Author : Javier, Emil Q.

Summary : The paper briefly described modern agricultural biotechnology and its components: genomics, bioinfomartics, transformation, molecular breeding, diagnostics, and vaccine technology. Among the components applied in agriculture, development of genetically modified (GM) crops with specific desirable traits is the most commercially advanced with 39.9 million hectares grown to such GM crops worldwide and sales estimated at US$2.1 - 2.3 billion in 1999. Based on the premise that modern biotechnology could be a powerful fool for improving productivity and sustainability of agriculture in developing countries, five major concerns and issues were discussed and recommended to be the foci for collective regional action. These are: 1) managing risks associated with biotechnology; 2) promoting public sector investment in agricultural research; 3) private sector investments in biotechnology for agriculture in developing countries; 4) official development assistance (ODA) for agricultural biotechnology; 5) managing intellectual property.