What is the official stance if any from biotech companies when it comes to public sector development of GM food crops?

Expert response from GMOAnswers Admin_1

Wednesday, 18/05/2016 16:09

The public sector – academia, national research programs and the global CG (Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research) system – has traditionally been a source of excellent research and creativity for food crop improvement. However, genetic modification (GM) technology is a challenging area for most public institutions due to the elaborate and complicated global regulatory framework currently in place. 

Public-private collaborations offer some of the best opportunities for the public sector to pursue advancements in GM crops. Two projects that I’m personally involved in are Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS) and African Biofortified Sorghum (ABS). The IMAS program includes more than just GM options, and is a collaboration of select national research programs in Africa, the International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT), DuPont Pioneer, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The effort is focused on developing improved corn hybrids for Africa, which will be more productive in the tough environmental and soil conditions common to Africa. None of the organizations would be able to meet the challenge if they were working on their own, but together, we believe we can deliver on the promise of greater productivity and prosperity for smallholder farmers.

The African Biofortified Sorghum project includes leadership from Africa Harvest, a non-governmental organization based in Kenya, and national research programs based in Kenya and Nigeria. DuPont Pioneer is providing technical, regulatory and monetary support. The collaboration was started by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with the goal of improving micronutrient content and availability in sorghum, an important food crop for 300 million people in Africa. So far, we have demonstrated that we can increase pro-vitamin A levels in sorghum enough to deliver 100 percent of the daily value for children and dramatically improve the stability of pro-vitamin A during grain storage. Once again, only through a combined effort would the progress we’ve made be possible.

Public research has a long history of making important discoveries and advancing science. We are hopeful that as GM technology and other emerging technologies become more common place, that the regulatory needs among countries become more harmonized and less burdensome, allowing more research to flourish. Until such time, several models for collaboration have been used in the past, and others are being explored, which allow public institutions to participate more broadly in the application of sound science and delivery of improved food crops.