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FAO-BiotechNews (2-2012) |
20/07/2012
Dear Subscribers,
Here is Update 2-2012 of FAO-BiotechNews. As usual, we welcome any feedback you have about this Update.
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The Coordinator of FAO-BiotechNews, 20-7-2012
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
E-mail address: mailto:FAO-Biotech-News@fao.org
FAO Biotechnology website http://www.fao.org/biotech/en/ (in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish)
*** NEWS *** (http://www.fao.org/biotech/biotech-news/en/)
1. New FAO Biotechnology Glossary website
A
new web interface for the multi-lingual FAO Biotechnology Glossary has
just been launched, with an improved look and structure to make it more
accessible and user-friendly, and with more advanced search
capabilities. The new online Biotechnology Glossary will now be updated
and edited at regular intervals by a team of international technical
experts using VocBench, a web-based multi-lingual vocabulary management
tool developed by FAO. The FAO Glossary of Biotechnology for Food and
Agriculture was published in 2001, prepared by A. Zaid, H.G. Hughes, E.
Porceddu and F. Nicholas, providing consolidated, comprehensive and
accessible definitions of over 3,000 terms and acronyms that are used
regularly regarding agricultural biotechnologies. It has proven to be a
very popular reference source and has been translated into the five
other official UN languages (i.e. Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and
Spanish) as well as Polish, Serbian and Vietnamese, while the terms have
also been translated into Kazakh. See the new interface at http://www.fao.org/biotech/biotech-glossary/en/ (in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish). Comments on the new site are warmly welcome, at biotech-website@fao.org.
2. Socio-economic impacts of GM crops - Workshop proceedings
An
"International workshop on socio-economic impacts of genetically
modified (GM) crops", co-organized by the Institute for Prospective
Technological Studies of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre
(JRC) and FAO, took place in Seville, Spain on 23-24 November 2011. The
133-page proceedings of this workshop, edited by M. Lusser, T. Raney,
P. Tillie, K. Dillen and E. Rodríguez-Cerezo, are now available on the
web. They are organized in four chapters, with chapter 3 providing
background information on the workshop and chapter 4 summarizing the
seven main topics presented at the workshop, the discussions from each
of the sessions as well as prospects of further research. The seven
topics were adoption of GM crop varieties and socio-economic impacts on
farmers; aggregated and global impacts of GM technology in agriculture;
economics of segregation/coexistence of supply chain; socio economic
impacts of GM crops: examples of use in decision-making; economic
compensation, liability issues and institutional framework influencing
adoption of GM crops; research on consumers attitudes and
direct/indirect impacts of GM crops on consumers including health;
looking forward: new GM crops in the pipeline and their possible
economic and social impacts. See http://www.fao.org/docrep/015/ap016e/ap016e.pdf (4.8 MB) or contact Terri.Raney@fao.org for more information.
3. Marker-assisted selection in crops, livestock, forestry and fish
The
FAO Working Group on Biotechnology has recently reprinted
"Marker-assisted selection: Current status and future perspectives in
crops, livestock, forestry and fish", originally published in 2007. The
494-page book is edited by E.P. Guimarães, J. Ruane, B.D. Scherf, A.
Sonnino and J.D. Dargie and is organised into six sections: an
introduction to marker-assisted selection (MAS), in chapters 1-2; case
studies of MAS in crops, in chapters 3-9; case studies of MAS in
livestock, in chapters 10-13; case studies of MAS in forestry, in
chapters 14-15; case studies of MAS in fish and shellfish, in chapters
16-17; and the final section is devoted to a selection of non-technical
issues relevant to applications of MAS in developing countries, such as
national research capacities and international partnerships, economic
considerations, the impacts of intellectual property rights, and policy
considerations (chapters 18-22). See http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a1120e/a1120e00.htm or contact Charlotte.Lietaer@fao.org to request a copy, providing your full postal address.
4. RABNENA network - Regional training workshop
FAO's
Regional Office for the Near East, in collaboration with the
Association of Agricultural Research Institutes for the Near East and
North Africa (AARINENA), organized a regional workshop on "Agricultural
biotechnology network for strengthening regional cooperation and
knowledge sharing" on 2-4 July 2012 in Cairo, Egypt. The training
workshop aimed to raise awareness of the Regional Agricultural
Biotechnology Network of Near East and North Africa (RABNENA) and
develop the capacity of the participants on how to operate and use
RABNENA as a platform for biotechnology knowledge sharing and
collaboration for biotechnology target groups and stakeholders at
national and regional levels. See http://rabnena.net/Pages/CD/index.html for the workshop presentations and relevant documents, http://rabnena.net for the network website (in Arabic and English) or contact Magdi.Latif@fao.org for more information.
5. Re-orienting crop improvement in the 21st century
The
scientific journal Agriculture & Food Security has just published
"Re-orienting crop improvement for the changing climatic conditions of
the 21st century" by C. Mba, E.P. Guimarães and K. Ghosh. The paper
underscores that plant breeding must be re-oriented in order to generate
'smart' crop varieties that yield more with fewer inputs. It highlights
some of the current plant breeding techniques that hold great promise
for crop improvement, including marker-assisted selection, targeting
induced local lesions in genomes (TILLING), genetic modification, as
well as emerging biotechnologies of relevance to plant breeding such as
zinc finger nuclease, oligonucleotide directed mutagenesis, synthetic
genomics, etc. The paper also recommends adequate policies to enable
plant breeding, training of a new generation of plant breeders,
establishment of partnerships (including public-private sector
synergies), adoption of the continuum approach to the management of
plant genetic resources for food and agriculture as means to improved
cohesion of the components of its value chain, and strengthening the
national agricultural research and extension systems of developing
countries. See http://www.agricultureandfoodsecurity.com/content/pdf/2048-7010-1-7.pdf (350 KB) or contact Chikelu.Mba@fao.org for more information.
6. Tsetse and Trypanosomosis Information - Volume 34
The
latest Tsetse and Trypanosomosis Information bulletins (volume 34,
parts 1 and 2) are now available on the web. Published twice a year by
FAO, the bulletins contain both news and scientific abstracts aiming to
collate and disseminate current information on all aspects of tsetse and
trypanosomosis research and control to institutions and individuals
involved in the problems of African trypanosomosis (a vector-borne
disease affecting people and animals caused by various species of blood
parasites called trypanosomes). The bulletins also include items
covering biotechnology applications for disease diagnosis and in
trypanosome research, and are available in English and French. See http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/programmes/en/paat/ttiq.html or contact MariaGrazia.Solari@fao.org to subscribe.
7. UNIDO - Biosafety course
The
United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), in
collaboration with the Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy, is
organizing an e-learning Masters course in Biosafety in Plant
Biotechnology. The course is intended to provide specialized knowledge
and skills with regard to environmental risk assessment and management
of genetically modified (GM) crops as well as GM food and feed safety
assessment. The course is specifically focused on crops and aspects of
priority for different cultivation areas (mainly Balkan, Mediterranean
and Central Africa). It will begin tentatively on 5 November 2012 and
have a duration of 46 weeks, including two on-campus training sessions
(Ancona, Italy) of one week each at the beginning and at the end of the
course. Deadline for applications is 1 October 2012. See http://binas.unido.org/moodle/ or contact b.mezzetti@univpm.it for more information.
8. Cartagena Protocol COP-MOP 6 documents
The
6th meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of
the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP-MOP 6) takes
place on 1-5 October 2012 in Hyderabad, India, back-to-back with the
11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on
Biological Diversity (COP 11), on 8-19 October 2012. The meeting will
address a number of standing issues on the COP-MOP agenda (i.e.
compliance; operation and activities of the Biosafety Clearing-House;
financial mechanisms and resources; cooperation with other
organizations, conventions and initiatives; and administration and
budgetary matters). It will also address a number of substantive issues
arising from the programme of work and previous COP-MOP decisions (i.e.
capacity building activities; handling, transport, packaging and
identification of living modified organisms; notification requirements;
liability and redress; unintentional transboundary movements and
emergency measures; risk assessment and risk management; subsidiary
bodies; socio-economic considerations; monitoring and reporting;
assessment and review). See http://www.cbd.int/doc/?meeting=MOP-06 for background information and documents (some in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish) or contact secretariat@cbd.int for more information.
9. Cartagena Protocol - Online forum on capacity building
The
Convention on Biological Diversity's Biosafety Clearing-House (BCH)
conducted an online forum on "Strategic approaches to capacity-building
for biosafety and the comprehensive review of the capacity-building
action plan" from 20 February to 4 May 2012. Its purpose was to
facilitate discussions on strategic approaches to capacity-building for
biosafety, as well as measures for improving the planning (including
needs assessments), implementation, coordination and monitoring of
biosafety capacity-building initiatives. The outcomes of the Forum will
contribute to the comprehensive review of the capacity-building action
plan to be considered by the sixth meeting of the Conference of the
Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol
on Biosafety (COP-MOP 6). See http://bch.cbd.int/onlineconferences/portal_art22/cbforum2012_focus.shtml for the messages posted as well as the background documents for each discussion group or contact cbforum@cbd.int for more information.
10. Inter-regional workshop report on the Nagoya - Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol
On
9-11 May 2012, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD) organized the "Inter-regional workshop on capacity needs
for the implementation of the Nagoya - Kuala Lumpur Supplementary
Protocol on Liability and Redress to the Cartagena Protocol on
Biosafety" in Riga, Latvia. The workshop was a follow up to the four
regional workshops organized by the Secretariat in 2011 in Africa, Asia
and Pacific, Central and Eastern Europe, and Latin America and the
Caribbean. The objective of the inter-regional workshop was to build on
the discussions held during the regional workshops and enable
participants from the different regions to share information and
exchange experiences with respect to development and implementation of
domestic regulatory instruments that address liability issues or
response measures for environmental damage or damage to biological
diversity and to review potential capacity needs in these areas with an
emphasis on capacity requirements to implement the Supplementary
Protocol. See the report and all related documents at http://www.cbd.int/doc/?meeting=BSLRRW-CBN-01 or contact secretariat@cbd.int for more information.
11. Analyzing plant biotechnology patents - 3 traits relevant to climate change
As
part of its OECD Environmental Working Paper series (nr. 40), the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has
published "Adaptation and innovation: An analysis of crop biotechnology
patent data" by S. Agrawala, C. Bordier, V. Schreitter and V. Karplus.
Using the count of patent applications as an indicator, the paper
provides empirical quantification of innovation in biotechnology to
develop crops that are more resilient to three forms of abiotic stress
(drought, soil salinity and temperature extremes) associated with
climate change. See www.oecd.org/env/workingpapers (in English and
French) or contact Michael.Mullan@oecd.org for more information.
12. Bt cotton in India
As
part of its IFPRI Discussion Papers series, the International Food
Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) recently published "Measuring the
contribution of Bt cotton adoption to India's cotton yields leap" by
G.P. Gruere and Y. Sun. The paper examines the contribution of Bt cotton
adoption to long-term average cotton yields in India. See http://www.ifpri.org/publication/measuring-contribution-bt-cotton-adoption-india-s-cotton-yields-leap or contact g.gruere@cgiar.org for more information.
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Immediate Past President, African Crop Science Society Council, Prof. Kasem Zaki Ahmed, Department of Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, Minia University, El-Minia, Egypt, ET-61517, (ahmed_kz@yahoo.com)
Tel (work): ++ 20 (86) 2 36 23 33
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