College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
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Crop Improvement Technology Provides Benefits to Developing Countries
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| Farmers (second and third from left) from Umudike, Nigeria meet with Nigerian scientists (others in picture) who have developed improved cassava varieties to manage cassava mosaic disease and green mites. Cassava grows in the background. |
As world population continues to increase, so does the demand for food. That demand, along with the growth in bio-fuel production, has heightened the need to meet the ongoing challenges posed by drought, crop pests, and low fertility around the world.
These challenges are often multiplied in developing countries due to lack of access to improved plant varieties, irrigation, fertilizers, and sustainable means for managing pests. Access to improved technologies can make the difference between health and hunger.
George Norton, professor of agricultural and applied economics and his graduate students have taken a close look at the economic benefits of using modern, molecular-based crop improvement technologies for two crops – rice and cassava. Both crops are grown in developing countries: rice particularly in Asia, and cassava worldwide, but especially in Africa and Latin America.
The results of their work show that there is a significant economic advantage to using varieties developed with the aid of genetic markers over the current varieties. Marker-assisted breeding in rice is estimated to save three years to six years compared to conventional breeding, and results in incremental benefits in the range of $50 million to $500 million (U.S. dollars) depending on the country, the constraints, and the time assumed for conventional breeding. For example, the net present value (cumulative over 20 years) of a saline-tolerant rice cultivar in Bangladesh developed with marker assistance is projected to be $500 million more than one developed with conventional breeding.
For cassava, the benefits of marker-assisted breeding that incorporates resistance to cassava mosaic disease, green mites, white flies, and post-harvest deterioration vary from $34 million in Uganda to $817 million in Nigeria.
Norton’s research was funded through the Generation Challenge Program, which is conducted by the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). CGIAR scientists are using genetic technology such as DNA molecular markers to identify genes that have desirable agronomic traits, such as genes that are tolerant to saline and phosphorus-deficient soils in rice. Scientists also look for low-cost markers and use wild relatives to transfer resistance to green mites, white flies, and post-harvest deterioration in cassava.
According to Norton, breeding methods that make use of DNA markers enable plant breeders to more quickly identify beneficial traits and allow for the individual selection of traits. While plant breeders can do the same thing using conventional breeding techniques, the use of molecular markers significantly speeds up the trait-selection process while minimizing the introduction of unwanted traits.
Norton’s research team spent two years collecting data from researchers and from rice farmers in the Philippines, Bangladesh, India, and Indonesia and from cassava farmers in Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda to determine the potential economic impacts of this research on rice and cassava production in those countries.
The economic impact of the technologies was calculated based on the situation with the new technologies (traits) as compared to the most likely situation without the technologies. The contributions were projected over the next 20 years, taking several variables into account, such as:
- changes in planted areas and production of crops in specific countries,
- the nature of the markets for the crops, and
- the projected yield and cost changes due to the new technologies.
Norton explains that this type of research not only documents the value of the marker-assisted technology and helps to promote its adoption in the market place, but it also helps scientists to prioritize their research and shows the need to increase investment in more agricultural research that will help farmers feed more people.