Biotechnology for developing-country agriculture: Problems and opportunities

Today, almost a billion people live in absolute poverty and suffer from chronic hunger. Seventy percent of these individuals are farmers — men, women and children — who eke out a living from small plots of poor soils, mainly in tropical environments that are increasingly prone to drought, flood, bushfires and hurricanes. Crop yields in these areas are stagnant and epidemics of pests and weeds often ruin crops. Livestock suffer from parasitic diseases, some of which also affect humans. Inputs such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides are expensive and the latter can affect the health of farm families, destroy wildlife and contaminate water courses when used in excess. The only way families can grow more food and have a surplus for sale seems to be to clear more forest. Older children move to the city, where they, too, find it difficult to earn enough money to buy the food and medicine they need for themselves and their young children.

As these detrimental social and environmental changes are occurring in the developing world, a revolution in biotechnology and associated information technology is improving the health, well-being and lifestyle of the privileged and creating more wealth in a few rich countries.

Can this revolution also be harnessed to serve the food and nutrition needs of the world’s poor? What are the opportunities, problems and risks involved with the new technologies and can they be managed? The last question is particularly pressing in light of the current controversy between the United States and the European Union over genetically modified foods. The benefits and risks of biotechnology weigh differently for food in areas of food surplus than they do for life-threatening diseases in those same areas.