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Science, agriculture

and food security

Proceedings of Session 10, Forum I of the World Conference on Science

Budapest, Hungary 27 June 1999

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS (FAO) CONSULTATIVE GROUP ON INTERNATIONAL AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH (CGIAR)

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR SCIENCE (ICSU) GOVERNMENT OF ITALY

UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION (UNESCO) Rome, 2000

The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations or of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

All rights reserved. Reproduction and dissemination of material in this information product for educational or other non-commercial purposes are authorized without any prior written permission from the copyright holders provided the source is fully acknowledged. Reproduction of material in this information product for resale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without written permission of the copyright holders. Applications for such permission should be addressed to the Chief, Publishing and Multimedia Service, Information Division, FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy or bye-mail to copyright@fao.org

© FAO and CGIAR 2000

Science, agriculture andfood security

Contents

INTRODUCTION 1

OFFICIAL REPORT ON THE SESSION 2

Presentations by the three speakers: 5

BIOTECHNOLOGY: A NEW INPUT FOR AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND FOOD SECURITY

Professor Marc Van Montagu 5

CREAriNG A GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE SYSTEM FOR FOOD SECLIRITY

Dr Bruce Alberts 9

SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE: MOBILIZING SOCIETY FOR FOOD SECURITY

Dr Mervat EI Badawi 12

Commentaries by the four discussants representing the institutions organizing the session:

Professor Louise Fresco (representing FAO)

Professor Gian Tommaso Scarascia Mugnozza (representing the Government of Italy)

Professor Win fried E.H~ Blum (representing the ICSU)

Dr Elias Fereres (representing the CGIAR)

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16

18

22

26

SUMMING-UP REMARKS

Dr Ismail Serageldin 27

Science, agriculture andfood security .

Introduction

In June 1999, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) held the World Conference on Science. The conference aimed to analyse the role that natural sciences play in the world today. Its main objectives focused on understanding what have been the social impacts of natural sciences, what society expects from the natural sciences, and therefore, what efforts science must make to meet those expectations.

The session on Science, Agriculture and Food Security was the loth session held under Forum I (Science: Achievements, Shortcomings and Challenges) of the conference and it was jointly organized by

• the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) • the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGlAR) • the International Council for Science (ICSU) and • the Government of Italy.

The coordinator of the session was Professor Maria Jose de Oliveira Zimmermann (F AO), and rapporteurS were Professor Enrico Porceddu (Italy), Dr Manuel Lantin (CGIAR) and Professor John Ingram (ICSU).

The purpose of this publication is to disseminate the speakers' presentations, the content of the discussions that followed, and therefore to contribute to promote the analysis and debate on the interrelations between science, agriculture and social concerns.

Organization and structure of the session:

The session was introduced by the Chairman, Dr Ismail Serageldin, who is Chairman of the CGlAR. The session featured presentations by three speakers, commentaries by four discussants, and questions from the floor in an interactive mode. The session concluded with summing-up remarks by the Chairman.

The three presentations were as follows:

• Professor Marc Van Montagu, University of Gent, Belgium, gave an overview of the achievements and shortcomings of science and agricultural research in the last 50 years.

• Dr Bruce Alberts, President, United States National Academy of Sciences, illustrated the challenges in meeting future needs/demands (agricultural needs to solve production problems and environmental problems).

• Dr Mervat EI Badawi, Director, Operations Department of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, lectured about mobilizing society for food security and related issues.

The four discussants, representing the organizers of the session, who gave commentaries on key points of the presentations were Professor Louise Fresco (FAO), Professor Gian Tommaso Scarascia Mugnozza (Italy), Professor Winfried Blum (ICSU) and Dr Elias Fereres (CGIAR).

Science.

Official report on the session

INTRODUCTION The session was jointly organized by the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGlAR), Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), International Council for Science (ICSU), and the Government of Italy. It was held on 27 June 1999 at the University of Horticulture and Food Industry, Budapest, Hungary, and was chaired by Dr Ismail Serageldin, Chairman, CGIAR. The session was well attended and included 150 participants, in addition to speakers, discussants, and conference representatives.

OBJECTIVES The objectives of the World Conference on Science were to analyse where the natural sciences stand today and where they are heading, what their social impacts have been and what society expects from them. The conference sought to identify what efforts need to be undertaken to make science advance in response to these expectations. More specifically, the session was aimed at reviewing the contributions of science and agricultural research to agriculture and food production, examining the drawbacks accompanying the application of science, and assessing its potential to meet the challenges in the future.

ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE The session featured presentations by three speakers, commentaries by four discussants, and questions from the floor in an interactive mode. The session concluded with summing up remarks by the chair.

PRESENTATIONS AND DISCUSSIONS The presentations covered the following themes: • Need for sustainable use of natural resources to provide food for an ever increasing population; • Promoting investment in basic research, especially in light of the track record of innovations and

technical advancements stemming from such investments (e.g. new crop varieties, improvements in the management of natural resources, expansion in the cultivation of elite cultivars engineered for specific traits, and the promise of further developments). Public acceptance, an entrepreneurial attitude, and continued investments were felt to be the key;

• Involvement of social scientists and policy makers in agricultural development, particularly to ensure that the new technologies being developed are suited to the needs of specific regions;

• Exploiting new communication tools for bridging the enormous 'knowledge gap' between developed and developing countries, and responding to the particular needs of small farmers in developing countries;

• Role of the international agricultural research centres (lARCs) of the CGIAR, and their efforts to promote suitable agriculture, enhance food security and reduce poverty by harnessing the best of science (e.g. conventional breeding, genetics, and sound management of natural resources);

• Recognition of the fact that growth of agricultural productivity is unevenly distributed, and the threat of food deficits is real for some areas; food needs in developing countries could nearly double over the next generation;

• Addressing the social dimensions in agricultural development is important; innovations have to be blended with institutional reforms in a new development paradigm, where North-South cooperation is coupled with South-South coordination, and problems of small farmers are taken into account.

Discussants put emphasis on: • Reducing the gap between potential and actual yield, by addressing issues related to biotic and

abiotic stresses, particularly those that are not of interest to the private sector. • Need for combining plant biology and bioteehnology with natural resources management.

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Science, QfYl'lcu'itwre

• Need for· changing or improving local and regional conditions, focusing on the prevailing economic, ecological, social and technical constraints of food deficit countries and regions.

• Need for harnessing the talents of young scientists who have been educated abroad in solving local problems.

• Need to stimulate and integrate the local scientific communities into international efforts. • Need to progress towards an environmentally and socially sustainable lifestyles, and due respect to

human and environmental rights and equity. • Need for scientists to be conscious of the moral and ethical dimensions of their findings and their

subsequent applications. • Need for an ethical dimension in science and technology systems, one that is concerned with the

common good, engages public opinion and promotes trust in society.

The following interventions were made from the floor: • Scientific development is key to addressing the complex issue of food security, although adequate

policies and other factors also play a role. Food security can be considered at different levels (household, community, national, regional and global). Food security means access to food and includes food availability in quantity and quality to supply human needs to a healthy and productive life. Research is needed to create a better scientific understanding of the biological, physical, economic and social constraints as they affect food security, particularly in the context of (a) developments in biotechnology and informatics, (b) potential negative environmental effects of the new technologies, (c) spatial, temporal, economic, and social dimensions of poverty, and food availability, and (d) -public perception and acceptance of scientific innovations.

• Science-based solutions will have to be developed to meet the food and nutritional demands of the world's population in the next century. This should be based on environmentally friendly options for the intensification of complex farming systems at smallholder level. Soil and water are basic for agricultural production and fresh water tends to be increasingly demanded for non-agricultural uses, reducing its availability for agricultural production. The new solutions should address this and other problems of actual or potential environmental degradation, combining the knowledge in those areas with gene technologies, management of natural resources and local knowledge. Approaches should be sensitive to local environmental and socio-economic realities with special attention to the needs of women farmers.

• Multidisciplinary science can play an important role in addressing different parts of the research continuum. Different fields of scientific enquiry for example, geography, hydrology, anthropology, psychology, communications, and ecology are often not considered to be part of the traditional agricultural research portfolio, but they do impact tbe lives of people in the agrarian societies.

• Developing countries need a larger cadre of trained scientific personnel in all scientific areas. They also need to provide those professionals with good working conditions that allow them to realize their potential for developing adequate scientific solutions for their own unique problems. Capacity building, directed by the development of a research agenda that addresses local and regional priorities, is urgently required.

• Science does not thrive in isolation. Because of the private sector driven nature of new scientific developments in developed countries, there is an ever-widening scientific gap betwecn countries of the North and South. North-South partnerships as well as South-South coordination are a way to help bridge the gap, and create a critical mass on scientific research that would be difficult to achieve by anyone country acting alone.

• Science generates a large amount of information that needs to be processed and adapted to be useful to society. Information needs to be translated in simple terms in order to be understood. Information technology is increasingly available but is not user-friendly. Information and information technology must be tailored to suit local needs. User-friendly interfaces for properly delivering available information are necessary for all sectors of society.

• The increased participation of the private sector in research has been brought about largely by guarantees of intellectual property rights (IPR) and protection. However, there is a fear that the research (both products and processes) will be focused towards the needs of only those who are

Science.

willing to pay, to the detriment of small farmers. Therefore, there is need for more public sector investments to address these research areas that are of direct concern to poor farmers and developing countries.

• Scientific endeavours, particularly those that involve genetic engineering and development of transgenic organisms, are being examined in terms of their ethical and moral as well as market implications. Societal responses to such issues reflect the cultural differences among communities and countries and their debate is sometimes marred by partial scientific knowledge. Public awareness and communication, grounded in scientific evidence, is needed in order to promote a more informed debate.

The Chairman concluded the meeting by offering the following thoughts: • For the last four decades, the world's population has benefited immensely from science based

growth in agricultural productivity. Increased food production has enabled populous countries in Asia to avert catastrophic famine. Lower food prices have enabled greater access to food by the poor, both in rural and urban areas. For the urban poor, lower food prices have helped to reduce poverty because food purchases account for a major portion of their incomes.

• Increased use of external inputs (fertilizers and crop protection chemicals) that enabled farmers to exploit the higher yield potential of modern varieties has been cited as one of the drawbacks of the 'Green Revolution' technologies. But such criticism has been tempered by the fact that 'Green Revolution' technologies resulted in saving millions of hectares of land from being brought under plow. This land was 'saved' in the best sense of the term, and the savings have been substantial: to produce the same amount of food that was generated by the improved technologies, an additional 300 million hectares of land would have been put into cultivation.

• Food security has many dimensions. It means not only increased supply of food but also increased access to it. It means that food security is not only about increasing productivity by making sure that production practices are sustainable. Food security can be enhanced by applying good technology and implementing appropriate policies. Food security is both a rural and urban issue, and enhanced food security has occurred at all levels: household, national, regional, and global. And empowerment of women will be a crucial element

• Providing food for the additional billions of people in the next century while protecting the environment will need science more than ever before. The revolution in biological sciences, especially the advances in molecular biology, bioinformatics, and genomics, are increasingly being deployed as powerful tools for improving agriculture and protecting the environment But their promise is being realized in the laboratories and production fields of industrialized countries only, and this has yet to happen in developing countries where the need for increasing productivity is vital. The new technologies have generated safety, ethical, environmental and social concerns and all these concerns must be addtessed if the new technologies are to be safely and equitably deployed in the service of developing country agriculture.

• The challenge is to bring about productivity increases through intensification of agriculture, at the smallholder level in the developing countries. Sustainable agriculture will be the key, and would require a synergistic combination of genetic technologies and sound natural resource management. Meeting these challenges will also need the commitment of all stakeholders, and it is only then we will be able to realize the promise of all that science can do to benefit the poor and the environment.

Budapest, 30 June 1999 Ismail Serageldin Enrico Porceddu Session Chairman Rapporteur

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Science, agriculture andfood security

Presentations by the three speakers:

Biotechnology: a new input for agricultural research

and food security

Professor Marc Van Montagu Department ofGenetics, University ofGent, 35 K.L. Ledeganckstraat, B-9000 Gent Belgium

SUMMARY In the coming decades, another two-fold increase of the world population is expected. To meet the rising demands of food and feed availability and the threat of water shortage, higher agricultural yields and use of marginal lands are a necessity. At the same time, other crucial factors such as global pollution and conservation of biodiversity have to be considered. Biotechnology offers the tools to create an agro-industry in which alternative and sustainable approaches are developed. Applications of plant biotechnology are highlighted and its major benefits for the society, in particular in relation to developing countries, are discussed.

INTRODUCTION In the forthcoming century we are heading towards a tremendous world population growth, 95 percent of which will occur in developing countries. It has taken thousands of years for the world population to reach the two billion mark, by the end of World War II in 1945. In only 50 years we have already passed the six billion mark and a further rise to at least ten to twelve billion is foreseen in the next 50 years. It is obvious that this extremely worrying situation will raise major agronomic problems. To be able to feed the growing population, higher agricultural production is needed. Also, a dramatic increase in global pollution is expected. Classical breeding, as practiced during the Green Revolution, resulted in higher crop yields. The cultivation of high yielding crop varieties requires, however, use of a lot of herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers, damaging the environment.

This century, 90 percent of the world population will live in developing countries. Unfortunately, mainly due to socio-economic factors, it is a utopia to try to redistribute food between North and South. It is the task of the northern community to come to an agreement and to contribute to a better life standard in developing countries by increasing the food availability in situ. At the same time, the conservation of the biodiversity should be taken care of. Tropical forests and woodlands are diminishing at a fast rate and, accompanying this, a wide biochemical biodiversity, containing many interesting biochemical compounds, is disappearing. It is the challenge for modem science to provide technological solutions to offer an industry with alternative and sustainable approaches while using less polluting chemicals.

THE POTENTIAL OF PLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY By classical breeding the number of traits that one can select is rather limited. DNA-marker assisted breeding is based on DNA markers linked to specific agronomic traits and facilitates conventional breeding practices. Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) is a method to rapidly identify

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Science, agriculture andfood security

DNA markers in a reliable way that can be applied even in the seedling stage before a particular trait is expressed. On the other hand, biotechnology provides us also with the tools to directly engineer input, output and physical traits into crops, allowing the potential to create value for developing countries.

Agriculture will always need yield improvement. Plants with a modified architecture or that process solar energy in a better way may produce a higher critical mass, yielding, for example, more fruit. The cultivation of plants with resistance against all kinds of biotic stress (like insects, fungi, bacteria and nematodes), responsible for enormous losses in crop yield and quality, can also increase agricultural productivity. Developing countries are mostly located in semi-arid or arid regions where drought, salinity, flooding and heat are major problems for agriculture that have to be tackled and solved. China, for instance, with only 7 percent of the total arable land in the world, has to feed 22 percent of the world's population. Therefore, the production of transgenic crops that have the capacity to grow on marginal lands is a major asset to increase food availability. Biotechnology also gives the potential to create plants that have a higher nutritional value. Lots of poor people suffer from a lack of vitamins and mineral elements. By genetic engineering, rice varieties containing sufficient concentrations of iron and vitamin A could be made.

The creation of value from all parts of the plant is an aspect to be estimated and learned. For example, sugar cane is only cultivated for sugar production. By means of biotechnology it may be possible to improve sugar cane fibres for their use in the production of paper and animal feed. One might also think of the use of plants for the production of molecules for new polymers or bulk materials. Plants can, for example, be engineered to generate lipids Qr carbohydrates with a specific structure, contributing to the production of biodegradable polymers. Production of chemicals in transgenic plants is not only protecting the environment because they are rapidly degraded but also because their source is inexhaustible. Another biotechnological application to a healthier environment is the exploitation of plants for phytoremediation in order to clean up pollution. On the other hand, the use of volatiles, by which plants communicate, contributes to improvement of biocontrol practices. Via genetic engineering it is possible to alter them to attract insects that are beneficial in biocontrol of pests.

People living in the developing part of the world cannot afford expensive medication. Transgenic plants may function as mini-factories to generate low-cost drugs from secondary plant metabolites. At the moment it is already possible to express vaccines in plants. A striking example is the production of transgenic bananas that contain a vaccine against cholera or diarrhoea. The generation of antibodies in plants opens the way to the development of low-cost diagnostic tests and clinical analyses.

An assessment of the biodiversity of the tropical rain forests is an urgent task to be performed in order to obtain an accurate inventory of the local species. The DNA fingerprinting technique is applicable to tropical tree species. By this method a single tree and its parents can be identified within a population. The information obtained by DNA fingerprints is not only significant for evaluation of tropical species but also contributes to reforestation management.

FROM FUNDAMENTAL GENETICS TO THE PRODUCTION OF NOVEL CROPS The strategy to produce transgenic crops with beneficial traits starts from the basic science that is done in universities and academic research institutions. During the last years, enormous progress has been made to identify the genes that determine the traits and to learn how to use them. However, the genes have to be engineered in elite germplasm and it can take five to ten years before the real products are on the market. How can this process be accelerated ?

Scientists work on a small crucifer, Arabidopsis, as a model plant for fundamental genetics and of which many mutants have been described. For example, the cauliflower mutant consists of one single mutation where, instead of developing flowers, the meristems are just proliferating. By revealing what this mutation is at the molecular level, we can start to understand plant growth and development in molecular terms.

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Science. agriculture andfood security

The genome of Arabidopsis consists of only a small amount of DNA, about 125 million base pairs, that is being systematically sequenced within the Arabidopsis Genome Project. At present, 75 percent of the genome sequence is known and it will be completed by summer 2000. All this useful information can be applied to other, economically important plants and orphan crops. In our laboratory, this is being done for poplar trees. Poplar trees only flower after five to eight years. Outcome of crosses were kept and, by use of the AFLP fingerprint technique, it was found that poplar trees resistant to a fungus possess a DNA fragment that was not found in the sensitive lines. This information can be used to engineer fungus resistance in other plant species.

Recent development of the methodology of functional genomics has accelerated progress in plant molecular biology research enormously. RNA messenger profiling allows an inventory of the protein composition in each individual tissue or cell type to be made. Moreover, thanks to progress in the field of organic and analytical chemistry, in particular the widespread applications of sensitive techniques such as capillary electrophoresis and mass spectrophotometry, we are able to quantify the fluctuations of key metabolites (solutes and volatiles) under different growth conditions. Moreover, the study of volatiles has been greatly advanced by the 'gum' phase extraction method that facilitates resorption.

The study of secondary metabolites may be of particular interest for the pharmaceutical industry, since most drugs are based on plant-derived products. In this respect, capillary electrophoresis and mass spectrophotometry are ideal methods for capturing the value of biodiversity in tropical forests. Of the nine thousands proteins that have been crystallized, it was shown that only fifty basic folding ways exist. Therefore, the secondary metabolites evolved to interact with these basic folds would be excellent starting products for targeted drug development. Also, by means of molecular techniques, the biochemical pathway of a chemical substance can be deciphered, leading to the identification of its precursors. Combinatorial chemistry with different precursors may allow novel pharmaceutical compounds to be made.

With the methodology of bioinformatics, all the data at the DNA, RNA and protein level can be rapidly analysed in order to unravel the syntax of the language hidden in the genome, giving enormous perspectives to plant biotechnology. To make the link between fundamental research, carried out at universities and academic institutions, and transgenic crops that are brought onto the market, start-up companies are needed to develop a prototype from the research outcome. In the Laboratory for Genetics of the University of Gent it was discovered in the late 1970s that a bacteria, Agrobacterium tumefasciens, has the capacity to genetically engineer plants in a natural way by transferring DNA to make tumours. Around that time, a spin-off company, Plant Genetic Systems (PGS), was founded in Gent. This became successful by focusing on, one crop, canola ( oilseed rape), in which a gene from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) was engineered, coding for a protein, an endotoxin, that is not toxic for vertebrates and that co'nfers tolerance to larvae of insects that devastate plants. Afterwards, the same principle was applied to maize, conferring resistance to the European corn borer. Transgenic maize that contains the Bt endotoxin gene is much safer for humans and the environment, since less poisonous chemicals have to be used to protect the plants.

Another achievement of PGS was the creation of plants resistant to novel herbicides that are rapidly degraded in the soil. Unfortunately, in developing countries, cheaper but mostly very toxic herbicides are still used, causing a lot of problems for the ground water and environmental damage. The use of herbicide-resistant plimts should therefore be encouraged in this part of the world. PGS also applied the molecular basis for hybrid corn to other crops like cotton and canola. Hybrids give a 20 percent higher yield and are more resistant to environmental stresses.

Another example of a successful start-up company is Cellulose Binding Domain (CBD), Israel, that was established based on ,research achievements that were made on glucanase, a plant enzyme that binds to cellulose. It turned out that, by genetic engineering, it was possible to stimulate the synthesis of cellulose five times, resulting in taller plants that have more erected leaves.

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Finally, for registration and commercialization of the products, industry is needed. For this purpose, a start-up company can work in joint venture with the industry, be integrated, or become itself a small industry. For examplc, PGS has been sold to industry (Agrevo) and a new spin-off company was created in Gent last year, named Crop Design, mainly based on research of the plant cell cycle, with a major aim to modify plant architecture.

PERSPECTIVES OF AN AGRO·INDUSTRY BASED ON BIOTECHNOLOGY In the United States and Canada several start-up companies have been active, resulting in the plantation of transgenic crops for commercial use. Lately, Japan decided to invest in the foundation of small biotechnological companies to bring science rapidly to the market. Europe is lagging behind mainly due to public concerns regarding the safety of genetically engineered food and the fear of ecological disruption. Social concerns related to biotechnology are expressed by organizations like Greenpeace, which oppose the use of genetically modified plants in food production. Above all, they are adamantly against industrialization and patenting of food. The involvement of industry is however an absolute requirement for registration and commercialization of prototype products developed by start-up companies based on fundamental research. It is essential that consumers are well informed of the advantages that plant biotechnology can bring and that political parties adopt a clear and responsible position. Therefore, an open discussion of scientists with the political authorities and the public is an absolute necessity.

Plant biotechnology has interesting applications that society is waltmg for, particularly for developing countries by providing solutions for problems that are experienced daily by subsistence farmers. Fundamental plant molecular research focused on the needs of developing countries will require the creation of networks with participation of all universities in the northern community. The role of the CGlAR research centres may be to set up the prototype products and then agreements may be reached with the industry in harmony with the interests of the different countries.

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Science. agriculture andfood security

Creating a global knowledge system for food security

Dr Bruce Alberts President, United States National Academy ofSciences 2101 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington D.C. 20418 United States

The United States National Academy of Sciences is a public service organization. Since our inception in 1863, we have been charged by our government to provide advice to the nation and the world. We now have about 6 000 volunteers at anyone time providing science policy advice to our government and other institutions, and they produce an average of about one report every working day. We make our advice freely available by publishing the full text of our reports in the World Wide Web for everyone to access. By using the search engine provided, anyone in the world can have access to our research reports on water, soil, education, and so on.

lam a scientist and I would like to address an important question that Professor Van Montagu raised: how can scientists from around the world be better connected to the problems of food security? This is a problem that I had time to investigate as part of a major study sponsored by the World Bank and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) last year; in fact, it is from that experience that I learned nearly all that I know about the subject.

Science works by the sharing of knowledge and combining It III unexpected ways. We have a situation today where most young American scientists know nothing about the problems that we are talking about here today. They have had no exposure at all to the needs of most of the world's population and they know little about what is happening in developing countries. Most importantly, they have no idea of the many ways in which the science that they know could be of use to scientists in those parts of the world that are very different from the United States. I am convinced that, if they knew more about developing country needs, they could be major contributors to those countries. Thus, the major theme of my talk is: how might we best connect the scientists in industrialized countries to the needs of poor rural farmers from around the world?

One type of report that we have on our web site explains to the public how science works and makes the point that random collisions between various kinds of knowledge have led to major advances in the past and will create much of the progress in the future (see www2.nas.edulbsi). We need to therefore create a situation where there are many more accidental (as well as planned) encounters between the scientists of the industrialized world and the activities, needs and scientists of the developing world.

We are making enormous progress in nearly all fields of science and it is all because we build constantly on the work of others - for example, by finding out about a powerful new technique that a scientist developed for some other purpose that we can apply to our own work. Science advances by sharing knowledge and creating new opportunities in unexpected ways. The challenge is to discover how we can do that much more widely throughout today's world, taking advantage of the revolutionary new communication technologies that are available.

During 1998, I spent about six weeks working on the CGIAR report and visiting various CGIAR centres. Part of that time was spent in far western Kenya, near the shores oflake Victoria, looking at the

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on-farm research being carried out jointly by the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF)/CGIAR and KARl, Kenya's National Agricultural Research System.

That experience profoundly affected me. I realized that there is no way we can meet the real needs of these farmers when we are so isolated from those needs. We have no connection in the United States with their problems of soil, plant diseases, etc. But if we could develop meaningful contacts with them, many of us would like to participate.

Our report on the future of the CGlAR, released in Oetober 1998, called for a major effort by the CGIAR in genetic resources, for integrated gene management and an integrated worldwide programme on natural resource management, .which is actually a more difficult issue involving the sustainability of agriculture, inputs, soils, water and output pollution caused by agriculture (see cgrcvicw. worldbank.orgl cgrcvrcp.htm).

Yet what we saw while visiting Nairobi is that there are hundreds of different agencies working on agriculture in Kenya. When we went around, we discovered that most of them did not know what the other ones were doing, creating a totally uneoordinated effort, with many of them 'reinventing the wheel'. Far too much effort has been invested in top-down projects. For example, somebody sitting somewhere in the United States might invent what he thought was a good idea for Africa; then in order to get funding from the United States Government, he would have to find an African partner to carry out a project that does not necessarily meet a major need of the Africans themselves.

One of the recommendations in our report focused on the need to have much more local and regional involvement in research planning and the design of agricultural experiments. The purpose is to avoid top-down projects and have more coordination and bottom-up contribution from the African researchers and farmers.

In the U.S. we talk constantly about 'bringing science into the lives of all Americans': this is one of my Academy's major themes. Perhaps what we need internationally is to bring science into the lives of all the world citizens. But how? We have been trying to get more science into the world's agriculture for a long time. Nevertheless, in many nations there has been little progress.

As a scientist, whenever you hit a hard problem - after banging your head against the wall for a long time- you jump to exploit any new tool that is developed that might help you. One of the new tools that needs to be much more intelligently applied to agricultural needs around the world is the wonderful new communication tool of the Internet and the World Wide Web. In our CGIAR report, we recommend the development of a Global Knowledge System for Food Security. This system would be designed to create a new two-way communication process between all of the scientists across the globe and the needs of agricultural extension services, farmer organizations, villages and others.

A second powerful effect on me, besides my visit to Africa, relates to my visit this past January to Dr M. S. Swaminathan, in Madras, India, where I visited a remarkable experiment that he calls the Information Village Programme. About half the families in the rural villages that he is working with have incomes of less than US$25 a month. The project is designed to provide these villagers with knowledge that meets their needs using the World Wide Web.

The process starts with volunteer teams that visit the villages to find out what kind of knowledge the farmers want not to tell them what they are going to get, which is the way too many of us work in the developing world. Particularly popular are information and advice on growing local crops; protecting crops from insect and other diseases; having access to daily market prices for these crops; and local weather forecasts. Also popular is clear information about the many government programmes that are designed to help the Indian poor, which are usually not accessible to them. Those villages that participate in this programme must provide a public room for the computer system. They also provide the people to operate them, mostly high school graduates, who frequently turn out to be women. In

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Science, agriculture andfood security

return the village receives the hardware, the wireless communication system and specially designed web sites in their local language.

Inspired by these two experiences in Kenya and India, and my thirty years of prior experience in American research universities, I would like to challenge us to work together to develop the Global Knowledge System for Food Security recommended in the CGIAR report that I mentioned earlier. Can we begin to do the experiments we need to work out a communication system that connects scientists and farmers in a way that empowers the farmers with knowledge to improve their livelihoods, while making the scientists much more aware of developing country needs?

The system should be based on a global network established on the World Wide Web. The basic idea is to start with an international database of the best available scientific and technical knowledge organized in a readily accessible form. We do not really know how to do this yet, to get this massive amount of information on the World Wide Web in a way that can be useful to the many people who would benefit from it in the developing world: the national scientific organizations, universities, non­governmental organizations (NGOs), the farmers' organizations, women's organizations and the villages. A critieal aspect of the system would be learning how to establish meaningful two-way communications, because, unlike television or radio, the Internet readily allows for this possibility.

While assessing from villagers what their needs are, we should try to analyse and compile the best of their indigenous knowledge, so that it could be readily spread to other villagers elsewhere in the world. Instantaneous two-way communication on the Internet thereby provides a great opportunity to do something we could never do without this wonderful communication device.

Our Academy would like to carry out an experiment in which we partner with a few developing countries. The purpose would be to develop a prototype Web Site that would make available the relevant scientific and technical information, on a narrow range of issues, in a form that is most usable by the clients. We need a partner to help us figure out what exactly would be useful to some regions of Africa, for example.

When we were travelling around to visit the different centres of the CGIAR, we sawall kinds of wonderful publications that had been designed to help local farmers. Over the years, many things have been designed that are very useful, but they are generally inaccessible to most of those in the world who need them. How can we get all this material in the World Wide Web so that the best designed material for local farmers in Kenya (for example) can be available to local farmers all around the world, and so on?

From our side, in the industrialized nations, we have begun to do a small part of the work. For example, the United States Academy publishes the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which is a prestigious scientific journal with more than 10 000 pages published per year. Our decision has been to make the World Wide Web version available free of charge for scientists throughout the developing world. This is one way that we can easily contribute.

Even more importantly, about a year and a half ago, the United States government, through our National Library of Medicine, decided to make the major search engine for the biomedical literature freely available on the World Wide Web. Now, anybody in the world can have access, to the abstracts at least, of most of the world's biomedical literature at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed. It would be good to have the same kind of search engine freely available for agriculture and the environment, because an effective sharing of knowledge with the developing world is only possible if they do not have to pay exorbitant prices for it.

I would like to end by challenging the CGIAR to make an annual list of the 100 most important scientific challenges in agriculture for specific areas of the developing world and advertise it for all to see on the World Wide Web. In this way, we could quickly jump-start a worldwide effort to engage scientists in the challenge of meeting the real needs of local farmers everywhere.

11

Science,

Science and agriculture: mobilizing society for food security

Dr Mervat EI Badawi Director, Operations Department, Arab Fundfor Economic and Social Development, P.G. Box 21923, 13080 Sajat, Kuwait

The world is currently facing the greatest population explosion in history, with the most rapid population growth occurring in developing countries. Food production has not kept pace with the increase in population and would need to expand by at least 2.5 percent per year in the coming decade to provide for the fast-growing hungry populations of the world. The alarming question is: will we have the means to avoid a growing threat or will we be struggling in the new millennium to feed hungry populations and avoid malnutrition and food shortages?

Agricultural technology for exploiting the presently non-arable lands is a long way off. Most developing countries struggling to increase agricultural production need to do so on land already under cultivation. Green Revolution technologies and the policies used to promote them and sustain their efficient use may prove to be inadequate for further growth in production.

The regional food security problems that the Third World countries have encountered over the past century have undoubtedly been alleviated by the contributions of the Green Revolution since the 1960s. Causes of the production deficit include: (i) inappropriate technology, (ii) limited land, (iii) decreasing water supply, (iv) environmental degradation, (v) inadequate research, (vi) fossil fuel energy constraints, (vii) inappropriate post-harvest handling and storage, (viii) and unpredictable weather, in addition to Ox) population growth, (x) rising affluence and (xi) inequitable social and political structures.

The Green Revolution transplanted a range of agricultural technologies from the rich to the poor countries. Agricultural techniques today are numerous and range from the conventional and traditional scientific techniques to the complex genetic engineering. With the help of new improved seed strains, fertilizers, better practices, mechanization, improved irrigation efficiency, integrated management techniques and reduced post-harvest losses, crop yields have increased in many countries, especially in Asia. As a result, the real price of staple foods has dropped, which in turn has helped to boost living standards in many countries. Indeed, without the Green Revolution, the number of 'absolute poor' would have been higher by some hundreds of millions.

Unfortunately, countries in desperate need of modern techniques were only exposed to and allocated technology 'left-over' from the industrialized countries. This has in effect deepened the dichotomy and broadened the gaps between rich and poor and the Industrialized and Third Worlds. Further, lacking appropriate education, the capital, and the infrastructure to fully develop and absorb such technologies adequately, Third World mismanagement and lack of technical know-how have caused environmental damage and jeopardized natural resources.

The water shortage in certain regions, coupled with soil degradation and the advance of deserts, changing climate, global warming, the ozone hole and a rise in CO2 concentrations, makes it hard to

12

foresee a sustainable level ofagricultural production. Historically, conventional sciences have increased agricultural output of rural societies through integrated management techniques, the use of fertilizers, water management techniques, planned land exploitation etc. Today, better techniques through advanced cell and atom research are available to us. This biotechnology technique may be capable of serving a globally fast-growing population.

Agricultural biotechnology is multidimensional and similar to other technological innovations. It should be looked at from several different perspectives including economics, sociology, management science, history etc. The benefits of biotechnology in terms of the positive impacts on agriculture are nevertheless numerous. Some of these are: (i) crop improvement directly improves produet quality, (ii) improved nutritional value helps alleviate undernourishment in the world, (iii) increased yields and productivity, (iv) less water and land use, (v) improved resistance to pests, diseases and weeds, (vi) substitution of one crop for another, (vii) adaptation of existing crops and livestoek to different environments, (viii) sustainability and environmental protection, and (ix) maintenance of variability and biodiversity.

While tissue culture and immunological techniques can be easily integrated with traditional agriculture without causing any ethical or health hazards, other areas of biotechnology such as molecular genetics and recombinant DNA, or aggressive biotechnology, have far-reaching repercussions that remain unclear. The consequences of introducing 'foreign genes' into food consumed by humans are unknown. If a gene-manipulated plant is crossbred with other varieties, a detrimental variety might be released into nature and have adverse consequences. An illustration of uncontrollable outcome is the escape of the African killer bees being studied in South America that have already invaded the southern states of the United States. Another example is 'mad cow' disease. This was successfully tackled by Western developed nations; however, what would be the repercussions of a similar crisis in the Third World ? How soon would the problem be spotted, how effective would the appeal for help be and how swiftly would the problem be resolved ? All of these issues are of utmost importance and reveal the inadequacies of technological infrastructure in absorbing potential problems, were these to arise in Third World countries.

Considering the risks of reactions, allergies and other effects of such genetic manipulation, the adoption of aggressive biotechnology should not be allowed to proceed until society acquires a better understanding of the science. Our focus is to make sure that biotechnology remains a food security investment, rather than a burden on those already put at an earlier disadvantage.

From a legal standpoint, proper legislation is necessary for the introduction and release of any new technology. Obtaining patent protection on unique new plant varieties is relatively straightforward, while patenting transgenic animals and microbes is still difficult. Certain conventions have already been held and issues discussed. Specifically, various countries have ratified a number of agreements relating to biodiversity and biosafety, drafted mainly by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). However, the main issue remains on patent matters relating to use of the invention rights by the Third World. Can the Third World afford to use the intellectual property rights relating to biotechnology ? Evidently, the underdeveloped world does not have the adequate resources and means to purchase the scientific solution to their problems.

Transfer of technology now seems to be the only way out. This can only be served through the mobilization of society through capacity building, reforming institutions and the adoption of a new development paradigm. Shouldn't science, at a crucial point, be taken up by transnational public organizations for the benefit of all and isn't knowledge after all a public good? If it is not a legal matter, it is at least an ethical must, for the development of all humanity, indiscriminately. Otherwise, the underdeveloped will remain and the gap will only widen.

Only a few countries own the factors of production, resources for invention and research industries. They have invested time, funds and their workforce in scientific research. But that should not mean that it is the rich and developed countries that should decide which areas of agricultural biotechnology

13

Science.

research are to be focused on. Private research companies have been granted patents for the 'Terminator' seed technology, among others. Biotechnology can turn into a profitable business for the five major modified seed companies or 'Gene Giants' at the expense of the Third World if governments and international agencies do not intervene.

The invention of 'Terminator' and 'Terminator tI' has put farmers in an arduous position. The ultimate objective of agri-business has become to force farmers to pay for seeds every season. Although poor farmers in developing countries grow 15-20 percent of the world's food and directly feed at least 1.4 billion people, they are nevertheless poor and cannot afford to buy seeds yearly. Those farmers depend on both their saved seeds and their own breeding skills in adapting other varieties for use. Needless to say, conserving and selling seeds constitute a significant proportion of that farmer's Income.

Most of the research on biotechnology is privately funded and hence aggravates the problem by being profit-oriented. Gene Giants are not interested in developing plant varieties in favour of poor farmers who lack the financial means. The focus is mainly on high yielding, irrigated lands. This leaves resource-poor farmers to fend for themselves. Poor farmers are in effect marginalized by developments in agriculture. It is a fundamental right of farmers to save seeds and breed crops. Whatever advances have been made up until now have only been possible thanks to those farmers who saved the seeds from their harvest for millennia and who preserved the viability and diversity of these.

National and international legislation has only come to favour the very latest biological invention increments belonging to the developed world and has disregarded rightfully owed past acknowledgement of the chain of inventions that were instituted by those farmers who maintained the original germplasm.

Can we distort nature to abate a looming food security crisis ? If the outcomes are not as promising as we would wish them to be, will the changes to the ecosystem we will cause be reversible or wi]] the damage be terminal?

The impediments to proper global integration in the biotechnology era ought to be efficiently resolved. First and foremost, governments should increase investments in basic education because of increasing knowledge gaps between developed and developing countries. Without some form of properly guided education, technologies in any form cannot be absorbed. Special attention should be paid to women, who represent the major food producers in developing countries and who, if provided with basic education, could help raise agricultural productivity and income through adequate use of the new technologies. Additionally, and for the purpose of raising produetivity, the time has come to invest heavily in agricultural research and extension in developing countries.

Information services in remote areas are a critical concern. Farmers ought to be aware of environmentally sound practices in order to maintain and preserve the natural resources. Information can be transmitted either through local radios, participatory videos, printed materials, the Internet, or through tele-centers. Information exchange facilitates agricultural development by giving a voice to those involved, namely the farmers. Governments could empower farmers by giving them more resources and political autonomy, improving access to markets and developing funding channels for the rural popUlation. Foreign investments may also be needed because of limited national funding.

It is of extreme importance that governments develop clearly defined objectives and outline a strategy for technology in the agricultural sector to enhance productivity in the rural and food sectors. Governments are nevertheless not alone in their struggle. Food security is, and will remain, a global concern and governments must not act alone, but rather incorporate partners and form alliances in order to accomplish crucial objectives. The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGlAR) is combining its efforts with developing countries and ensuring that biotechnology is 'needs­driven' rather than 'science-driven'. National agricultural research systems as well should playa role in using the advances made in biotechnology to benefit the poor. Collaboration with non-governmental

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Science, agriculture and/ood security

organizations, agricultural research institutes, the private sector and universities or public research institutes is necessary.

If progress is not achieved rapidly in the poor regions of the world and if basic food needs are not met soon, all countries stand to lose. Biotechnology should be integrated with traditional agricultural methods and agricultural research directed towards the farmers' needs in developing countries.

Since food security is a global issue, efforts to mobilize societies, consolidate activities and safely channel the fruits of technological breakthroughs are the only way in which we can avoid the 'misdistribution mistakes' of the Green Revolution era. On the eve of the next millennium, and learning from the lessons of the past, exposure and, most importantly, accessibilitY to any scientific advance ought to be considered a legitimate right owed to all. The facts are disturbing, the needs urgent and the means available, so let us work together and strive for a hunger-free world.

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Science, agriculture andfood security

Commentaries by the four discussants representing the institutions

organizing the session:

Professor Louise Fresco (representing FAO) Director, Research, Extension and Training Division, FAD Via delle Terrne di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy

Notwithstanding the importance of biotechnology, there is a whole set ofother technologies available to agricultural science. This set could be generally described as natural resource conservation technologies, These technologies too often risk being excluded from agricultural science. Why are they important and why do they have to act in synergy with biotechnology ?

The real challenge today is not to increase the yield ceiling but to close the gap between farm level and research station yields and private sector yields, A significant example regards the yield gap of cassava, one of the major crops in Africa, Cassava's average yield, calculated over twelve months, is 8 tons per hectare in Africa, whereas commercial plantations in Brazil currently yield 80 tons per hectare. Therefore, the real yield gap is between 8 and 80 tons. In alleviating poverty, the first priority is not to move up the maximum even further.

This production gap is only partially addressed by the biotechnology currently at our disposaL Yet it could be addressed through the use of modern technology to enhance the resources that farmers have, particularly in the area of soils and water. Natural resources, (those naturally regenerated through biochemical processes, including solar energy), are the resources that most farmers have to build on, to improve their food security.

The need for natural resources management is so urgent because soil loss is, on a human time scale, an irreversible process. The evolution of the most common tropical soils takes between 75000 and 125000 years. However, many soils lose several millimetres, as well as a high percentage of organic matter, every year. This is a key problem which is not addressed because most of the private sector research addresses the short-term problems of pest and disease stress, and not the long-term problems.

Tackling food security through natural resource management may not appear very popular nowadays, basically because most of the research funding today comes from the private sector and it is not aimed at natural resources, but mainly at genetic improvement. The reason is that biotechnology has a very high rate of return and pay-off in a very short period of time.

Natural resource management technologies are much more complex. A single recipe cannot be distilled for all the regions, they are location-specific, they differ from area to area, from farm to farm. In economic terms, comparative rates of return related to the use of different technologies have never been calculated in any systematic fashion. The assumption is simply made that those based on natural resource management are lower. In fact, recalculations of the rates of return from the green revolution were made and much of what would be attributed to modern plant breeding, actually should be attributed to the combination of plant breeding, water and soil management.

There are many issues that natural resource management and related technologies should address. I believe that this area requires as much, if not more, scientific creativity. It is a real pity that the number of students in classical agronomy, water and soil management is declining. Currently, most students attending agriculture faculties tend to go to molecular biology and biotechnology-related branches. This

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Science, agriculture andfood security

is regrettable because today's extreme specialization often prevents the integration of agronomy and modem disciplines such as molecular biology.

What are some of the subjects that biotechnology and natural resource management technologies could address together? Those areas are considered as limitations by farmers and they lie at the basis of natural resource management, for instance, drought stress, salinity stress, aluminum stress in tropical soil, nitrogen fixation, and high temperature stress, particularly important in a context of climate variability and climate change.

It would be necessary to make an inventory of these issues and lClok at the different sets of tools available, both in the biotechnology area and other technology areas. These problems are currently being overlooked.

Our challenge today is to seek a fruitful synergy between biotechnology and natural resource management research. This will be crucial for the future.

17

Science, ncn'w7;'If1lirp

Professor Gian Tommaso Scarascia Mugnozza (representing the Government of Italy) Rector, Universita Degli Studi Della Tuscia, Via S. C. de Lellis, 01100 Viterbo Italy

BIOTECHNOLOGY, GENETIC ENGINEERING, AGROBIODIVERSITY AND BIOSPHERE SUSTAINABILITY

SCIENCE AND ETHICS In order to survive, human society must progress towards a pacific and equitable social life, in accordance with human and environmental rights. Science and scientists, engaged in the advancement of knowledge and consequent benefits for human life, must be conscious and active witnesses of the moral and ethical responsibilities ofdiscoveries, inventions, innovations and technological applications. New scientific developments in basic and applied biology, chemistry, agricultural genetics, geology, climatology, ecology, economics and social sciences are necessary to satisfy the basic human needs, in particular those required by sustainable agriculture, wholesome nutrition, food production, storage and distribution.

The emphasis on the ethical dimension of science and of the scientific and technological research system, promotes the trust of society and public opinion in scientific knowledge and its derivatives. Science is one of the main human strengths to challenge and overcome problems, conditions and limits to mankind development. Nevertheless, the best science and the most effective technology will not solve society's problems and may create new ones if their development does not respect human values. One of the main challenges is the pursuit of the biosphere sustainability, which has to be at the one time socially equitable, economically pursuable and ecologically positive.

AGRICULTURE, AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES AND BIOTECHNOLOGY Agriculture is one of mankind's oldest activities. It has pennitted a progressive increase in the human popUlation and, therefore, a wider availability not only of purely physical strength but also of minds, intuition, wits and intellectual capacities, leading to the establishment of civilizations and cultures. The pressure of demographic expansion and of increasing human needs, and the contemporary scientific and technological advancements are now also imposing dramatic changes on agriculture. The ·future of agriculture in a broad sense appears to be like a Pandora's box: rich of potentialities, problems, trends and results. Molecular biology, genetic engineering, the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in plant and animal science, in the sciences of nutrition and crop processing for food and industrial use, their effects on the environment and ecosystems and their biotechnological, agrotechnological and industrial applications, are rapidly winning attention and suggesting utilizations. Socio-economic and environmental consequences will probably be enonnous and will raise scientific problems and ethical questions.

PROBLEMS AND CONCERNS In the course of my address, I intend to outline first the problems and questions proposed to the human conscience and intelligence by the effects and potential advantages, but also risks, consequent to the drastic changes imposed on agriculture by scientific research. I will then refer to the responses expected from science in order to mould changes into strong improvements of agricultural production and its agroindustrial processing. Agriculture could once more propose itself as an instrument of social and economic progress, a driving force of cooperation among peoples, with a strong impact on the basic needs of life and freedom of human beings. Assuming that in the pursuit of scientific innovations there is no 'no-risk' option, let me now list, in points a) and b), objective problems and concerns: a) Can food and food components from genetically modified plant and animals be hannful to human health? b) Is it feasible that GMOs transfonned with DNA that increase their adaptation to agroecosystems when compared to traditional crops and livestock, may spread their new DNA in the environment, pass

18

Science, agriculture andfood security

it to other plants and animals which will be endowed with new traits whose effect is unforeseeable in natural ecosystems? The recipient organisms would be wild plants and animals, which would generate a modification of biological equilibria, a threat to biodiversity and other environmental risks.

THOUGHTS AND ANSWERS Point a): The insertion of one or few genes (carefully defined in its/their genetic information and specific properties) into a pool of about 20 000 genes, often not yet well known, which make up the genome of higher plants, invites one to suggest that genetic engineering is a more predictable and controlled method regarding the gene to be transferred, as compared to the various conventional plant breeding systems, which range from hybridization to experimentally induced mutagenesis (making the whole plant genome interact with physical and chemical mutagens). Furthermore, wholesomeness and safety of food supplies from GMOs are already regulated (of course the control system must be constantly improved) by expert committees of international agencies (e.g. WHO, FAO and the Codex Alimentarius Commission), by national bodies and agencies (e.g. Food and Drug Administration in the United States) and by regional institutions, as in the European Union.

The European legislation, for instance, is very rigorous. It envisages the labelling of all foods containing raw materials from transgenic plants. It has also been demonstrated that, during some food preparation, due to various industrial manipulations, the DNA of transferred genes may disappear, as in the case of soybean oil extracted from seed of herbicide-resistant varieties. It is also to be recalled that toxins or antinutritional factors are present in several food crops (cassava, leguminous species etc.) and are made harmless or less toxic through food preparation. In any case, research and regulations imposing patents safeguarding intellectual property rights and farmers rights, and stringent controls and inspections, imposing the labelling of GMO-derived products, as well as continuously updated rules on food safety, are needed in order to dispel doubts and concerns and to inspire the confidence of consumers.

The very same idea of substantial equivalence of a GMO-derived food to a conventional counterpart already available as a food supply, is a dynamic concept implying a continuous and increasing assurance of the safety ofGMO-derived food products.

Point b): The chance that genes transferred into a GMO may, by accidental cross-pollination, be transmitted to other species, spontaneous or cultivated ones, giving rise to new herbicide- or parasite-resistant plants, depends on the environmental context where the crop is grown: for example, on the possible presence of wild species able to hybridize with the GMO. Numerous and exhaustive experiments are needed to ascertain possible cases of interbreeding and to study the effects on parasite populations and on the selection of resistant mutants.

Constant monitoring is needed of the impact on ecosystems and their components. It cannot be excluded a priori that, as soon as there is a spread of the GMOs cultivation, the ability of the GMO individuals to produce compounds capable of degrading herbicides, blocking viruses, making plants more resistant to abiotic stresses, being toxic to pathogens, may be turned against other biotic components in the ecosystem (useful insects, other invertebrates, microflora and microfauna in the rhizosphere, birds etc.), threatening the biodiversity to a larger extent than any chemical treatment. These risks also require vast and careful research and constant monitoring, parallel to the spreading of the GMOs cultivation. In fact, new farming systems utilizing GMOs that are more resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses, with improved organoleptic, nutritional and market quality, must however be economically and ecologically compatible and sustainable.

A special case is represented by the use of antibiotic-resistant genes as markers in GM crops, and the risk that such resistance can be introduced into the human food chain. In order to avoid this harmful effect, this type of markers is being eliminated, even if the origin of antibiotic-resistant mutants is also to be attributed, since long time ago, to hospitals and veterinarian applications.

19

Science, agriculture andfood security

CONSIDERATIONS AND CONCLUSION Having outlined the role of research with regard to problems, concerns or refusal in the introduction of the GMOs in the agrofood sector, I wish to express some ideas about ways to overcome this discrepancy. In fact, on the one hand it is possible to observe an expansion of the use of transgenic plants: their development in other crops and forest trees, an increase of acreage, a wider range of characteristics modified as for resistance to parasites, quality, productivity, adaptability to different environments, sustainability of farming systems. As a matter of fact, the use of GM crops, is now spreading from North America into other geo-political areas (South America, Far East), and is now involving also various developing countries, with special attention to crops native to tropics or subtropics, due to the obvious advantage of a larger food availability to fight and control the malnutrition now affecting hundfeds of millions ofhumans.

On the other hand, a recurrent refusal to accept GMOs must be recorded, and not only in economically developed countries. Strong public opinion and government concerns exist, related to fears of damages to human health, to the environment and its resources, in particular to biodiversity, and ofpossible strong disturbances to agricultural systems and commercial relationships. In this respect, clear signs of disputes at the level of world trade in farm products are already evident. It is also significant that those signs have manifested themselves during international meetings (Cartagena, Peru, 1999) on the application of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Moreover, particularly important is the fact that modem societies are today better educated, or at least better informed, due to the globality and rapidity of the diffusion of information and in the action of public administrations, associations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), willing to protect mankind and environment health. As a consequence, public opinion, policy makers and governments must be reassured and able to rely on a strong and ethically determined engagement of the scientific community, supported by adequate public and private investments. A strong opinion movement and valid basic and applied research should not only aim to monitor the effects of the introduction of GM crops, but also pursue the study and observation of the potential of molecular biology, genetic engineering, the biotechnologies, as in the food production, in the discovery and elimination of direct and indirect effects, both biological and economical, and in the introduction and spreading of GMOs in farming systems, in natural ecosystems and in world food trade, etc.

Studies and research should not be confined, according to a reductive approach, to the monitoring of the effects determined by the introduction of the GMOs. Rather, holistic criteria should be adopted, and every reasonable hypothesis of interaction among GMOs, humans and ecosystems investigated. Furthermore, methods adopted and results obtained should be evaluated by independent committees of experts. Full-range investigations, also denouncing risks and chances to overcome them, should be able to guarantee, beyond any reasonable doubt, the compatibility of the utilization of GMOs in agriculture and agroindustry. Public opinion, so reassured, and rationally persuaded that no technological innovation can be a 'no-risk' one, would consciously be presented with the problem of the acceptability and utility ofagricultural biotechnologies.

Having said that, I wish to conclude as follows. The great multiplication of studies and research in the field of genetic engineering and agricultural biotechnologies must proceed at a rate parallel to the galloping spread of the introduction and trade of the GMOs. We are in the initial phase ofa new 'green revolution'. As soon as the genomes of cultivated plants will be completely sequenced, and the function also investigated of genes that control complex traits, favourable genes can be transferred between phylogenetic ally distant plant species, thus overcoming crossing barriers. New crops will be grown, with superior quantity and quality performances, with increasing levels of micronutrients, able to synthesize pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products and raw materials for industry, with higher economic value, with better adaptation to agroecosystems and able to detoxify the environment.

Therefore, what is needed is a strong multiplying factor of research supported by public funds; by private enterprises; national and regional programs (e.g. the 'Quality of Life' programme of the EU; the

20

Science, agriculture andfood security

OECD plan fQr a glQbal biQdiversity database facility); by the internatiQnal programs Qfthe CGlAR and IPGRI systems and with strQnger engagements e.g. Qf the WQrld and RegiQnal Banks. Equally impQrtant will be the prQmQtiQn and cQQrdinatiQn Qfthe UN Agencies (such as FAO, UNESCO, UNDP, UNEP and WHO), as well as the increase Qf NQrth-SQuth and SQuth-SQuth scientific and technQIQgical relatiQnships. These prQgrams must be granted the greatest attentiQn and SUPPQrt. Special attentiQn shQuld also' be given to, research Qn the sustainability Qf specific agrQecQsystems (e.g. Mediterranean area) and to, the enhancement and explQitatiQn Qf typical niche crQP prQductiQns. The develQped cQuntries are particularly called to, play such a rQle, in a framewQrk Qf scientific cQQperatiQn and exchange with all Qther cQuntries, also' thrQugh universities, scientific academies and research centres etc. FurthermQre, the internatiQnal cQrpQratiQns shQuld be Qbliged to. Qpen their labQratQries also' to, researchers frQm develQping cQuntries, to, make their activities mQre transparent, to, identify the mQst appropriate prQcedures Qf recQgnitiQn and cQmpensatiQn Qf the farmers' rights, as PQinted Qut also' by the CQnventiQn Qn BiQIQgical Diversity.

I believe that it is thrQugh this way Qf acting, cQnsciQus, resPQnsible cQnunitmcnt Qf gQvernments, scientists and public QpiniQn, that it will be PQssible to, realize a 'synergy' amo'ng natural reso'urces, particularly 'biO,diversity' and 'agrO,biO,diversity', and 'biQtechno'Io'gies', which translates into' an indispensable 'cO,rrelatiO,n' between an equitable and sQlidaristic pro'gress and respect Qfthe values and rights of nature and mankind.

21

Science.

Professor Winfried EH. Blum (representing the ICSU) University ofAgriculture. 33 Gregor Mendel-Strasse, 1180 Vienna Austria

When I talk about food security, a challenge for science, as seen by the International Council for Science (lCSU), I speak as chainnan of the ICSU Committee on 'Sciences for Food Security' (CSFS) and not as Secretary-General of the International Union of Soil Sciences.

Before reaching a more detailed discussion, I should like to recall that food security is a relevant ICSU issue because it involves availability of food under sustainable conditions, therefore facing environmental, social, economic and technological opportunities and constraints, see Table, 1.

In the opening session of the World Conference on Science, Professor Swaminathan indicated that accessibility is also a very important issue. This means physical accessibility, as well as economic and social accessibility, because many people are too poor to buy food. Finally, an issue, which becomes more and more important is physiological accessibility, which involves health and nutrition conditions of the people, see Table 1.

After taking all these aspects into account, the tirst challenge is to bring different sciences together, not only the natural sciences, but also social and economic sciences, all of them important to get a holistic approach. This is a major challenge for the next century.

Dr EI Badawi gave a clear picture of key conditions necessary to accomplish this challenge. She indicated three elements: capacity building in developing countries; institutional refonns in these countries and adoption of a new development paradigm. This means that food security cannot be tackled at the global level alone: food security is a local and a regional issue.

How to proceed then? The problems are evident but it is necessary to address them according to local and regional conditions. Who is responsible for this task: the scientists, international research institutions, or governments? Here, the question arises if ICSU as an international scientific umbrella organization can contribute.

ICSU has 25 scientific union members. Fifteen of them, e.g. the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; the International Union of Pure and Applied Biophysics; the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (which has a large division dealing only with food chemistry), the International Union of Food Science and Technology, the International Union of Microbiological Sciences, the International Union of Nutritional Sciences, the International Union of Physiological Sciences, the International Union of Soil Sciences see Table 2 are interested in cooperating on food security issues. If only one per cent, or even less, of all the scientists working in these Unions could be brought to focus on food security, there would be great progress.

The key issue is that most of these are natural sciences, while social and economic sciences are not members of ICSU. Nevertheless, some member organizations like the International Geographical Union, have economists and social scientists together. The reality is that ICSU already has a lot of members who produce knowledge in this area. Moreover, there are interdisciplinary bodies that can contribute to capacity building in science and further issues related to food security - see Table 3.

Who could be ICSU partners ? By its mandate, ICSU has direct contact with many developing countries through its 99 national academies or further national scientific members, many of them in food insecure countries, e.g. in sub-Saharan Africa: Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Togo, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Those local partners could be used as clearing houses for international cooperation in two directions. Firstly, as a top-down approach, cooperating on a government level and at the level of scientific institutions such as universities, other educational

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Science, agriculture andfhod security

training centres, and research stations. Secondly, by a bottom-up approach at the grass-roots level, through assisting national and international NGOs engaged in local or regional food security activities. Several countries have already demonstrated their interest in such a type of cooperation.

There are also other possible approaches. For example, academies in industrialized countries could cooperate with academies in food insecure countries, under the umbrella of the ICSU family. Moreover, there are a lot of human capacities in food deficient countries, amongst others thousands of young scientists who were trained and educated in industrialized countries. How can these scientists who have returned to their respective countries, be involved in endeavours for food security ?

ICSU strongly believes that the thousands of scientists working in the International Unions, and especially in its international bodies, such as SCOPE, IGBP-GCTE and many others, could playa more pro-active role in food security issues. Therefore, an attempt will be made in the near future to organize an ICSU panel for food security in order to foster this type of cooperation between international science and scientists in food insecure countries.

For this purpose ICSU created a Committee on Science for Food Security, which has commissioned a study on this matter in order to become operationaL

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~ Table 1. Sciences for food security

ICSU BODIES CONCERNED SUBJECTSFOCUS AREA TOPICS

Availability (under sustainable conditions) (production)

1. Environmental opportunities/constraints

2. Social and economic opportu n ities/constraints

Natural resources (climate, land, soil, water) Human resources Capital resources Fanrning systems Food policy systems

3. Technological opportunities/constraints

Soil Water Agrochemicals PlanUanimal genes

1. Physical accessibility Accessibility

-'"

Storage Transport Conservation Processing Market Quality/safety

......

Food habits accessibility 2. Economic and social

Pricing system Policies Income generation

SCOPE,IUBS IGBP IUSS SCOWAR IGU IUPAC IUSS, IUNS, IGU, IUGG SCOWAR, IUPAC, IUMS IUBS, COG ENE, lUGS COBIOTECH IUNS, IUMS, IUFoST, ICC. IUPAC

IUMS, IUFoST IGU IUMS IGU IUMS. IUNS, IUFoST, IUPAC IUPsyS. IUAES IUPsyS. IUAES COSTED-IBN

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS CONCERNED FAO IFAD UNEP, CGIAR, World Bank ISSC World Bank CGIAR World Bank WMO WHO UNESCO UNDP UNICEF Regional Development Banks Population Council UNFPA World Bank WFP I

IWC, World Bank World Trade Organization Common Funds CGIAR, FAO,ISSC

3. Physiological accessibility

---­

Nutrition Health

IUFbST IUNS

FAO, WHO, UNICEF

-this listing is not exhaustive

~ ;;;;.

R ~ ... r)':::: :::;­

~ §

,I:l.. ~ ~ ~ '" :::: ... ~.

Science, agriculture andfood security

Table 2. Scientific union members of ICSU

International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES) International Astronomical Union (IAU) International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS) International Union of Pure and Applied Biophysics (IUPAB) International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) International Geographical Union (IGU) International Union of Geological Sciences (lUGS) International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science (IUHPS) International Union of Immunological Societies (lUIS) International Mathematical Union (IMU) International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM) International Union of Microbiological Societies (IUMS) International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS) International Union of Pharmacology (IUPHAR) International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS) International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS) Union Radio Scientifique International (URSI) International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) International Union of Toxicology (IUTOX)

Table 3. Interdisciplinary ICSU Bodies

Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Programme on Capacity Building in Science (PCBS) Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) Committee on Sciences for Food Security (CSFS) Steering Committee on Genetics and Biotechnology (SCGB) Scientific Committee for the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (SC-IGBP) Special Committee for the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (SC-IDNDR) Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) Scientific Committee on Science in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union (COMSCEE) Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics (SCOSTEP) Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) Scientific Committee on Water Research (SCOWAR) World Data Centre (WDC) Federation of Astronomical and Geophysical Data Analysis Services (FAGS) Inter-Union Commission on Frequency Allocations for Radio Astronomy and Space Science (IUCAF) Inter-Union Commission on the Lithosphere (ICl)

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Science. agriculture andfood security

Dr Elias Fereres (representing the CGIAR) Director. 1nstituto de Agricultura Sostenible. Alameda del Obispo. sin aptdo. 4084, 14080 Cordoba. Spain

My comments will focus on two points. First, on resource conservation and then, on the opportunities for improved management of agricultural systems through new scientific developments.

The first point is illustrated by two slides that show what a storm event did by eroding the soil of an agricultural landscape in southern Spain. It is pertinent to ask two questions related to the erosion of this soil. First, is it feasible to bring the soil that was lost back to the original state? And then; would there be any private companies that might be interested in preventing that damage other than the farmer himself? The answer to both questions is no. For that particular farmer, that soil was irreversibly lost and it should be up to the farmer and to the rest of the society to make sure that what we see in the pictures does not happen again. The message here is that there are many features of resource conservation related to achieving sustainability that will never attract private investment and that will require public support. It is therefore unfortunate that, still in many developed countries (i.e. those in the European Union) agricultural subsidies are not specifically tied to good conservation practices that could be adopted through such incentives.

The second point brings about the complementarities between genotype and management. As Professor Louise Fresco stated, the yield gap that normally exists between actual and potential yield is such that improvements in yield potential that could be brought about by biotechnology are not as important for productivity enhancement and poverty alleviation as other measures that will improve the management of natural resources in agricultural systems. In that respect, the recent technological developments for the biophysical characterization of environments offer new tools for extrapolation of best management practices which may be already developed at benchmark sites. The combination of computer simulation with remote sensing information and spatial analysis should lead, in many agricultural environments, to new approaches on how to improve productivity in a sustainable fashion without resorting necessarily to expensive, time-consuming field experimentation. Such advances in information management are, I believe, as important as the advances in genetic improvement and deserve more attention from the scientific community and the agricultural sector.

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Science. mn·'f'",IT1f.."

Summing-up remarks

Dr Ismail Serageldin Chairman. CG1AR, The World Bank, 1818 H Street, NW, Washington D.C. 20433 United States

For the last four decades, the world's population has benefited immensely from science-based growth in agricultural productivity. Increased food production has enabled populous countries in Asia to avert catastrophic famine. Lower food prices have enabled greater access to food by the poor, both in rural and urban areas. For the urban poor, lower food prices have helped to reduce poverty because food purchases account for a major portion of their incomes.

Increased use of external inputs (fertilizers and crop protection chemicals) that enabled farmers to exploit the higher yield potential of modern varieties has been cited as one of the drawbacks of the 'Green Revolution' technologies. But such criticism has been tempered by the fact that 'Green Revolution' technologies resulted in saving millions of hectares of land from being brought under plow. This land was 'saved' in the best sense of the term: to produce the same amount of food that was generated by the improved technologies, 300 million hectares of land would have been put into cultivation. Such increase of the cultivated area would have meant further deforestation, soil erosion and loss of biodiversity.

Food security has many dimensions. It means not only increased supply of food but also increased access to it. It means that food security is not only about increasing productivity but making sure that people have physical access to food. Besides, productivity must be accompanied by sustainable production practices. Therefore, food security can be enhanced by applying sound technology within a framework of appropriate, sustainable, production policies.

Food security is both a rural and urban issue. In the future, most of the world population will live in the urban areas of developing countries. Therefore, most of the food demand will originate from those. areas. Usually food security is considered a national, regional and global issue. But effective food security has to occur at household and in-household levels. This means that women must have equal access to food at household level. Besides, rural women should have access to agricultural production resources in order to achieve sound food security.

Providing food for the additional billions of people in the next century, while protecting the environment, will need science more than ever before. The revolution in biological sciences, especially the advances in molecular biology, bioinformatics, and genomics, are increasingly being deployed as powerful tools for improving agriculture and protecting the environment. But their promise is being realized in the laboratories and production fields of industrialized countries only, and this has yet to happen in developing countries where the need for increasing productivity is vital.

The new technologies have generated safety, ethical, environmental and social concerns and all these concerns must be addressed if the new technologies are to be safely and equitably deployed in the service of developing countries agriculture.

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Science. agriculture andfood security

The challenge is to bring about productivity increases through intensification of agriculture, at the smallholder level in developing countries. Sustainable agriculture will be the key, and will require a synergistic combination of genetic technologies and sound natural resource management. Meeting these challenges will also need the commitment of all stakeholders, and it is only then we will be able to realize the promise of all that science can do to benefit the poor and the environment.

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