- South-South cooperation (SSC) has evolved as some developing countries experience high growth while others remain low-growth. SSC focuses on respecting sovereignty, national ownership, non-conditionality, and mutual benefit. - Key areas for SSC in agricultural biotechnology include joint research in new technologies like CRISPR, genome mapping of crops, and developing regulatory frameworks suited to developing countries. - Open innovation models involving partnerships across sectors, as well as open data and hardware platforms, can effectively promote SSC in agricultural biotechnology.

1. Agricultural Biotechnology for South-South
Cooperation
Sachin Chaturvedi
Regional Expert Consultation on
Agricultural Biotechnology - Scoping Partnership to Improve Livelihoods of Farmers in Asia-Pacific
Bangkok, 29 May 2018

2. South-South Cooperation (SSC): Evolution
• Continued high growth in some developing countries and
persistent patterns of low growth in the industrialized
North pose a challenge to the conventional terminology
used to classify countries against economic growth
criteria.
• For example, the term ‘South’ emerged after the Second
World War to signify a block of countries in which levels
of economic development were far lower than in
countries in the North; at this time also, ‘West’ and ‘East’
came to signify respectively capitalist countries, and the
socialist and communist bloc.
• Most countries that belonged to neither East nor West
ended up in the group called the South.

3. • A central issue is the definition of a theoretical basis
for SSC.
• There have been a few attempts at this but it is
nevertheless clear that the emergence of the OPEC
Fund, a multilateral development finance institution
fund established by the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC), shattered many
ideological positions in theoretical debates on
development.
• According to Bhagwati (1986), the Fund signified,
first, that foreign aid from the North is not
automatically the best instrument for redistribution of
income;
South-South Cooperation (SSC): Evolution

4. • Secondly, it showed that efficient aid delivery need
not mean falling into the trap of ‘conditionalities’;
• Thirdly, that the route to success is through control
of primary natural resources.
• These imperatives in the OPEC model posed a major
challenge to the ideological hegemony that
dominated developmental thinking in the 1990s and
was best exemplified in the Washington Consensus.
South-South Cooperation (SSC): Evolution

5. SSC: Principles and Modalities
Essential Principles
• Respect for national
sovereignty
• National ownership
• Independence
• Equality
• Non-conditionality
• Non-interference
• Mutual benefit.
Modalities
• Capacity-building
• In House training
• Technology transfer
• Financial assistance
(Grant)
• Lines of Credit
• Humanitarian
Assistance

6. Development Compact
* Trade
- Market Access
- Domestic Support Policies
- NTBs/Standards
* Investment
- Enterprise Development
- Markets/Value Chain
* Technology Transfer and Knowledge Sharing
- Productivity
- Value Chains
* Capacity Building

7. Trends in Technology in South
• South is no more a mute spectator China and Korea
are spending more on R&D than most of the
developed countries in terms of % of GDP
• In agricultural R&D at least ten countries in the
South are working on CRISPR/Genome Editing
• The public sector R&D in agriculture is still strong
in many countries including Brazil, South Africa,
China and India and some of these countries are
engaged in co-operation with countries in Africa

8. Trends in Technology in South
• The issue is more of building synergies that would
propel SSC in agri-biotech than capacity per se
• We need a strategy to evaluate the technological
strength in South in agri-biotech and identify how
SSC can be developed in agri-biotech
• Ideas like Technology Bank, Patent Pooling and
Clearing Houses for SSC in agri-biotech can be
explored

9. Keys Areas of Research Cooperation
• Promotion of Joint Research in Frontier Areas
in non-GM technologies such as CRISPR,
Marker Assisted Selection, Gene Editing
• Research Collaboration in Undertaking
Whole Genome Sequence Mapping of
Important Crops

10. Open Innovation
• Open innovation means combining strengths and
capabilities of different parties to find a solution
or address a complex problem
• Open Innovation is used by industries in different
sectors with schemes to incentivize innovative
solutions by rewards and prizes
• Open Innovation can be used to promote SSC in
agri-biotechnology

11. Open Innovation
• There are examples such as UN FAO’s “Agrisource”, a
free online platform. It is Europe’s first open innovation
platform for climate-smart agriculture. The platform
empowers international actors to implement climate-
smart agricultural practices across the supply chain
• MIT Media Lab Open Agriculture Initiative (OpenAg)
brings together partners from industry, government, and
academia in a research collective that's creating
collaborative tools and open technology platforms for the
exploration of future food systems.

12. Open Source and Open Data
• Open Source and Open Data with Open Hardware can
be used in SSC
• Last year DBT (India) took an initiative on Open Data
for farming so that farmers would have access to
relevant data as Open Data
• South’s capacity in IT & bioinformatics can be
channelized to promote platforms that provide open
data and value added services and SSC can be used in
this. E.G. A regional level sharing of open data and
value added services

13. Open Source and Open Data
• Open Source Seeds is a concept that is being
tested in Africa and India . Governments
should pay attention to open source seeds in
agri-biotech
• Open Sourcing and Open Data open up new
possibilities in creating new platforms
embodying the principles of SSC

14. Regulatory Architecture
• Governance of technology calls for co-operation in
responding to rapidly advancing technologies in
biosciences
• Governing CRISPR is becoming a challenge. Instead
of looking at North, Southern nations can develop a
framework that can be more suitable to them and that
provides flexibility
• The North took the lead in GM regulation through
OECD and despite differences they built up the
scientific basis for regulation

15. Regulatory Architecture
• South should do it for post-GM and genomics based
agri-biotech through SSC by forming working groups
and inter-agency collaboration
• This will give an opportunity to develop regulation
that is more suited to South and principle of
Governance that are more relevant for South
• To begin with at least in regional grouping or in
groupings like IBSA or BASIC the scope for SSC
should be discussed

16. Agri-Biotech and Bio-Pharma
• Our research shows that in bio-pharma SSC worked
well as countries had a good understanding of their
capacities and roles
• Which means that joint R&D is one of the options
but localizing, technology transfer and adoption are
important for SSC to succeed . Moreover synergy in
SSC has to be developed
• In agri-biotech a similar approach can be adopted by
identifying immediate or relevant needs in
applications and services. For example joint
development of genome edited crops for enhancing
food security

17. Way Forward
• Identify the scope for SSC in agri-biotech and do a
SWOT analysis of current SSC in agricuture
• Select two or three key issues/themes to work on with a
time frame, deliverables and budget
• Develop synergies and combine available technological
prowess in different disciplines
• Identify areas for upstream and downstream research
• Building a network of groups and institutions that would
work on the identified themes/issues
• Think in terms of leap frogging and go beyond GM
technology in SSC

18. Thank You !