Case studies of public-private partnerships in agricultural biotechnologies: Lessons learned presentation by Denis Murphy, University of South Wales, Cardiff, United Kingdom

1. Denis J Murphy
University of South Wales, UK
© Denis Murphy, FAO Agri-biotechnology Symposium, Rome

2. Introduction
• Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have played vital roles in the progress of
modern agriculture, from the creation and dissemination of hybrid maize in the
early 20th
century to the Green Revolution of the 1960s and beyond.
• However, during most of the 20th
century, much of the leadership in organization
and innovation in agricultural systems in industrialized countries came from
powerful public bodies, such as USDA and land-grant universities in the USA.
• This public sector dominance was much reduced after the 1980s as many state
entities were privatized and/or suffered funding reductions.
• The process coincided with the growth of a dynamic, increasingly globalized
agbiotech sector, originally based on agrochemical companies that diversified
into bio-based areas including crop breeding and livestock management.
• As we move through the 21st
century, future innovations and their
implementation will require ever closer partnerships (i.e. PPPs) between public
entities (including state organizations, research institutes, universities,
extension bodies etc) and an increasingly diverse private sector that includes
multinationals, SMEs, NGOs, citizen groups, retailers, small farmers etc.

3. Introduction
• Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have played vital roles in the progress of
modern agriculture, from the creation and dissemination of hybrid maize in the
early 20th
century to the Green Revolution of the 1960s and beyond.
• However, during most of the 20th
century, much of the leadership in organization
and innovation in agricultural systems in industrialized countries came from
powerful public bodies, such as USDA and land-grant universities in the USA.
• This public sector dominance was much reduced after the 1980s as many state
entities were privatized and/or suffered funding reductions.
• The process coincided with the growth of a dynamic, increasingly globalized
agbiotech sector, originally based on agrochemical companies that diversified
into bio-based areas including crop breeding and livestock management.
• As we move through the 21st
century, future innovations and their
implementation will require ever closer partnerships (i.e. PPPs) between public
entities (including state organizations, research institutes, universities,
extension bodies etc) and an increasingly diverse private sector that includes
multinationals, SMEs, NGOs, citizen groups, retailers, small farmers etc.

4. Conclusions from ABDC-10
Stronger partnerships among and within
countries will facilitate development & use of
biotechnologies, including:
•South-south and regional alliances
•Incorporation of traditional knowledge
•Public-private & research partnerships for
sharing experiences, information &
technologies
PROCEEDINGSOFTHEFAOINTERNATIONALTECHNICALCONFERENCE
ON“AGRICULTURALBIOTECHNOLOGIESINDEVELOPINGCOUNTRIES:
OPTIONSANDOPPORTUNITIESINCROPS, FORESTRY, LIVESTOCK,
FISHERIESANDAGRO-INDUSTRYTOFACETHECHALLENGESOFFOOD
INSECURITYANDCLIMATECHANGE”(ABDC-10)
BIOTECHNOLOGIESFOR
AGRICULTURALDEVELOPMENT

5. European Joint Research Centre
report on PPPs, 2014
• PPPs are especially important in enabling smallholders
to contribute to the nature and implementation of
modern biotech-derived crops, most of which have
hitherto addressed the needs of larger commercial
farmers and agribusiness interests.
• However, strategies for translating research into new
varieties are generally missing and PPPs are not much
used for the development of minor crops
• PPPs tend to be highly dynamic as the nature of the
various partners constantly changes, the technologies
advance, and fresh challenges arise, such as climatic
change and (possibly related) newly emerging threats
including pests and diseases.
• PPPs involve many players and can occur at all scales
from single farmers or farmer groups to globe-spanning
international partnerships and sovereign governments

6. 1. Brinjal in Bangladesh: breaking the
impasse on GM crop acceptance?
• Several subsistence GM crop candidates have faced lengthy delays,
but in 2013 Bangladesh approved Bt brinjal/eggplant for planting after
a rapid approval process
• In 2014 commercialization was initiated via a PPP when a total of 120
farmers planted 12 hectares
• There was strong political support from the government, with
leadership from Ministry of Agriculture, and close collaboration with
farmer groups and private sector breeders
• This approval by Bangladesh is important in that it has broken the
impasse experienced in trying to gain approval for commercialization
of Bt brinjal that blocked its introduction in India and the Philippines
• It also serves as an possible model for other developing countries.

7. 2. EMBRAPA in Brazil:
PPP-led GM crop development
• EMBRAPA has been especially active in fostering PPPs in ag-biotech and
has developed & commercialized GM crops that are grown by farmers
ranging from smallholders to large international combines
• In 2014, Brazil commercially planted GM soybeans with insect resistance
and herbicide tolerance on 5.2 Mha, up substantially from 2.2 Mha in 2013
• In 2015, EMBRAPA gained approval to commercialize:
* GM virus resistant bean, planned for 2016 (smallholder used crop)
* a novel herbicide tolerant soybean, developed via a PPP with BASF
• It is also developing GM folate-fortified lettuce and drought resistant
sugarcane
• EMBRAPA is a large state enterprise that has taken the lead in innovative
biotech crop development with PPP engagement: this was initially mostly
commercially focused but with increasing trickle-down to smallholders

8. 3. Ag-biotech PPPs in Africa
• Over the past decade there has been a range of PPP ventures in Africa
focusing on both GM and non-GM crops aimed at smallholders
• For example, Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, and
Uganda have conducted field trials on the following broad range of
staple and orphan crops: rice, maize, wheat, sorghum, bananas,
cassava, and sweet potato
• Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) is a major PPP expected to
deliver its first GM drought tolerant maize with Bt insect resistance in
South Africa as early as 2017, followed by Kenya and Uganda, and
then by Mozambique and Tanzania, subject to regulatory approval
• Over the past two years there has been a distinct improvement in state
involvement with biotech-related PPPs and an increasing willingness
to engage in regulatory processes, especially for GM crops in Africa

9. Advanced breeding technologies
•Mass clonal propagation
•Hybrid creation
•DNA marker assisted selection
•Genomics
•Mutagenesis/TILLING
•Classical Transgenesis (genetic engineering or GM)
•Gene editing: CRISPRs, ZNFs, TALENs etc
These technologies have created unprecedented opportunities for
advances in the biological performance of food crops
But some key technologies &/or expertises reside within, or are best
exploited via, the private sector – hence the need for more PPPs

10. Advanced breeding technologies
•Mass clonal propagation
•Hybrid creation
•DNA marker assisted selection
•Genomics
•Mutagenesis/TILLING
•Classical Transgenesis (genetic engineering or GM)
•Gene editing: CRISPRs, ZNFs, TALENs etc
These technologies have created unprecedented opportunities for
advances in the biological performance of food crops
But some key technologies &/or expertises reside within, or are best
exploited via, the private sector – hence the need for more PPPs

11. Future lessons 1
The major lessons from recent PPP experiences are that success requires:
•full commitment by host countries
•appropriate regulatory systems
•the sustained participation of all partners, especially smallholders, over the entire
duration of what are often complex and long term ventures
Such lessons are especially important given recent developments in ag-biotec
•During the last few years, and especially in 2015, there has been a veritable
revolution in genetic technologies with the development of gene editing methods
such as CRISPRs, ZFNs, and TALENs
•In terms of crop breeding, this means that it will soon be possible to progress from
the random insertion of single or small numbers of genes into a genome (as in
traditional GM) to the highly precise insertion into a defined location of large
numbers of genes, chromosome segments or pseudo-segments encoding entire
metabolic pathways into virtually any plant species.

12. Gene editing: e.g. Clustered regularly-
interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)
• In 2015 Dupont acquired rights to
CRISPR in plants, Bayer in
therapeutics
• Fortunately, it now seems there are
multiple types of CRISPR that may
not be subject to current patents
(e.g. Cas9, Cpf1, C2c1)
• Feb 2016: there may well be other
equally powerful gene editing
systems awaiting discovery
(CRISPR absent from most bacterial lineages)
• This is good news for public-
good application of such
technologies – potentially as
open-source tools

13. Future lessons 2
Agbiotech is a highly dynamic field, both scientifically and in terms
of the application landscapes, both public and private:
•In the last few weeks a mega-merger of two agbiotech giants, Dow
Chemical and Dupont, valued at $130 billion has been announced
•In the last few weeks the probable sale of another agbiotech giant,
Syngenta, to the state owned enterprise ChemChina was announced
(Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta account for $10.3 billion, or 47% of the global proprietary seed market)
•Meanwhile there is a heated dispute over the patent rights to CRISPR
technology between several academic institutions, i.e. UC Berkeley, MIT,
and the Broad Inst.

14. Future lessons 3
• These new genetic technologies may make much of the current GM-
based crop improvement and its risk assessment & regulation obsolete
• Indeed, there are already calls that organisms altered by gene editing
should not be characterized as GMOs
• Gene editing can considerably widen the range of traits (especially
smallholder-relevant traits in hitherto orphan crops) and these will be
altered much more rapidly and cheaply than was hitherto possible
• There is an urgent need to accelerate capacity building in all forms of
agbiotech and related public outreach in ALL countries
• This provides a golden opportunity for the emergence of a new
generation of innovative PPPs and new agbiotech paradigms aimed
specifically at improving smallholder agriculture as we face up to
increasing food security challenges across the world

15. Thank you for
your attention
PPPs

16. Oxford University Press
CABI PressCambridge University Press
Some recent books relating to
plant breeding & PPPs
Elsevier
Springer
WileyBlackwell
Scope