Author : Falconi, Cesar

Summary : In 1998 ISNAR conducted a survey on agricultural biotechnology in the national agricultural research systems of Mexico, Kenya, Indoensia, and Zimbabwe. The findings show that only a few public-sector research organizations use advanced biotechnology techniques, and that most organizations are still in the first stages of developing biotechnology research capacity. Although expenditures on agricultural biotechnology research in these countries have grown every year, the percentage of biotechnology expenditures to total agricultural research expenditures has been small, with the pubic sector accounting for almost all of it. Some of the policy recommendations proposed in this chapter to overcome the identified constraints in biotechnology research include (1) increasing investment levels in agricultural biotechnology research, (2) promoting the involvement of the private sector in this research, (3) fostering partnerships between the public sector and the private sector, and (4) developing a comprehensive strategy for biotechnology research.