) the number of breeders in the region is insufficient, predominantly in the private sector and the ones who are performing breeding activities urgently need capacity building according to Gonzalo Zorrilla (personal communication, 2006), technical coordinator of the Latin American Irrigated Rice Fund network (Spanish acronym FLAR). Currently the 22 members of FLAR have 37 breeders and 57 technicians involved in rice breeding activities. However, from 1964 to 2004, in the five major universities with plant breeding programs in Brazil, 1075 M.Sc. and 537 Ph.D. degrees have been awarded (Ramalho, 2004). This result indicates that the region has the capacity to provide postgraduate training to cope with the above-mentioned demand.
Looking at East, Central, and West Africa together, the country with the most striking result is Ethiopia, which has more than 400 FTE breeders and an upward trend since 1985. On the other hand, Angola, Niger, Senegal, and Sierra Leone are noteworthy for their small number of FTE breeders. It is also worth mentioning the case of Malawi, where the numbers have been dropping since 1985, and Mali, where there has been a constant increase in numbers. When comparing the sample of West and East African countries, one may conclude that the latter have a better capacity (higher FTE) to carry out plant breeding.
In the Near East and North Africa region, it is Egypt that stands out due to the very large number of people performing plant breeding activities. In fact, it is the largest number recorded among all surveyed countries. At the opposite extreme is Oman with only nine plant breeders in 2004. Following Egypt there are Algeria and Turkey with more than 170 FTE plant breeders each. However, these two countries are moving in opposite directions; in Turkey the numbers are increasing whereas in Algeria they are decreasing. In general, all countries in the region present an upward trend, with the exception of Algeria.
The downward trend seems to be the general pattern for the countries in Eastern Europe. In Moldova there was a 42% reduction in FTE breeders in the period covered by the survey (1985–2004), but it still has a large number of people performing plant breeding activities, especially considering the size of the country. Bulgaria showed a downward trend since 1990, but also has a large number of breeders for its size. The smallest number among the sampled countries was recorded in Albania.
All sampled countries in Central Asia showed a decrease in the FTE involved in plant breeding activities after the collapse of the Soviet Union as was also indicated by Guimarães et al. (2006a). However, the numbers are still large for some countries. Similar comments hold true for the Caucasus countries (Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan). Bangladesh and the Philippines also show a decrease after 1995, and Sri Lanka reveals a decrease in numbers only recently. In contrast, Thailand has been increasing its numbers since 1985.
The only developed country's data available for comparison with these assessments are those collected by Frey (1996) in the United States of America. The author reported that in 1994 there were 2205 FTE plant breeders working with different crop categories. Forty percent of them (892) were breeding cereals, followed by fruits and vegetables (213) and grain legumes (207). More recently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) performed a similar survey on its research team and identified 142.4 FTE breeders (K. Simmons, personal communication, 2005), that is, 20% fewer than previously summarized by Frey (1996).
Based on the FTE plant breeders information collected in the 46 countries sampled in different regions around the world, there is no single trend common to all countries. The numbers vary drastically among countries from different regions and even within a region. There is no relationship either between the direction of the trends and the regions; within a given region there are countries with upward trends as well as countries with downward trends. However, FTEs indicate that some countries need to increase in FTE to cope with the demands for an increase in food production; others have a large FTE and may need to concentrate on specific areas to be able to develop improved cultivars. Nevertheless, all countries pointed out that greater and more coordinated efforts to build human capacity constitute the highest priority for strengthening use of PGRFA.
Biotechnology Tools
The use of biotechnology tools is an integral feature of modern plant breeding. One of the elements of the survey sought to gather information on the utilization of biotechnology tools to enhance plant breeding activities. A question was asked giving the following six possibilities to the respondent: molecular characterization, double haploid breeding, tissue culture, marker-assisted selection (MAS), gene isolation, and genetic engineering. Some of them may overlap and may be used as part of a larger process; however, the objective was to give different options to the respondents and to see both the objective of the work performed by the different institutions within the country and how these activities were being used to enhance plant breeding.
Molecular characterization was not included as a choice for all countries. During the early stages of this global assessment, this possibility was not among the choices that the respondents had. Therefore, to make sure the results presented here reflect the utilization of this technique around the world, other FAO sources of information were used, among them the Biotechnology in Developing Countries database (FAO-BioDeC) (FAO, 2006a). Table 2 shows that molecular characterization has been employed in many countries in all regions with the main objective of studying genetic diversity among entries of plant breeding programs or within the accessions of the local gene bank. For example, in Malawi the diversity of sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] was assessed with random amplified polymorphic DNA (Nkongolo and Nsapato, 2003); in Senegal the same technique was used to study the genetic diversity of cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walpers] (Fall et al., 2003).
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Many countries reported the application of MAS to enhance breeding (Table 2). This was a very exciting result. It indicates that institutions recognize the potential contribution of the technique in enhancing plant breeding activities and that they are investing so as to have the capacity to perform it. However, looking at the country reports, initial enthusiasm turns to disappointment because in almost all cases there are no linkages between the application of the technique and the institutions' breeding programs. In many countries, the technique is part of university activities or thesis research that do not relate to solving real plant breeding problems. Other reports indicate the use of MAS but the work is in fact related to identification of markers to be used in future breeding activities or even for genetic diversity studies.
Country reports are available for almost all countries at the FAO-World Information and Early Warning System on Plant Genetic Resources (WIEWS) (FAO, 2006b). In these reports any reader may find information related to the crops where these biotechnology tools were applied. Additional information can be found at FAO-BioDeC database (FAO, 2006a), which has the objective of providing updated baseline information on state-of-the-art crop biotechnology products and techniques.
A significant number of countries, spread throughout all regions, reported research in the area of genetic engineering and gene isolation. However, there are not necessarily linkages with plant breeding.
The countries' reports clearly indicate that the factor limiting the strengthening of the use of biotechnology tools is the lack of technical knowledge and that capacity building is necessary. In addition, there is also a need for infrastructure, facilities, and equipment. In the 1990s, efforts were made to build the African countries' capacity to use biotechnology tools. More than 130 young scientists were awarded short-term fellowships to study the application of biotechnology tools in different fields, including agriculture (Brink et al., 1998).
In conclusion, countries are utilizing different types of biotechnologies. However, there are large differences between countries, both within a given region and from one region to another. Furthermore, the overwhelming majority of the countries' reports indicate that the work done in applying biotechnology tools is not necessarily linked to the plant breeding programs. In addition, many countries around the world face basic problems in routinely using biotechnology tools, such as lack of adequate infrastructure and facilities, difficulty or impossibility of accessing information, and availability of chemicals and consumables. More details related to the application of biotechnology tools can be found on the networks that FAO is coordinating: the Agricultural Biotechnology Network in Africa (ABNETA, 2006) and the Red de Cooperacion Tecnica en Biotecnologia Vegetal para America Latina y el Caribe (RedBio, 2006).
Number of Plant Biotechnologists
The number of FTE plant biotechnologists is much smaller than the number of plant breeders in all countries, except Costa Rica, Tunisia, and Oman (Table 3
). In general, almost all countries presented an upward trend, which is to be expected as the activities in this area started in the mid-1980s and have been growing in importance ever since. Remarkable are the efforts made by countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Bulgaria, Moldova, Slovak Republic, Kazakhstan, and Thailand, which have a large number of scientists (more than 50) involved in biotechnology activities.
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As mentioned before, in general, in the developing countries covered in this article only tissue culture has been used as supporting tool to breeding activities. Marker-assisted selection and genetic engineering, even though mentioned as part of the activities being performed in some countries, have not been integrated in the breeding programs.
Table 3 provides information about countries' capacity to apply biotechnology tools to enhance plant breeding. However, it is important to mention that the reports along with interpretation of the survey data, in general, expressed concerns about the linkage between plant breeding and biotechnology programs. In many countries, plant breeding and biotechnology activities are being performed in different institutes that do not share common goals and activities. Indeed, the institutes working on these two components of the cultivar development process sometimes do not even belong to the same ministry. There are also many universities using biotechnology as part of their teaching curricula without a clear definition of how these technologies can contribute to the country's agricultural production. Another element contributing to the lack of linkages between plant breeding and the application of biotechnology tools is the action of donors who are providing support to biotechnology activities without ensuring that the activities will directly contribute to an increase in food production.
Resource Allocation by Crop or Crop Groups
Table 4
was prepared combining the plant breeders' FTE with the percentage of the resources allocated per crop or crop group. All countries sampled in Latin America allocated resources to rice and maize. With the exception of Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Uruguay, all other countries in the region allocated a more significant amount of their resources to rice compared to other crops or crop groups. Grain legumes and sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) stand out in terms of the proportion of resources allocated to them in the region. For example, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic spend more than 30% of its plant breeding resources on sugarcane; Venezuela and Ecuador spend up to 13.9% of plant breeding resources on grain legumes and Bolivia, 8.2%. For root and tuber crops, Ecuador (16.7%) and Uruguay (8.7%) are the countries with the highest allocations.
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In the Near East and North Africa, countries like Tunisia, Jordan, Lebanon, and Oman concentrated on vegetables and fruits, while Algeria, Egypt, Sudan and Turkey emphasized cereals (wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, and millet).
In East Europe, except Macedonia, which focuses on wheat, all sampled countries are directing their allocation of resources to fruits and vegetables. Countries like Moldova have nearly half of their FTE plant breeders working with fruits and vegetables.
Kazakhstan in Central Asia has the highest number of FTE plant breeders on wheat. For Uzbekistan, this crop is the second highest, as the first allocation was to cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.), which employs 55% of total FTE. Tajikistan is also stressing fiber crops (namely cotton). The remaining Asian countries have rice and fruits and vegetables among the priority crops. The Caucasus countries place a strong emphasis on wheat and fruits and vegetables.
Data from USDA-ARS showed that breeding activities in this organization emphasize maize (11.6), soybean (10.0), rice (9.3), wheat (8.8), cotton (7.6), alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) (5.7), and potato (5.5) (K. Simmons, personal communication, 2005). There are many countries where the number of FTE crop or crop group breeders is higher than that which is available in the major U.S. research organization (Table 4).
The emphasis given to allocation of resources varies from country to country and among countries within a given region. For certain crops and crop groups there are large numbers of FTE plant breeders, which means there is human capacity to carry out breeding activities. Other crops or crop groups might not even have a critical mass of FTE breeders to develop new cultivars.
National and Regional Workshops to Develop Strategies for Strengthening Plant Breeding and Associated Biotechnology Capacity
FAO and partners held national and regional workshops in some regions and countries to validate the survey information on countries' capacity and the opportunities and needs to strengthen their plant breeding and associated biotechnology. The first regional event for African countries took place in Ibadan (Nigeria) in collaboration with IITA, in June 2004. A second one with countries from different regions around the world was at FAO headquarters in Rome in February 2005. A third workshop was held in Almaty (Kazakhstan) in April 2006 for Central Asian countries in collaboration with CIMMYT and ICARDA (Guimarães et al., 2006a). In addition, there were national workshops held in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Albania. The reports of these events are available on the WIEWS homepage (FAO, 2006b).
During the aforementioned events, the survey data were presented and discussed by participants representing most of the institutions that contributed information, as well as decision makers, international organizations, and donors among other stakeholders. The main objective of these events was to identify gaps and opportunities for strengthening plant breeding and associated biotechnology capacity and to propose national and regional strategies for dealing with them.
In general, four major areas for intervention were identified in those events. The first priority was related to capacity building. Every single country and participants in those workshops pointed out that the countries need to develop strategies for short-, medium-, and long-term plant breeding and associated biotechnology training. These strategies foresee funding for follow-up actions to sustain national and regional plant breeding activities after the training is completed. Second, the availability of PGRFA was identified by countries as being a key element in strengthening national capacity. In general, breeding programs have access to improved material through CGIAR networks; even so, their needs are not fully attended to. For crops that fall outside the CGIAR mandate crops, it is a major problem to have sources of new traits to use in the local breeding programs. Thus, any strategy for strengthening national capacity has to consider mechanisms which make PGRFA available for breeding activities. Third, access to biotechnology tools (techniques, information, equipment, etc.) is inadequate in many countries and they see it as a limiting factor in the running of effective and efficient breeding programs. Finally, one of the main obstacles to having more resources allocated to plant breeding activities is lack of awareness of its impact. The scope of the issue is broad. It ranges from lack of understanding of the long-term requirements of plant breeding activities by the donors involved in funding agricultural development activities to the short-sighted vision of the local policymakers regarding the impact of plant breeding on national development.
Suggestions and recommendations gathered at national and regional level allow identifying high priority areas for the process of strengthening plant breeding and related biotechnology capacity. Any measure taken to improve surveyed countries' plant breeding system should carefully look at the above cited issues.
The Global Partnership Initiative for Plant Breeding Capacity Building
The Global Partnership Initiative for Plant Breeding Capacity Building (GIPB) initiative was launched by FAO and its partners based on the results of the national assessment combined with information exchange and the discussions performed during the national and regional workshops. The GIPB goal is to strengthen the capacity of the developing countries to improve their productivity through the sustainable use of PGRFA, using better breeding and seed delivery systems.
Together with governments and stakeholders, such as the CGIAR and national and regional centers of excellence, the GIPB will foster linkages with the donor community and the public and private sectors to identify and address needs in the area of plant breeding and related biotechnologies. An internationally facilitated partnership forms the basis for achieving the goal of the initiative by catalyzing and supporting national, regional, and global action among relevant international organizations, foundations, universities and research institutes, the private sector, civil societies, and national and regional bodies. In particular, the international partnership role of GIPB is aimed at strengthening national plant breeding policies and strategies and national institutional capacity for coordinated action on training plant breeders, accessing technologies and developing skills for crop improvement, exchanging and accessing diverse genetic resources, as well as sharing information and knowledge.
The GIPB was proposed as a multiparty initiative of "knowledge institutions" around the world and agencies that have a track record in supporting agricultural research for development, working with country programs committed to developing stronger plant breeding programs. It will support a partnership of public and private sector parties from both the North and South, working together to enhance the capacity of developing countries to improve their agricultural productivity through sustainable use of PGRFA. However, it will be by no means a "closed shop" and partners will encourage broad multistakeholder engagement.
Without the technical support of the consultants hired in every single country it would not have been possible to report the information presented here. In addition, we thank the valuable assistance of staff from the following CGIAR Centers: CIMMYT, ICARDA, IITA, IFPRI, and IPGRI. We also thank the editors and reviewers for their useful comments and suggestions. A special thanks goes to the Programme Cooperation Agreements (PCA) between the Government of Norway and FAO for the financial backing given to some of the activities that generated data discussed in this article.
Received for publication April 7, 2007.
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TOPABSTRACTINTRODUCTIONMaterial and MethodsResults and DiscussionREFERENCES |
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