HUMA R.

No:07 (BS Zoology-VII)

EFFECTS OF BIOTECHNOLOGY ON
DEVELOPING WORLD

What is Biotechnology?
Biotechnology is a field of study that seeks to generate new products and processes
using the concepts and methods of modern biology. It blends the principles and practices of
biochemistry, genetics, and microbiology. Recent breakthroughs in molecular biology have
transformed biotechnology into a science that has produced refinements to areas such as protein
chemistry, nucleic acid biochemistry, fermentation, and immunology. These advances are having
an impact in agriculture, aquaculture, animal productivity, and health care.
For developing countries, the promise of biotechnology is particularly strong.
Problems associated with population pressures, food insufficiency, and nutritional deficiencies,
environmental degradation, and the need to create employment could well be partially solved by
new technologi0cal innovations presented by advances in biotechnology. However, to face these
challenges, governments in developing countries must develop appropriate plans and policies,
and invest in capacity building. Otherwise, much of this potential may be lost. It is crucial that
countries be able to define their own priorities and devise ways in which these emerging
technologies will enhance resource exploitation.
Developing countries also fear that they may not be able to obtain appropriate
technologies from the industrialized countries. Given the barriers erected against the transfer of
biotechnology, Third World countries will have to concern themselves with maximizing their
natural, scientific, and technological resources to define problems and seek solutions that will
benefit broad sectors of their populations.

Biotechnology scale, scope and practices in developing countries:

Biotechnology, varying in scope, scale and practice in many developing countries, is
full of entrepreneurial opportunities for the technological progress of the developing world.

Hunger, poverty and food security

In many developing countries, and inclusive of those in the Islamic world, biotechnology has become a source of
economic development and social progress providing access to technology on credit and peer markets to especially
rural poor entrepreneurs. Poverty-stricken rural populations are confronted with inadequate water resources, low
crop yields, food shortages, food insecurity, a deteriorating environment, and hunger.

Hunger

 One amongst every six persons, in the developing world, has no access to food
 Of 830 million people suffering from malnutrition and hunger.
--- 790 million live in developing countries, often, home of the poor and hungry,
---  80 million children under 4 years of age are malnourished.
 The undernourished subsist on 1,800 calories per day or less instead of a general requirement of 2000 per
adult per day.
At the World Food Summit (1996), 186 countries committed pledged a reduction by half in the number of
undernourished people by 2015.

Poverty

 As a rule hunger is a direct consequence of dire poverty

 Seventy percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas
 Poverty, essentially a rural phenomenon, is creeping into urban areas
 2.8 billion people live on less than US$ 2 or 32 pkr per day
 Of the 1.3 billion people in the sub-region of South Asia
o 800 million live on less than US$ 1 or 161 pkr per day
o 230 million lack access to safe water
o 100 million children live or work on the streets

Population

 Of the approximately 90 million newborn, 95% are born in developing countries

 40 million births each year are not registered world-wide
 70% of people in the developing countries below the poverty line are rural women
 Of the approximately 1100 million farmers worldwide
---50 million farmers are in the developed world
---1050 million farmers with little financial resources are in the developing countries
 Developing countries account for about 78 per cent of the world's population

Biotechnological achievements and opportunities:

Opportunities and constraints in agricultural biotechnology in developing countries are of significance

in responding to the challenge of poverty in the 21st century as they influence the development of
national strategies that minimize environmental, health and social risks; and that address the nutritional
needs of poor-resource farmers. Some Third World governments saw the potential for the
application of biotechnology in industry, health, and agriculture and made research and
development in biotechnology a priority. Countries with advanced infrastructure and sufficient
resources are now ready to absorb new techniques developed in this field. Countries with limited
resources are struggling to keep pace with developments.

Agriculture biotechnology:

Profit-oriented agricultural biotechnology is now addressing poverty, food insecurity,

conservation of the environment, and sustainable development. The involvement of resource-
poor farmers from LDCs in the design and formulation of field trials; their education and
financement as transmitters of new knowledge, of good practices, and productive services in
rural communities is now being encouraged in international programmes.
The most widely used technique in agricultural biotechnology in these countries is tissue culture.
Commercially, it is used in the production of potatoes and flowers, palm trees, bananas and
plantains, and coffee. On a laboratory scale, success has been achieved in the rapid
multiplication of forest tree species, such as teak, acacia, and casuarina.
 Co-operation between the United Nations Development Programme and the West African
Rice Development Association (WARDA) has resulted in the production of a New Rice for
Africa (NERICA) variety that was obtained by crossing African and Asian species. Designed for
resource-poor farmers, this new protein-rich variety is tolerant to drought and acid soils, and
generally resistant to a wide range of African insect pests.

Plant Biotechnology:
Plant biotechnology, which is one of the many approaches involved to solve the complex
problems of hunger, poverty and food insecurity, may be an appropriate technology within reach
of rural and disadvantaged farmers. Use of low-risk and low-cost biotechnology techniques such
as micropropagation could be beneficial. There are many instances of plant biotechnology
enabling small farmers in Argentina, India, Morocco, and Uganda to obtain increased and
sustainable crop yields. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, tissue culture plays a vital role
in helping establish food security that was affected by war and subsequent neglect. Cassava
clones, obtained from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Nigeria, are
propagated as disease-free plantlets to start-up crop productivity which is maintained through use
of crop protection techniques.

Medical Biotechnology:
In the field of medical biotechnology, Third World governments are developing diagnostic
kits and vaccines for major tropical diseases, such as hepatitis B, dengue fever, malaria, and
amoebiasis. Vector control programs, such as the onchocerciasis control program in West Africa,
use thousands of tons of Bacillus thuringiensis per year (which is produced in developed
countries).
Chinese institute has offered monoclonal antibodies against human T
lymphocytes. In India, tissue culture techniques have been used for mass propagation of bamboo
saplings, strains of algae are being developed and tested as sources of nitrogen in traditional
planting systems, genetically improved fish are being used in aquaculture projects, embryo
transfer technology is being used to improve cattle herds, new methods are being developed for
fertility control in humans, vaccines are under development to treat leprosy, and a diagnostic kit
is being developed for Salmonella.

Although many research activities are being conducted, a much smaller number of
applications have been developed through the use of biotechnologies in the developing world.
Efforts are needed to understand how various policies and practices influence the development
and commercialization of these products.

GMOs in agriculture and development:

GMOs (known also as Living Modified Organisms -LMOs) are obtained from parent animals, plants and
microorganisms. Concerns, fears, and promises expressed with GM crops and foods are not voiced with fermented
foods that are prepared in near-safe hygienic conditions and that contain whole or parts of natural organisms.

 GMO considerations

 Benefits poor-resource farmers in use of amount of herbicides/pesticides.

 High yields and more productive crops are part of the solution to the global food crisis.
 No evidence that commercial transgenic crops contain new allergens nor have negative impact on human
health.
 Genetic engineering techniques generally are applied to crops important to the industrialized world, and
less to crops on which the world’s hungry depend.
 Global GM crop area estimated to be a little over 50 million hectares.
 Fears concerning GM foods and crop result from:
o Occurrence, spread and ignorance of Mad Cow Disease in Europe
o Reported occurrence of chemical dioxin in foods ,soft drinks; sludge in animal food
o Concentration of seed companies in a few hands
o Lack of, or inadequate tests of GM crops in tropical environments
o Improper identification and labelling of GM foods in food markets
o Absence of public awareness and consumer education programmes.

As of 2011, GM crops were grown on 160 million hectares in 29 countries, with developing
countries accounting for around half of the total land used to grow GM crops worldwide. Despite
their widespread cultivation, only four commercial GM crops—soy, maize, cotton and canola—
dominate the global market. Herbicide tolerance is the prevailing trait that is deployed in all four
dominant crops, while maize and cotton are the only two insect resistant GM crops currently
available at commercial scale.

Socio-economic assessments of GM crops at the Farm Level:

In a recent study, Carpenter (2010) covers 12 countries worldwide (among which are
the Philippines, India, South Africa and Mexico). According to Carpenter, financial benefits
from growing GM crops derive from increased yields, and can also be attributed to lower
production costs by reducing pesticide use, as well as labor and fuel costs. The economic impact
at farm-level, therefore, depends on the costs and returns of growing GM crops compared to non-
GM crops.
Some factors that influence financial gains at farm level are:
1. Differences in yield (Bt crops are expected to reduce yield losses attributed to pests);
2. Reductions in insecticide costs (some Bt crops are expected to reduce insecticide use);
3. Reductions in weed management costs (HT crops are expected to save costs through simpler
and more flexible weed management regimes based on a specific herbicide);
4. Differences in seed prices (GM seeds are usually more expensive than conventional
counterparts);
5. Differences in price received by the farmer between GM crop and its conventional
counterpart with GM crops often obtaining a price premium.

Safety assessments of GM food and products:

There is a continuing need of safety assessment of GM foods and products to address health
hazards possibly arising from the release of GMOs into the environment. Nutritional and safety
assessment require a comparative approach between such foods and their conventional
counterparts. An integrated stepwise approach in quality control, inclusive of random control
trials and periodic updates in safety assessment, helps in assuring and securing the safety of GM
foods in the public sector. Restriction in the imports of GM products has been introduced in
Brazil, and imports of GMOs have been banned in Sri Lanka pending further review in relation
to environmental and food safety. In the industrialized societies and some developing countries
public protest has led to demands for risk-assessment research in the cause-effect phenomena
associated with GM crops; and subsequent stricter regulation has resulted in differing
transatlantic viewpoints. With emphasis on the safety component in GM agriculture, some
developing countries are in the process of drafting biosafety guidelines whereas others have
enacted formal issuance.

Achievements:
Several developing countries have embraced GM agriculture. Some 160 GMO
releases have been conducted in about 25 developing countries. Field trials with transgenic
cotton, maize, potato, soybean, tomato, banana and sugarcane crops are reported in Argentine,
Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guatemala,
Mexico, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela. In Africa, the Arab States and
Asia ---China, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Mozambique, Nigeria,
Senegal, South Africa, Thailand, Uganda and Zimbabwe are engaged with 5 transgenic crops:
cotton, corn, potato, soybean and tomato.
Today, over 50 million hectares of GMO crops are grown worldwide involving
especially Argentina, Canada, China and the USA. The developing countries' share amounts to
24%. In China, over 50 per cent of all crops are assumed to have been engineered genetically.
Gene-altered crops ---rice, wheat, beet, potato, tomato, corn, peanut, rapeseed, sweet pepper and
cotton crops have been grown since 1986. Research in India with GM crops ----rice, rapeseed,
potato, eggplant, cauliflower, chilly, and tobacco is being conducted at several academic,
governmental and private institutions with built-in biosafety and monitoring protocols.
GM plants constructed with bioremediating functions help protect the
environment and the plant. GM plants planned for release are expected to improve food yields in
developing countries by up to 25%. These include caffeine-free coffee plants, tobacco plants
containing a diabetes vaccine, and soybeans with a "heart-friendly and healthier" oil profile and
an improved digestible protein content.

Potential risks of GM crops adoption on environment and biodiversity:

Similar to the debate on the socio-economic impacts of GM crops adoption,

there are different opinions about the potential risks of the cultivation of GM crops for the
environment and, in particular, biodiversity. While some judge the environmental risks of GM
adoption as severe, others argue that the benefits of GM crops compared to conventional crops
prevail and the risks are rather limited. An often quoted and more recent study based on a
literature review on the environmental impacts of GM crops with particular emphasis on
biodiversity came to the conclusion that “by increasing yields, decreasing insecticide use,
increasing the use of more environmentally friendly herbicides and facilitating the adoption of
conservation tillage, GM crops have already contributed to increasing agricultural sustainability”
(Carpenter, 2011).
Although the study points out that it is not yet possible to quantify long term risks
of GM crops adoption as “experience is lacking”, it warns over potential future environmental
risks, which are differentiated in four major priorities:
1) Potential adverse effects due to changes in cultivation and agricultural management of HT
crops, mainly by the use of complementary herbicides.
2) Resistance development in pests targeted mainly by Bt crops followed by an even higher use
of pesticides
3) Potential gene flow to wild relatives with consequences for species conservation and
biodiversity
4) Potential impacts on soil and soil organisms with a high degree of uncertainty due to a limited
number of studies available

Arid land and desert biotechnology:

The Middle East, with its varied characteristics in culture, economies, the environment, governance and religion, is
home to semi-urban and urban agriculture that seems to have originated in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East
homeland of the first farmers.

 Arid Lands

 70% of the earth's dryland is affected by desertification

 1 billion of the world's 6 billion, in more than 100 countries, is affected by desertification
 Loss in agricultural goods, due to desertification, is more than US$40 billion p.a.
 Of the 42 high in-debt countries, 39 are located in tropical desert regions
 Farmers are faced with the problems of soil erosion, plant viruses, high-cost chemical-based fertilizers and
pesticides
 Deforestation, pollution of soil with toxic wastes, urban development, etc., are principal factors in the loss
of arable crop land

Bioconversion of disadvantages of deserts into economic benefits:

The containment of desertification in arid lands occurs in the ability to bioconvert their
ecological disadvantages in to economic benefits coming from the cultivation of desert crops;
development of saline agriculture and aquaculture, and the rational use of water, wastewater and
other water resources. Seawater agriculture or the growth of salt-tolerant crops on land with
ocean waters, and of a variety of halophytic crops ---grasses, shrubs and trees encountered in
coastline marshes or in saline desert terrains is full of promise.  Halophyte farms of Salicornia
and Atriplex species have been established in Egypt, India, Mexico, Pakistan, the United Arab
Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.
In Senegal biofertilizer inoculants are being developed for application in Middle East soils; and in
Pakistan similar material is being prepared for use in desert agriculture in Kazakhstan. Several
initiatives exist concerning the greening of desert lands.
Biotechnology parks and medicinal farms:
In the continuing quest for economic advancement and technological development, several developing countries
have embraced the concept of biotechnology parks. The main objectives of this biotechnology park are to
bring together women entrepreneurs, scientists, financial sponsors and industry for purposes of generating
openings for skilled employment of women. Moreover, since women and children are traditional
conveyors of domestic science education and technology in the food and energy domains, and of the
agriculture and the environmental sectors in rural areas, application and use of proven biotechnologies is
encouraged in achieving the technological empowerment of women. The park also serves as a training
centre promoting regional economic growth and collaboration between women entrepreneurs in the
formulation of appropriate market strategies for marine and medicinal plant products.

 Medicinal Plants

 80% of the world’s people rely on traditional medicine for their daily health needs
 In the 1990s consumption of herbal medicine in Western Europe doubled
 About one in four of all prescription drugs dispensed by Western pharmacists are likely to contain
ingredients derived from plants
 Chamomile harvest provides some 15,000-20,000 people with work each year in Hungary
 Some 150 medicinal plants in Europe are considered to be endangered

The global market for medicinal markets is expected to grow from USD 10 billion in 2001 to USD 40 billion in
2010 with Europe accounting for a large part of this market.

Gender and biotechnology

The "LDCs greatest assets are their women, men and children whose potential agents and beneficiaries of
development must be fully realized.  Women and children in most LDCs occupy a central role. Natural and
normal transmitters of traditional civic customs and values, women are crucial in the assimilation and
acceptance of new technologies as is evident from the range and number of TV advertisements aimed at
women. In rural and village communities, women provide the first example of working together in a co-
operative venture as they make ends meet with inadequate incomes.

 Women in Partnership with Biotechnology

 African proverb: Without women we all go hungry

 In developing countries women produce 75% of the food
 In African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) economies women produce 80% of staple foods
 Women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours, earn one-tenth of the world’s income and possess
less than one-tenth of the world’s property
 Rural women in Africa (Burkina Faso) in processing shea butter from Butyrospermum parkii help establish
direct competitive links to global markets
 In the Andean region an estimated 40 per cent of women agricultural producers play an important role in
food security
 In Asia 90% of the work in rice fields is carried out by women

The Role of the Public and Private Sectors:

In developing countries, the public sector plays a dominant role in the launching of
biotechnology activities. Recently, new institutions have been established for biotechnology in
many countries.
In Asia, a Department of Biotechnology in the Ministry of Science and Technology was set up
in 1986 by the Government of India;
Indonesia has established a Centre for Research in Biotechnology under the Indonesian Institute
of Sciences;
The Federal Ministry of Education of Pakistan has organized a National Centre of Excellence in
Molecular Biology,
In Thailand a National Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (NCGEB) was
organized in 1983.
In Mexico, biotechnology has been in the operating budget of the national council of science
and technology since 1984.
Efforts in Zimbabwe saw a Master's Degree program initiated in biotechnology in 1991 and a
National Biotechnology Research Institute is under construction.

The driving force behind the commercialization of biotechnology is financial profit. In

some developed countries, a part of biotechnology research starts in both the private and public
sectors. However, it soon transfers to the private sector once there are signs of market
opportunities. Today, two-thirds of biotechnology spending in developed countries comes from
the private sector. Transnational corporations are by far the leading spenders.

Biotechnology in Pakistan:
An Action Plan to develop Biotechnology was part of the Mid Term
Development Framework (2005- 2010) of the Planning Commission of Pakistan. Accordingly,
more than Rs 2.0 Billion (ca. US$ 40 Million) have been spent over the last few years through
HEC, Ministry of Science & Technology and Ministry of Agriculture for developing the
infrastructure and capacity building for undertaking R&D in Biotechnology especially related to
agriculture and health in various universities and R&D institutes. Several hundred young
researchers were sent abroad to various universities of North America and Europe to do PhD or
post doctoral research. At present nearly 460 scientists, including more than 200 PhDs, are
working in various universities and R&D institutes. Presently, there are nearly 30 centers of
Biotechnology spread all over the country.
Nearly all the Biotech Centers are in the public sector and are at different stages of
development. The ones in the universities have been essentially involved in the development of
human resource. However, only a few institutions have reached a stage where they have some
deliverable products. Most of the achievements are in the area of agricultural biotechnology.

Conclusion:
Biotechnology is a motor of technological advancement in both the developed and
developing countries though at different levels in scope and content.  Some decision-makers and
scientists see biotechnology as an effective means to combating hunger, malnutrition and
poverty; others call for more detailed approaches and studies. Though the latter viewpoint is of
significance in the short-term, there is no doubt that in the long-term biotechnological
applications in the agricultural, food, energy and health sectors will lead to economic,
environmental and social benefits when addressing the needs of the poor. In a sense, this
conclusion is reflected in the establishment in several developing countries of biotechnology
parks that are examples of pro-poor biotechnology and pro-industrial programmes for
development.
The discussion also provided, the general conclusion that food security and poverty
alleviation cannot be solved through maximizing agricultural production alone and that GM
crops are not a foolproof solution to empowering small farmers in developing countries.
Increasingly the international community and proponents of GM oriented agriculture recognize
the importance of improving the incomes of smallholders and enabling them to be productive
members of society capable of fulfilling their most basic needs.