Advances in agricultural biotechnology and biosafety

Biotechnology has become such a broad based and multidisciplinary science that it is essential to clearly define the limits of the present discussion. Since the main focus is on the biosafety considerations of transgenic plants. It is obviously the "New Biotechnology" involving the use of genetic engineering that has to be emphasised.
The use of genetic engineering in agriculture is a complex issue that presents both potential benefits and risks to human society and the environment, with implications at the local, national and global levels. Over the past decade, a heated global debate has erupted over the use of modern biotechnology because "Modern biotechnology" allows scientists to make targeted changes in the agronomic characteristics of plants.
As such, it has been put forth as an important tool with which to address hunger and poverty, which, despite decades of scientific, social, and political efforts, remain widespread throughout the developing world.
In its application to agriculture, biotechnology's potential benefits include improved crops that would be more nutritious, higher yielding, resistant to pests and disease, and more environmentally sustainable; while opponents of modern biotechnology disagreed such claims; they believe that biotechnology may help to produce high-yielding breeds, but it is possible that loss of genetic diversity may occur, it may have negative effects on human and animal health.
Therefore, it is a moral mandate for scientists and policy makers to guide modern technology to minimise the negative impacts by setting-up a transparent and workable biosafety framework, while maximising potential benefits.
The core function of the biosafety regulations must be to strengthen institutions that would be dealing with Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) products and addressing issues regarding the use of modern biotechnology, particularly on biosafety issues such as health, environmental and socio-cultural and ethical impacts.
Undoubtedly, modern technology brings new challenges for the policy and regulatory framework, therefore close co-operation on biotechnology, biosafety issues and trade at the national, regional and international levels is crucial and should be promoted; which will strengthen the confidence of the common man in technology.
In October 2005, a workshop on "Awareness Building on the Recent Advances of Agricultural Biotechnology and Biosafety", held at the Rural Development Academy (RDA) Bogra, Bangladesh; organised by Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council (BARC) & South Asia Biosafety Programme (SABP); in which a large number of participants from agriculture extension, representatives from Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), different NGOs and other organisations have attended and exchanged their ideas regarding the potential benefits, risks transgenic crops and issues of biosafety of plant biotechnology in the region.
In three of the years it was less than 1 percent. The goal of food self-sufficiency by 1990, was asserted as part of the Third Five Year Plan, but it could be achieved only under optimal conditions. Bangladesh was still importing an average of 2 million tonnes of food grains each year to meet the minimum needs for the subsistence of the population. Most of the imports were on a grant or concessional basis from the United States, the World Food Program, or other food aid donors (US Library of Congress).
Cotton is the major cash crop of Pakistan, which earns nearly 60% of the foreign exchange. With the recent disaster resulting from the cotton leaf curl virus (CLCV) spread, a major national effort has been underway for the last few years to cope with this problem. Significant amounts of financial resources and manpower have been committed for developing transformation technology for local cotton varieties.
It needs to be pointed out that in view of the economic considerations, efforts to obtain transgenic plant varieties have been given the highest priority. Biotechnology is one of the main battlegrounds; the Pakistani government has placed great emphasis on trying to develop its own biotechnology sector, and public spending in research and development has trebled in the last few years. Pakistan's government has invested US $17 million in biotech research, there are now about 70 scientists working in 19 centers conducting biotech research on different crops at various institutes.
Our scientists have grabbed headlines with experiments in the area of genetically modified crops like Cotton and Rice; this is one area of biotech where we are competing at the top level.
In April 2005, the government of Pakistan approved its Biosafety Rules and the Pakistan Atomic energy Commission (PAEC) has provided the basic seed of transgenic cotton varieties "IR-FH-901", "IR-NIBGE-2", "IR-CIM-448" and "IR-CIM-443" to a few seed companies for its multiplication and sale. This is a big achievement for our scientists, as in Asia, so far, only three countries China, India and Pakistan have successfully developed indigenous Genetically Modified (GM) crops.
The Center of Agricultural, Biochemistry and Biotechnology (CABB), University of Agriculture, Faisalabad is the only institute which offers postgraduate degree programmes in Agriculture Biotechnology; while the National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE) Faisalabad has been awarded the status of an affiliate Center of the International center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB); research activities of NIBGE relate to agriculture, health, industry and environment, at NIBGE, research on bio-fertilisers has reached a stage where it is commercialised with the name "Bio-power".