THE ROLE OF BIOTECHNOLOGY IN AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

Biotechnology has great potential to influence and benefit agriculture. In conjunction with conventional technologies, modern biotechnology holds promise of increased and sustained food production. On the global level, latest estimates indicate that 826 million people remained undernourished in 1996-98: 791 million people in the developing world and 34 million in the developed one. Under such food insecurity situation, when people live with hunger and fear starvation, agricultural biotechnology could play a major role in resolving the serious food gap the developing countries are already facing. In this regard, the science of developing biotechnological tools should not discriminate between developing and developed countries. Present trend of research and development have given rise to concern that the disparity in harnessing biotechnology for agricultural and economic development may increase between industrialized developed countries and developing ones. The presence and persistence of such a situation will make it difficult for developing countries to secure that through agricultural biotechnology the steady increasing shortage in food production will find its solution. Therefore, to attain the major gains that biotechnology could provide to the agricultural sector and food production, the primary task is to ensure that such benefits be shared by people in the North and the South, in both large and small, rich and poor countries.

(Adapted from Biotechnology for the 21^st century: opportunities in Agriculture: Atef Hamdy,2001)