Banana and plantain
IPGRI, through its International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP), is working with partners to use biotechnology in general and genetically modified organisms in particular to help breed better banana and plantain varieties. This is vital for two reasons.

First, banana and plantain by their very nature are hard to breed using conventional methods. The domesticated types are triploid, meaning that they have three sets of genes. This prevents them from reproducing sexually, because the normal processes that take place when a plant makes pollen or seeds do not work when there are three sets of genes. Indeed, since efforts to improve banana and plantain began in the 1920s almost no newly bred varieties have been adopted commercially.

Secondly, banana and plantain are the fourth most important food crop in the world. They are a staple item in the diet of more than 400 million people in 120 countries. Furthermore, most bananas and plantains are grown by smallholder farmers for their own families and local sales. Less than 10% of the crop is exported.

Pests and diseases limit the production of banana and plantain to an enormous extent. Although chemical controls are available, the smallholder farmers who grow most of the crop often cannot afford them. They need resistant varieties. Improved banana and plantain varieties will enhance the food security of poor farmers in developing countries and offer them a better income.

That is why, almost ten years ago, INIBAP teamed up with Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium on a range of biotechnological approaches to improving the crop. The research has already created GM plants that carry the genes for resistance to a variety of fungal diseases. These will be tested in the greenhouse to see whether they can withstand black Sigatoka and Panama disease, two of the most devastating fungal pathogens of banana and plantain. Other targets for direct genetic improvement include resistance to viruses and nematode worms.

This effort is not something that developed-world scientists are imposing on developing world farmers. The developing world itself supports INIBAP’s work. It is partly thanks to direct financial support by the government of Uganda, for example, that we now have GM bananas to assess. Eventually such varieties, after having passed all biosafety tests, may find a place that will enrich the lives of millions of small farmers in the developing world.

CIMMYT and Biosafety
Insects eat a lot of food that should be destined for people. In Kenya alone, stem borers eat the equivalent of one in every seven maize ears, a loss to farmers of 400 000 tonnes, worth about US$ 90 million each year. To tackle the problem the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) in 1999 launched a project to develop insect resistant maize for Africa, with support from the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development.

Genetic modification is a small part of the project, but is enabling CIMMYT to work with KARI in the development of biosafety mechanisms in Kenya. In a two-pronged approach the partners are working to equip Kenya with the physical and procedural tools needed to assess biosafety. A consultant from CIMMYT developed a plan to convert and extend KARI’s existing Biotechnology Centre so that it meets internationally agreed standards for biosafety level II containment.

KARI and CIMMYT also worked together to apply for clearance from Kenyan authorities. In the first instance they asked for permission to bring GMO maize leaves, grown in CIMMYT’s facilities in Mexico, into Kenya so that they could be tested on Kenyan insects under Kenyan conditions. This allowed the authorities to deal with an application that carried absolutely no risk and has been used to hone the system for future applications.

These efforts build on an earlier partnership between CIMMYT and Mexican research and plant quarantine agencies. Mexican authorities noted that CIMMYT had respected Mexico’s conservatism towards GMOs, while CIMMYT developed its protocols for testing genetically modified insect-resistant maize in the field in consultation with the authorities and other interested parties.

 

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