The Use of Agricultural Biotechnology in Marginal Areas and the Challenge to
Developing Countries
A H Zakri
UNU Institute of Advanced Studies, 53-67, Jingumae 5-chome
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-8304, Japan
Email: zakri@ias.unu.edu
Crop improvement is an old practice which has been carried out by farmers through out the
history of agriculture and the existence of farmer’s varieties is a testimony to that. Although the
conventional science of plant breeding and genetics was successfully used in bringing about the
Green Revolution in 1960s, biotechnology revolution has now provided a much more powerful
tool in manipulating crop plants to suit better human needs. The success of agricultural
biotechnology is seen in the expansion of area under transgenic crops. Global area of transgenic
crops has increased over 30 fold in 1996-2001. The global value of agricultural biotechnology
was estimated at US $0.5 billion in 1996 and projected to US $6 billion by 2005. It is further
estimated that the global market for transgenic crops would rise to US $20 billion by 2010.
Although it is clear that biotechnology application in crop improvement could help more food
production and challenge hunger, developing countries have largely been a bystander in the
development and use of biotechnology. Much of the technology development has been targeted at
markets where consumers could afford buying the product of the biotechnology. Estimates
indicate that biotechnology on an average could increase food production by 25% in developing
countries in the next 25 years. Therefore developing countries are required to establish essential
policies and institutions to enable them using the power of biotechnology in further developing
their agriculture. Such developments are required to tailor biotechnology development and
application in harmony with the broader socio-economic development plan of the country,
keeping important issues such as poverty alleviation and protection of the environment in mind.
These two issues are particularly important for those who live in marginal areas where poverty is
extensive and environment is particularly fragile. Tailoring biotechnology to the needs of the poor
and developing appropriate risk management provisions have to go hand in hand in with the
development of biotechnology industry in developing countries.