Biotech is improving farming, says English conferenceU.K. 6/18/2001(soyatech) - By 2020 there will be another two billionpeople, mainly in the poorest parts of the world. With population growthoutpacing the capacity to produce food, agriculture has reached acrossroads.Biotechnology has been around since mankind first experienced the joys ofhome brewing. Science has sidestepped the species constraints ofconventional reproduction to find more useful offspring such as the muleor hybrid crops. Horticulturalists have been modifying the genetic make-upof plants for years, in the hope of creating bigger and better crops.Genetic modification is a more specific way of doing this. Faced withdrought, rising temperature and soil infertility, in the years aheadsuccess depends on contemporary science intermingling with traditionalmethods, to enhance productivity without jeopardising ecological security.This was the issue for researchers gathered at Global Agriculture 2020 atthe John Innes Centre in Norwich in April this year.There are many success stories. Dr Luis Herrera-Estrella from Cinvestav,Mexico, is engineering crops to combat climate change and environmentalstresses. Plants are being engineered with 'drought-proofing' genes or totolerate salinity by making 'osmoprotectant' molecules such as trehalose.Others use nutrients more efficiently, reducing fertiliser usage, byexcreting organic acids that release phosphorus from metal complexes ininfertile acidic soils. Access to new technologies and software tools, canspeed up the search for genes involved with stress adaptation, offeringnovel approaches for crop design.Agriculture provides a livelihood for 55% of Indians but crops like urdand green gram frequently suffer losses of 70%. Transgenic technologyoffers a solution. In Mexico, virus-resistant potatoes boosted yields onsmall-scale farms by 46%, and income by 141%, at no extra cost because thetechnology was given by industry. And in Kenya, yields were up by 20-25%using sweet potatoes resistant to viruses or insects.Eight million hectares of cotton are cultivated in India, requiring 50% ofthe country's total pesticide consumption with dire consequences for theenvironment, biodiversity and human health. Despite this, rampant pestsand diseases reduce yields to half the worldwide average. But, fieldtrials of cotton engineered with a bacterial protein that protects againstinsect invaders, raised yields by 40-70% and needed fewer pesticides.At Professor Swaminathan's research institute in Madras, organic farmingflourishes alongside modern methods. A 'designer potato' with enhancedamino acid composition has been engineered to improve its nutritionalvalue. Tobacco that tolerates salinity is a precautionary measure againstthe rising tides a changing climate will bring. This trait can beengineered into food crops. Biological control methods, such as naturallyoccurring plant chemicals or the predator-eats-pest scenario, are alsoused to protect crops.Swaminathan is also encouraging rural communities to embrace new practicesto improve farming. But the technological explosion has seen a digitaldivide develop between those who have access to information technology andthe billions in rural regions of developing countries that do not, a kindof 'technological apartheid' as he calls it.The 'green revolution' of the late 1960s avoided widespread famine,largely by introducing high-yielding, modern semi-dwarf varieties of riceand wheat - shorter, stockier plants support the heads of grain betterthan their lankier relatives. Swaminathan advocates a new, 'evergreenrevolution' through the use of technology, to provide a sustainable globalagriculture and a perennial green revolution in which everyone can share,right down to the poorest farmer in the poorest part of the world.Malnutrition affects about 800 million worldwide - in India, 53% childrenaged under four are underweight, 47-90% are anaemic and millions sufferfrom vitamin A deficiency. 'Golden rice' engineered with vitamin Aprecursors was developed through public funding, not industry, to helpreduce blindness caused by vitamin A deficiency. With the sup port ofSyngenta, free licences for 'humanitarian use' were granted for allintellectual property rights and the rice is free for farmers earning lessthan Dollars 10,000.Widely grown, especially by peasant women, bananas provide 25% of theenergy needs for most Kenyans. Declining yields, due to environmentalstresses, pests and diseases, threatened food security and income for the80% of small-scale farmers in Kenya who provide 90% of the country's food.This prompted scientists from the ISAAA AfriCentre, Nairobi, to work withlocal farmers to offer culturally acceptable solutions. Propagating'clean' seedlings in tissue culture, sterile glass pots until they arehardy enough to transplant to the field has boosted yields.Esther Gacaugu is one farmer reaping the rewards - she has ploughed herincreased income back into her farm, expanding her orchard. She is now agroup leader and distributor of tissue culture-grown plantlets and canafford to educate her children.Progress has always been driven by myriad technological innovations andagriculture faces tough decisions if it is to supply nutritional food tofeed eight billion.Together with traditional practices, the advent of genetic engineering anda wealth of knowledge from genomics resources herald a new renaissance,allowing more food to be produced from less land using less water andfewer chemicals.To the eco-terrorists brandishing their banners shouting 'Save the world',isn't that what science is in a position to do?But as Professor Alan Gray, from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology,said: 'The future of agriculture may actually depend on the ability of thepersuaders.'-by Dr. Claire Cockcroft, Institute of Biotechnology, University ofCambridge.