26a FAO REGIONAL CONFERENCE FOR LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

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26a FAO REGIONAL CONFERENCE FOR LATIN AMERICA AND
THE CARIBBEAN Mérida, México, 10 - 14 April 2000
RESEARCH AND TRANSFER OF TECHNOLOGY IN FOOD
PRODUCTION
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• ARTT central role productivity and food
  security
• agricultural future depends on ARTT
• Yield Gap.role of plant biotechnology
• agricultural production only 7.3 IGP in LAC
  countriesl
• agriculture demands less employment of the active
  population.. 35 en 1980 --- 20 en 1999

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Rural Poverty

• 55 of rural population
• 76 M under the extreme poverty line(food,
  water, health, home, energy, employment)

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World Food Summit key issues for research and
technology transfer

• to conserve the natural resources--- biodiversity
  
• to promote the diversified systems integrated to
  the agri-industry- chain
• to foment the simple, low- input technologies
• promote technological innovations, equity, and
  the woman's participation in the agriculture
• collaboration between the private sector and the
  public -food security

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NATURAL RESOURCES

• The Region has abundant resources in relation to
  its population (8 of the the world
  population's)
• 25 of the arable land
• 40 of the tropical forests
• 23 of livestock inventory
• 50 biodiversity for agriculture - food security.

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agriculture frontier in LAC 134 M/ha, 75 with
degradation
AVAILABLE CROPPING LAND, per capita, WOLRDWIDE
1950 1975
2025
0.17 ha
0.34 ha
0.51 ha
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• Human resources
• 11.000 téchnicians,
• 53 Southern Cone
• 32 Andean
• 14 Central America
• 1 Caribbean
• (Etcheverría
  1998)
• 40 with post grade coursework
• 12 with PHD.
• 1800 PhDs on Agriculture biotechnology
  (REDBIO,1999)

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• Regional Investment on Agriculture RD only
• 0.5 of agricultural IGP

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Co-existent Scenarios at NARS

• 1. Static - available technologies, cost
  reduction.
• 2. Orientations Change- intensification of
  activities, conventional technologies with
  rational use of resources, management
• 3. New paradigm on ARD- intensification
  traditional activities, new crops, integration,
  multi-objective, new form of consumption,
  quality, tracking-back, new biotechnologies, less
  use of inputs, small farmers integration,
  qualified employement generation.

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key issues

• Actors' plural system
• New technological demands
• New financing mechanisms
• Administration for efficiency and effectiveness.
  
• Training and human resources formation
• intra-regional Co-operation

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• Plural system

• Diverse actors NARIs producers, universities,
  producers coop. and asoc, ONGs, agencies of
  international cooperation, multilateral
  development banks and regional funds
• Private investment growth in research and
  development of agricultural technologies (10 of
  the global expense in research in most of the
  countries and only in some few ones they overcome
  30 .Paises desarr. 50
• Focus on special issues products and topics
  ignored by the private sector although these are
  of great importance for marginal producers.
• Public mandate in central topics preservation
  of natural resources and development of
  technologies that preserve the environment are
  public goods and they should be treated as such.

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• New technological demands biotechnologies,
  quality of products, computer science
• sustainability- agriculture and the natural
  resources, extended focus
• product quality -integration agroindustrial-commer
  cial
• productive chains to satisfy food markets
• biotechnology and informatic paradigms in the
  agriculture

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Biotechnology

• ..must be integrated to serve as complement to
  agricultural technology leading to better and
  available seeds and improved sustainable
  production technology, FAO 1999.
• FAO Statement on Biotechnology 2000)

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• Biotechnologies, as complement of conventional
  plant breeding are needed to increase yield of
  food crops...( Bourlag, 1999)
• Dr. Norman Borlaug, 1972 Nobel Peace Prize
  recipient

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• impact of the biotechnology on the yield,
  efficiency or production costs
• Global annual market---- USD 45,000 millions
• first wage--- producer profitability ----inputs
  use
• resistance to herbicides and tolerance to insects
  
• technologies will comprise 10-20 of this market
  and they could be dominant in some countries

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• Herbicide resistance

• less dangerous herbicides, atrazina substitution
  for glifosato
• reduces cultural practices, fuels and soil
  compactación.
• allows practical soil conservation

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• Insect tolerant food crops

• 20 yield losses
• reduction on pesticide applications for pest
  control
• less production costs
• less secondary toxins(fumonisin Bt corn ).

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• Improvement on nutritional content

• Many foods are not perfect in terms of
  nutritional content.
• Chemical composition (protein, starch, oil,
  vitamins, micronutrients) can be improved by
  genetic engeenering to obtain more nutritious
  food

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A case increase on b-Carotene in rice grains

• 120 M children with Vitamin A deficiency.
• Rice has been trasnformed to acumulate
  b-carotene, precursor of Vitamin A in the human
  body
• new rice varieties with this trait can prevent 2
  M deaths per year.

Normal rice
Ye et al. (2000) Science 287 303-305.
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On-going tendency

• Value added traits only for elite varieties,
• integratión of biotech. companies with seed
  enterprices
• focus on patenting of varieties and genes
• appropriate biotechnology
• REDBIO network

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New financing mechanims competitive Funds and
contracts

• 600 -1000 M USD per year, 75 NARIs
• new financing mechanisms related to a plural
  scope of NARSs
• Less dependency on donors
• Competitive Funds---powerful tool to orient ARD
  resources to the small farmers needs joint
  ventures
• Governments, Fundations donors, development
  banks.

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Management for efficiency of ARD institutions

• links between institutions and combined
  development of agricultural technologies with the
  scientific community
• decentralization. Eco-region. basic
  organizational unit. NARS around natural
  eco-regions. To increase replicabilidad of the
  investigation and transfer of technologies
• complementation models. public and private
  institutions, operative decentralization,
  organized participation of the producers,
  including family producers and peasants in the
  orientation of the technological demands
• food security in the institutional agenda of
  agriculture research.

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• Transformation of the NARS
• some agents participation deprived in the
  management of NARS institutions
• Open system
• Competitive, assignment of resources of the State
  and financing agents
• Dynamic, with capacity to respond to the internal
  and external competition
• Decentralized

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Management of Human Resources

• priorities in policy for up-grading a critical
  mass at national and regional level.
• strengthen postgraduate training in the countries
  of the region
• establish centers of excellence
• changes in the curricula in schools and colleges
  for agricultural sciences
• a holistic-systemic vision

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• intellectual property of the technology
• policy for intellectual property of genetic
  resources
• protection for industrial secrets - patents
• breeder rights
• regional agreements
• Convention of Biological Diversity
• World organization of Trade

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Transfer of technology and agricultural extension

• Yield Gap in productivity(farmer-research
  station).
• Re-design of the official organisms of
  agricultural extension, participation private
  sector.
• weaknesses on institutions for Technical
  asistance and Rural Extension regarding
• capacity and formation by Agriculture Schools
• inadequacy of operative resources
• present methods of high cost and low coverage
• focus on production systems and the taking of
  consideration of the small farmers needs as valid
  requests for technological change

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• Adjustments to the extension methods
• decentralized administration of the institutional
  resources,
• the participation of ONGs, universities,
  private sector
• reconversión of the public apparatuses of
  extension and research around new operation
  modalities and financing
• bigger presence of the excluded sectors in the
  definition of the strategy and operation of the
  technological changes.

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• Cooperation intraregional
• an instrument of first order in setting
  priorities
• horizontal cooperation and Networks of FAO
  linked to reseearch
• Veterinary diagnosis (REDLAB)
• Hidrographics basins
• Agroforestry Systems
• Plant biotechnology (REDBIO)
• Networks supported by IICA (PROCISUR,
  PROCIANDINO, PROCITROPICOS, TROPIGEN, etc) for
  genetic resources
• development of combined projects of research and
  development
• Regional organizations play, more and more active
  part in the financing and in the orientation of
  the calendar of the GCIAI

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• Global forum in Agricultural Investigation
  (FGIA)
• regional and sub-regional institutions
• Institutes of Advanced Research
• universities
• NGOs
• organizations of producers
• private sector
• International centers of Agricultural Research
• ' Regional forum of Investigation and
  Technological Development Agropecuario'
  (FORAGRO).

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regional representation in the consultive group
for international agricultural research (cgiar)

• The FAO has played a key role in the
  establishment of GGIAR
• proposal of a substitution of the current outline
  of regional representation since 50 of the
  countries members of the GCIAI is countries in
  development.
• 1997 - CGIAR revision of the system
• proposal of the CGIAR of phasing-out the
  Regional Representativeness, until the current
  Regional Representatives before the CGIAR
  complete their corresponding terms.

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CONCLUSIONS

• new conditions, institutional, technological and
  politic demand a reconversión of NARs focusing
  on decentralized model of administration
• inventory of available technologies generated
  by the national research institutions in the past
  and new technological scenarios
• growing participation of a multiplicity of agents
  with bigger presence on the investment and
  administration of the institutions
• the technologies for the small and medium
  agricultural production
• control of the quality and safety of foods
• participative research with focus on production
  systems
• biotechnologyresearch-transfer and technical
  assistance, productive chain production in the
  farm, postharvest, processing

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CONCLUSIONS (cont.)

• Intellectual property rights of new
  technological developments create conditions for
  NARS and international private companies to
  establish relationships with the new science
  and financing research programs
• analysis of the normative on biosafety and
  intellectual property that regulate in equal form
  their application and development
• critical mass of highly qualified human resources
  in these technologies
• invigoration of Networks like REDBIO favored by
  the FAO
• FAO is in possibilities of to reinforce and to
  promote these new disciplines in the NARS