Contributions of Biotechnology for Poverty Reduction in Africa

Contributions of Biotechnology for Poverty Reduction in Africa $ A perspective for small to medium-sized plant breeding programs

Agro-biotechnology } Tissue culture and micropropagation } Recombinant DNA and diagnostics } Transgenics and GM-food, -feed, -fiber } Genomics and marker-aided introgression and selection (Biosafety and IPR management)

Agro-biotechnology levels } Product users: import germplasm ensuing from biotech process for testing or for crossing blocks with local material } Tool users: import tools for molecular breeding, adapting tool to local environments when needed } Methods innovators: research to establish full capacity (both products and tools) for molecular breeding

US patents in key crops (< 2000) Crop Total %>1985 Apple 26723 86 Flax 400 73 Rice 13487 68 Canola 350 93 Maize 10511 68 Pea 326 87 Cotton 5563 62 Alfalfa 290 78 Wheat 2136 71 Beet 234 65 Soybean 1980 76 Squash 231 71 Potato 1674 69 Legumes 253 72 Tomato 959 77 Papaya 62 77 Barley 909 79 Total 66088 76

Intellectual property rights and international public goods } Legal forms of property protection: patents, plant breeder’s rights, MTAs, technology use agreements, bag label contracts, trade secrets, commercial contracts and licenses } Freedom-to-operate: licensing germplasm for biotech tools, cross-licensing, joint ventures with private sector holding biotechnology, licensing (gratis), making common cause for sharing biotechnology, alliance with independent developers of biotech tools, use legally proprietary tools in host country and allow recipients to deal with claims on ensuing biotech products in other country

Agro-biotechnology strategy for an international center - IITA } Conduct applied biotech research to address the food and income needs } Transfer, in collaboration with partners, biotech products from labs to markets } Serve as a platform for biotech transfer between advanced labs and NARS } Enhanced selected NARS capacity to apply and monitor biotech via comprehensive interactions and trainingthrough-research programs

Transformation Methods Gene gun Agrobacterium

Transgenic technology: from test tubes to farmer fields } Transgenic crops: cotton, cucumber, melon, maize, tomato, papaya, potato, soybean, canola, sugar beet, tobacco, carnation } In pipeline: sweetpotato, cassava, banana/plantain, groundnut, chickpea, pigeonpea, cowpea, sorghum, wheat

Testing Transgenics Containment Facility and Biosafety

Transgenic crops } Grown in: Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, India, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Uruguay, USA } Not yet grown? : Brazil, Egypt, other EU, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Switzerland } Traits: Herbicide-tolerant Insect resistant Viral resistant Male sterile/restorers Delayed ripening Oil content Vitamin A, vaccines } GM-crops: 53 million ha (2001); 62. 3% RR-soybean

Available transgenic technology for sub-Saharan Africa } Insect resistant crops: cotton, maize, potato, sweetpotato } Viral resistant crops: potato, sweetpotato, papaya, (squash? ) } Herbicide tolerant crops? : cotton, maize, soybean, (canola) } Delayed ripening: (melon, tomato? )

Benefits from transgenic crops Crop Location Bt-maize RR-canola US Corn belt Canada RR-soybean USA/NC Bt-potato USA VR-potato Mexico Bt-cotton China Ex-ante: VR-sweetpotato Kenya Bt-sweetpotato Kenya

GM-crops and pesticide use } RR-soybean, RR-canola, Bt-maize, Bt-cotton reduced pesticide use by 22. 3 million kg of formulated product in year 2000 } In EU (ex-ante analysis) IF 50% GM-maize, -canola, sugar beet and –cotton; THEN pesticide use down by 14. 5 million kg of product (4. 6 M kg active ingredient), 7. 5 M ha sprayed less (i. e. , savings of 20. 5 million liters diesel, thereby avoiding 73, 000 t CO 2 into atmosphere) From: R. P. Phipps & J. R. Park (2002)

Timeframe for a transgenic cultivar Year 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Trait discovery/optimization Elite event selection process Regulatory process------- Introgression Parent seed production Commercial production ------Product launch----- Branding/pricing Premarketing

IITA Agro. Biotech R 4 D in SSA Tissue Culture GM-tech DNA Marker Cassava routine In-house map/QTL pest, gpl Yams routine n/a map/QTL pest, gpl Banana/plantain routine in-house map/QTL pest, gpl genome Crops GUS + Finger-printing Maize available map/QTL gpl Cowpea in dev. map/QTL gpl Soybean available Cocoa starting Available = from lab or biotech company in North America starting

Tissue culture at IITA } In vitro gene bank for cassava, yam and plantain/ banana (incl. cryo-preservation) } Emergency relief unit for vegeatively propagated crops and delivery of new propagules to farming systems } Pathogen-tested propagules for export after virusindexing and diagnostics for pests

Genetic transformation at IITA } Efficient in-house genotype-independent regeneration protocol from apical meristems of plantain and banana; Gus (uid. A) expression after Agrobacterium transformation } Regeneration and Agrobacterium transformation systems for cassava; transient Gus expression shown in partnership project } Researching electroporation for yams and Agrobacteriumtransformation for cowpeas in partnerships with ARIs in EU and North America

IITA markers for aided-breeding Plantain & Banana } RAPD and AFLP to determine genetic variation and phylogeny in Musa germplasm } Researching on fruit parthenocarpy, dwarfism, apical dominance and banana weevil resistance with SSR and AFLP markers } RAPD markers for A and B genomes } FISH technique for distinct genomes } SSR to predict heterosis; but pedigree-based analysis still useful for selecting parents

IITA markers for aided-breeding Cassava } Interval mapping with RFLP and SSR of cassava mosaic disease dominant gene with CIAT and cloning with DDPSC-ILTAB } Two genes coding for enzyme in biosynthesis of cyanogenic glucosides with KVL } EST and DNA chips with NDSU } SSR to determine duplicates in gene bank Yams } Genetic diversity and phylogeny with AFLP } AFLP maps for water and white yams } QTL for yam mosaic virus with JIC

IITA markers for aided-breeding Cowpea } Genetic map (RAPD, AFLP, SSR) with JIC, Univ. Saskatchewan and US Univs. } QTL for 100 seed-weight, CPMo. V, bruchids } Strain-specific R genes for Striga with VU } Genetic diversity and phylogeny gene bank Maize } AFLP fingerprinting of landraces and lines } Map Striga R genes from teosinte for BC with CIMMYT } Soon to research DNA markers for biofortification and nutritional genomics

Agro. Biotech R 4 D at IITA Diagnostic tools } Routine to detect virus and for pathogen strain-fingerprinting (ELISA and PCR) Environmental risk assessment GM-crops } Gene flow between cowpea and wild Vigna Capacity building } Assessing status and suggesting new steps } Updating skills of NARS partners } Biosafety with national governments and other stakeholders } Public awareness of benefits (and risks? ) of agrobiotechnology

CGIAR’s Emerging Niche “Developing new paradigms in breeding” } Catalyzing lateral linkages Genomics – Germplasm – Breeding – Bioinformatics } Releasing the power of HTP genotyping } Public domain molecular breeding packages

The Role of Molecular Breeding in Poverty Alleviation } Enhanced food production Support increases in population plus fuel economic development } Advances in crop productivity } Augmentation of traditional plant breeding } Critical role of applied agro-biotechnology More rapid and efficient plant breeding plus achieving new goals

Outlook for the Future New Paradigms in Plant Breeding } Molecular breeding of complex traits Gx. E, epistasis, population size } Plus-minus assays Rapid, cost effective, complex development } Knowledge-led plant breeding Functional and comparative genomics } Mega-throughput marker screening Microarrays and DNA chips