This document discusses several global environmental issues and concerns for the 21st century, including climate change, natural resource depletion, ozone depletion, and loss of biodiversity. It then summarizes the role of agricultural biotechnology in addressing issues of sustainability, crop productivity, and food security. The document outlines how biotechnology can be used to develop stress-tolerant and higher-yielding crop varieties, as well as transfer useful traits from wild plants. However, it notes biotechnology must be properly regulated and accompanied by risk assessment. The document provides examples of how biotechnology has been applied in agriculture, including Bt technology to engineer pest-resistant crops like cotton. It concludes that biotechnology has the potential to increase food production but that both

2. 1- Climate change
2- Natural resource depletion
3-Ozone depletion
4- Energy consumption
5-Chemical pollution
6- Urbanization
7-Soil deterioration
8- Ecosystem functioning
9-Air pollution
10-Loss of biodiversity
11-Deforestation/desertification
12-Freshwater pollution
Global Concerns (Issues for the 21st Century ).

3. --Chrispeels, 2000

5. • Sustainability: Increasing yield stability under
different stress conditions, understanding of the
mechanisms that determine crop productivity, and
yield ).
• The biodiversity present in the region is a source of
important traits to improve cultivated plants. However,
most of this diversity (10% of the flora) is threatened by
genetic erosion
• Biotechnology could be one strategy to be adopted in
order to obtain suitable varieties with traits of interest
that will face the problems encountered in the field and to
satisfy the needs of the consumers
How to face the challenge ???

6. 21st Century Plants will be GM-
Plants
Agriculture Biotechnology
Medical Biotechnology
Industrial Biotechnology
Environmental Biotechnology

7. Biotechnology Definition (1992) :
Any technological application that uses biological systems,
living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify
products or processes for specific use.

8. Agricultural biotechnology is a collection of scientific techniques used to
improve plants, animals and microorganisms. Based on an understanding
of DNA, scientists have developed solutions to increase agricultural
productivity. Starting from the ability to identify genes that may confer
advantages on certain crops, and the ability to work with such
characteristics very precisely.
biotechnology enhances breeders’ ability to make improvements in
crops and livestock. Biotechnology enables improvements that are
not possible with traditional crossing of related species alone.
WHAT IS AGRICULTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY?

9. Role of biotechnology for food security
Huge potential
IF
• properly integrated with other technologies
•accompanied by a systematic risk assessment
and management (biosafety system)
• used to address food security and other key
agriculture challenges of poor countries
After Sonnino 2003

10. HOW LONG HAS BIOTECHNOLOGY BEEN USED IN
AGRICULTURE AND FOOD PRODUCTION?
The first food product of biotechnology (an enzyme used
in cheese production and a yeast used for baking)
appeared on the market in 1990. Since 1995, farmers
have been growing GE crops. In 2003, 7 million farmers
in 18 countries—more than 85 percent of them resource-
poor farmers in the developing world—were planting
biotech crops. Almost one third of the global biotech crop
area was grown in developing countries.

11. HOW IS AGRICULTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY
USED?
Genetic engineering: Scientists have learned how to
move genes from one organism to another. This has
been called genetic modification (GM), genetic
engineering (GE) or genetic improvement (GI).
Regardless of the name, the process allows the transfer
of useful characteristics (such as resistance to a disease)
into a plant, animal or microorganism by inserting
genes (DNA) from another organism. Virtually all
crops improved with transferred DNA (often called
GM crops or GMOs) to date have been developed to
aid farmers to increase productivity by reducing crop
damage from weeds, diseases or insects.

12. Desired gene
Traditional plant breeding
DNA is a strand of genes,
much like a strand of
pearls. Traditional plant
breeding combines many
genes at once.
Traditional donor Commercial variety New variety
Desired Gene
X =
(crosses)
(many genes are transferred)
Plant biotechnology
Using plant biotechnology,
a single gene may be
added to the strand.
Desired gene Commercial variety New variety
(transfers)
=
Desired gene
(only desired gene is transferred)
12

14. Depending on where and for
what purpose a transgenic
plant can:
1. Result in higher yield.
2. Result in improved
quality.
3. Confer pest or disease
resistance.
4. Confer tolerance to heat,
cold and drought.
Provides an answer to Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” which alerted
people to the dangers of chemical pesticides.

15. 15
More food
Better food
Better for the environment

16. Field Releases—PHENOTYPIC CATEGORIES
30%
6%
10%
29%
4%
15%
6%
Herbicide tolerant
Agronomic
properties
Viral resistant
Insect resistant
Fungal resistant
Product quality
Other*
MOST FREQUENT CATEGORIES
March1987–June 2002
*marker genes, selectable markers, and
bacterial- and nematode resistant phenotypes
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Most Frequent Categories

18. Food safety
• Control of food supply
• Biodiversity loss via super-monoculture
• Biodiversity risk via interbreeding
• Non-target impacts (beneficial insects,…)
– Gene hopping, transgenic “monsters”
• Fear of the unknown
• It’s not a ‘natural’ process
Major GMO Concerns

19. More abundant and healthy food
• Less dependence on pesticides
• Decreased production risks for farmers:
frost damage, pest and disease damage,
higher yields
• More agricultural yield per land mass to feed
a hungry, growing world population;
• More precise than traditional
breeding techniques
Major GMO Promises

20. 20

21.  United States (68%)
 Argentina (22%)
 Canada (6%)
 China (3%)

22.  Soybeans
 Corn
 Cotton
 Canola

23. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
Million Hectares
Source: Clive James, 2001

24. 34%
54%
52%
71%
Heard little or nothing Heard some or a lot
November 2001 survey by Council for Biotechnology Information
24
Percentage who support biotechnology to ...
Develop new
varieties of crops
Genetically
modify foods

25. 25

— Hippocrates

26. 26

28. 28

29. Bt Technology

30. Bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis produces protein, delta-
endotoxin, that is toxic to insects in orders Lepidoptera,
Coleoptera (beetles)
- Bt toxin in form of powder used as insecticide spray → applied
to leaves where larvae feed on
2. Toxin binds to specific receptors in gut and insects stops eating.
Mode of action:
1. Insect eats Bt crystals (•◊) and bacterial
spores. Bt crystals dissolve at high pH in insect gut.
3. Toxin causes the gut wall to break down, allowing spores and
normal gut bacteria to enter the body.
4. Insect dies
What is Bt and how does it work?

31. Bt crystal proteins use
In agriculture
Bt Sprays Isolated and
Purified Bt crystal proteins,
Break down in sunlight,
Requires several Applications ,
Controls
Surface feeding insects only
And not burrowed insects,
Expensive and used for high
Value crops only
Bt deltaendotoxins
Engineered into crops , genes
Are modified to ensure
Stable expression within the
plant, No need for sprays,Can
control burrowed Insects ,Cheaper
and easier To handle

32. Process of Creating Bt Crop Plants

33. Bt and Non Bt Maize Fields
Non-B

34. Bt and non Bt plants Tested in Biosafety Greenhouse

35. Genetically Modified Crops
Genetically Modified Cotton
(contains a bacterial gene for pest
resistance)
Standard
Cotton

36. Bacillus thuringiensis Cry toxins:
specificit
Each type of δ-endotoxin is active
against a limited range of insects,
e.g…
Cry5 Lepidoptera/Coleoptera
Cry4 Diptera
Cry3 Coleoptera
Cry2 Lepidoptera/Diptera
Cry1 Lepidoptera
Specific toxins bind to different receptors in insect mid-gut (forming
large pores leading to cell lyses) have low toxicity against most insects +
stomach poison so uptake greatest by phytophagous insects

37. Crystal proteins Target insects Transformed plants
CrylAa Lepidoptera Cranberrya, poplar rutabaga10
CrylAb Lepidoptera Apple cottonU, rnaize12, poplar13,
potato14, rice15, tobaCC03.16, tornato17,
white clover18, white spruce19
CrylAc Lepidoptera Apple20, broco1i21, cabbage21, cotton22,
grapevinea, oilseed rape23,
peanut24, rice25,
soybean26, tobaCC027, tornatoa, walnUt20
Cry113a Lepidoptera White clover28
CrylCa Lepidoptera Alfalfa29, ArabidopSi529, tobacco29
Cry1H Lepidoptera Maize30
Cry2Aa Lepidoptera Cottona
Cry3A Coleoptera Eggplanta, potato31, tobacco32
Cry6A Coleoptera Alfalfaa
Cry9C Lepidoptera Maize33
Bt (unspecified) Juneberry24, hawthorn24, pear24, sugar
cane24
Table 1. Transgenic plants expressing crystal-protein genes from Bacillus thuringiensis

38.  Assessment of the application of some
biological agents for control main pests in
potato crops in Egypt and Czech Republic .

39.  Overwinters as an
adult in and around
potato fields
 2 generations per year
with a third in some
years
 Both adult and larva
feed
 Female lays 300-500
eggs
 Implicated as a vector
but not yet confirmed
larva
larval feeding

40. Adult feeding
Newly hatched eggs
Female laying eggs
Larval feeding

42. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
Superior
NewLeaf Superior
Premix diet
Days since ecdysis to the penultimate
instar
M
ean
body
weight
(g)

43. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
0
10
20
30
40
Superior
NewLeaf Superior
Days since ecdysis to the penultimate instar
%
of
mortality

46.  Crops and foods improved through
biotechnology are subjected to more extensive
and detailed prior scrutiny than any others in
history
Conclusion

47. -Patrick Moore, Ph.D.
Ecologist; Greenpeace Co-Founder

48. - Per. Pinstrup-Anderson
Director General, International
Food Policy Research Institute

49. -Provessor Derek Burke
Nuffield Council on Bioethics

50. Scientific community
Could play a greater role in public discussion of
issues and by generating new knowledge.
Need agreement between science and society
as to what are the critical gaps in knowledge
Pursue additional, well-targeted research to
resolve some of the issues
Future perspectives

51. 􀂉Countries and societies ultimately must assess the benefits
and risks for themselves and make their own decisions.
􀂉The international development community should stand
ready to respond to countries calling for safe access to these
technologies.
􀂉Specifically, it should be prepared to meet requests to fund
the development of safe transgenics with pro-poor traits and
to underwrite the high initial costs for their testing and
release.
􀂉If a new wave of safe and pro-poor technologies is
developed and accepted, the regulatory costs should fall
sharply.

52. Thank you