Recent advances in gene technology, plant transformation, and the growing knowledge of DNA sequences of plants as well as of their most important parasites and symbionts offer many interesting prospects for the breeding of new crop varieties. This was not only recognized by the major seed companies, but also by the governments of developing countries and by worldwide foundations supporting their agriculture. The know-how gained by the seed companies on crops important for the agricultural industry in developed countries could easily be provided for free to the international and national organizations dedicated to development of crops important in the third world. Results obtained worldwide become easily available to everybody through the scientific literature. Likewise, agricultural research in, e.g., the USA or Europe profits from the natural plant gene pool available in the third world. All this definitely provides for the possibility of fast change, new prosperity and security of food supply in the whole world, if properly applied. The fast development also asks for ethical and sociopolitical considerations, whereby not doing the right can be as much a mistake as doing the wrong.

Klappentext

Tropical crops such as cowpea, yam, plantain, and cassava are heavily underresearched but, in addition to rice, maize, wheat, and potato, are important as primary or secondary food staples in the developing countries. The modern tools of molecular and cellular technology offer the opportunity not only to make substantial gains in knowledge of these crops, but also they overcome some of the obstacles which presently restrain both the genetic improvement and the productivity of these crops in tropical farming systems. Increased nutritional value of these crops, reduced post-harvest perishability, and lower costs of production are some of the advantages taken from biotechnology. Engineered genetic resistance would also allow to drastically reduce employment of pesticides, which at present are expensive or unavailable for farmers in developing countries and may create environmental and health hazards.In this book experts present opportunities to improve the efficiency of plant breeding programs also taking into account the ethical and sociopolitical aspects of these technologies.

Inhalt
The Contribution of Genetic Engineering to the Fight against Hunger in Developing Countries.- I. Introduction.- II. The Political Economy of Hunger.- III. The Risks of Genetic Engineering in the Fight against Hunger.- IV. The Benefits of Genetic Engineering in the Fight against Hunger.- V. Building Blocks for Food Security.- VI. Conclusion.- VIL References.- Networking Biotechnology Solutions with Developing Countries: the Mission and Strategy of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications.- I. Background: the Challenge.- II. Creation of ISAAA: the Institutional Response.- III. The Program.- IV Biosafety Regulatory Development: a Special Case.- V. The Strategy.- VI. The Organization.- VII And Who Benefits?.- VIII. References.- Socioethical and Sociopolitical Reflections on the Application of Gene Technology in Developing Countries.- Gene Technology for Increased Rice Production in Developing Countries.- I. Introduction.- II. Increasing Rice Production.- III. The Quality of the Rice Grain.- IV. Conclusions.- V. References.- Biotechnology for Maize and Wheat Improvement in Developing Countries: a Need, a Reality, or a Dream?.- I. Introduction.- II. Maize as an Important Target for Genomics.- III. Wheat and Its Relatives as Important Targets for Genomics.- IV. Approaches to Studying the Molecular Diversity of Maize and Wheat.- V. Molecular Genetics of Maize.- VI. Molecular Markers in Wheat.- VII. Possibilities for Marker-Assisted Selection.- VIII. Genetic-Engineering Achievements in Maize.- IX. Genetic Engineering in Wheat.- X. Conclusion.- XI. References.- Gene Transfer in Sugarcane.- I. Introduction.- II. Genetic Transformation.- III. Agricultural Traits.- IV. Industrial Traits.- V. Somaclonal Variation and Integration of Transgenic Plantsinto the Sugarcane Breeding Program.- VI. Risk Assessments.- VII. Conclusions.- VIII. References.- Gene Technology for Potato in Developing Countries.- I. Introduction.- II. Potato Production Constraints in Less-Developed countries.- III. Biotechnology Challenges and Opportunities.- IV. Possible Limitations.- V. Conclusions.- VI. References.- Genetic Biotechnologies and Cassava-Based Development.- I. Introduction: Cassava's Links to Development Objectives.- II. The Cassava Biotechnology Network.- III. Cassava Biotechnology Research Priorities Derived from Expressed Needs of Farmers.- IV. Cassava Biotechnology Research.- V. Cassava Biotechnology Tools in Support of Farmer-Participatory Research.- VI. Implications of Cassava Biotechnology Research for the Second Green Revolution.- VII. Conclusion.- VIII. References.- Underresearched Tropical Food Crops: Cowpea, Banana and Plantain, and Yams.- I. Introduction.- II. Cowpea.- III. Banana and Plantain.- IV. Yams.- V. Conclusion.- VI. References.