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Biotechnology applications in Third World countries
The global population is all set cross 7000 million by the year 2020 — an alarming figure by any stretch of imagination and the world food production must at least double to prevent a food crisis. However, current food technologies and production processes will be insufficient to meet this enormous demand. It appears then that biotechnology can provide some answers to this impending food crisis and other problems associated with the massive increase in global population.
Biotechnology, with its broad applications in food, agriculture, pharmaceutical, chemical, healthcare and waste management industries has the potential to dramatically enhance the worth and expectancy of human life.
Any development and change related to scientific and technical innovations do not simply bring benefits — they also carry ecological socio-economic and ethical costs. However, the biotechnology revolution is being heralded as an ecological wonder for agriculture as the miracles of Green Revolution slowly fade away. It is being offered as a hazard-free solution to environmental and ecological problems created by intensive chemical farming.
In fact, the word “chemical” is now associated with the “environmental and ecological hazards” whereas environment friendly alternatives have been commonly labeled as “biological.”
It is for this reason that biotechnology has an edge for it falls under the “biological” category, which is why this industry has described its agricultural modernization as “environment friendly” or “ecology plus”.
Improvement in crop production: Biotechnology has already had a substantial impact on the food industry through a variety of techniques, many of which are agricultural in nature. It has increased yields, prolonged shelf life improved the quality and flavor of food and has led to the development of some new foods, such as soya-based protein products.
Traditional breeding programs focus on allowing offspring of various crosses to mature, while observing them for desired characteristics. Modern techniques can dramatically reduce the time span of these programs. For example, using genetic fingerprinting (identifying which genes are coding for a particular trait/character) to determine whether the sought after characteristic can be achieved will significantly reduce the amount of time it takes for a new product to reach the market.
Apart from experiencing food shortage, many parts of the Third World also face problems related to the shortage of crops — almost a third of all crops are lost due to post-harvest insects, pests and fungi. This figure could be reduced by the development of safer post-harvest pesticides. Biopesticides, which consist of natural substances, have been used for commercial crop protection for over 30 years and the global market share of these pesticides was estimated to be worth about US $75 million in 1999-2000.
Most biopesticides are based on a toxin produced by the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which has the advantage of being biodegradable and at the same time is toxic to a number of pests, including mosquitoes, beetles and caterpillars. However, there is growing concern that tolerance to toxins in general is rising, just as with conventional pesticides.
There are a number of ways to tackle this problem including increasing dosage of the pesticide (leading to escalating tolerance and subsequent disturbance in the environment), identifying new drug targets within the pests to attack with new pesticides, and using a combination of biopesticides. Still, in the long-run, developing plants that have genetic resistance (resistance gene transferred from other species by genetic engineering) to pests is the most promising solution. In fact, such plants are expected to replace biopesticides eventually.
Today, transgenic (genetic material transferred from another species) plant technology is an established process and many crop plants, including rice and maize, can be altered to withstand conditions such as temperature fluctuations along with producing high yields.
Recent research and development has focused on transferring genes that are tolerant to certain environmental stresses such as temperature variations, drought and salinity (a typical problem in developing countries where land is often irrigated). Grams and pulses, which constitute over 75 per cent by weight of the basic food staples in developing countries, tend to be sensitive to salt levels whereas some wheat varieties for example, the sand couch grass are more tolerant.
Biotechnologists have identified a single chromosome which is associated with salt tolerance and produced a wheat hybrid that is able to survive and whose seeds can resist up to half the strength of sea water, which is much saltier than water used for irrigation. The mechanism of salt tolerance is not fully understood but it is thought to involve the ability of the plant to exclude salt from young and sensitive tissues at its growing points.
Currently, global average losses of rice yields are about 5-10 per cent per annum and much higher in leading rice producing countries of the Third World. Developing resistant plant varieties could eliminate this problem.
Health problems: The pharmaceutical industry is investing a great deal in biotechnology to produce novel drugs, to develop new screening techniques and to understand molecular structures, which form the basis of rational drug design. However owing to reduced financial returns, only a small part of this research is directed at tackling diseases that affect developing countries.
Research and development with respect to treating tropical diseases is limited because of its lack of profitability and because drug targets for parasitic diseases are difficult to identify. Nevertheless, a huge amount of research and development is directed towards treating diseases like AIDS and Hepatitis.
The application of biotechnology has produced improved and cheaper recombinant replacements for existing vaccines and new vaccines for conditions such as hepatitis B and rabies, which are prevalent in the Third World. These new vaccines have been formed by recombining biochemical constituents from different genetic sources.
Environment conservation: Biotechnology has already had a substantial impact on fine chemical manufacture by using enzymes in chiral synthesis. Still, it is likely that traditional products will retain a significant share of the market because many new genetically engineered enzymes are not cost-effective.
Environmental concerns such as effluence, waste material treatment and air pollution have grown over the past 20 years and biological solutions have been increasingly sought. Schemes removing pollutants from effluence and remediation of contaminated land could also be applied in developing countries where pollution is already a huge problem and will rise with increasing development and population expansion.
Other concerns: Biotechnology’s potential to irreversibly change the world for better or for worse, has led to growing international concern. Several public debates on the ethics of biotechnology have been held in a bid to increase public awareness and understanding of issues connected with biotechnology and in particular the genetic engineering.
Questions have also been raised about how best to test the benefits of biotechnology in the Third World along with getting rid of potential hazards.
The main setback is lack of general legislation in the Third World that raises fears that many developed countries could use them as biotechnology testing grounds. In particular lack of patent regulation in developing countries has led to concerns about the free access that developed world governments and private institutions have to Third World native plants and genes. Clearly, this access could be misused if biotechnology applied to produce species in the West that previously grew only under native tropical conditions. The consequences of this exploitation could be severe if there is no proper planning and if no ethical boundaries are set down.
References:
— Improving food biotechnology resources and strategies in developing countries. Food Biotechnology: Oct 1995.
— Third World Biotechnology. Chemistry in Britain: Jan 1998.
— Biotechnology: International Trends and Perspectives. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris, France; 1990.
— Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, Headed by Dr Shiva. http://www.indiaserver.com (accessed on Aug 30, 2004).
The writer
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