Despite the considerable and continuing breakthroughs in plant genetic and genomic technologies, there has been relatively little global government investment into funding basic plant science and in translating these discoveries into food crops beneficial to farmers in less developed countries. To fill the gap, some foundations and public–private partnerships have launched programs. For example, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is supporting a large program, called Stress-Tolerant Rice for Africa and South Asia , which is assisting with the development and dissemination of the Sub1 rice variety, which resulted from a ten-year basic research collaboration funded primarily by the US Department of Agriculture. With the help of the Gates Foundation, last year more than 4 million farmers grew Sub1 rice. The Rockefeller Foundation was instrumental in funding the development of Golden Rice , a genetically engineered rice enriched for provitamin A that is expected to be released soon . Worldwide, over 124 million children are vitamin A-deficient; many go blind or become ill from diarrhea, and nearly 8 million preschool-age children die each year as the result of this deficiency. One report estimates that improved vitamin A nutritional status obtained from eating vitamin A rice could prevent the deaths of thousands of young children each year . The positive effects of Golden Rice are predicted to be most pronounced in the lowest income groups at a fraction of the cost of the current supplementation programs, blueberries in containers which are not only costly to run but also not always continued.
The Water Efficient Maize for Africa project is another important public–private partnership, which aims to develop drought-tolerant and insect-protected maize using conventional breeding, MAS, and biotechnology. The goal is to make these varieties available royalty free to small-hold farmers in sub-Saharan Africa through African seed companies . The introduction of drought-tolerant maize to Africa, where three-quarters of the world’s severe droughts have occurred over the past ten years, is predicted to dramatically increase yields of this staple food crop for local farmers . Another exciting development is the US Agency for International Development ‘‘Feed the Future’’ program, which partners with diverse countries to enhance local food security. For example the Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company and Cornell University havejointly developed Bt eggplant that is resistant to fruit and shoot borers .Bt eggplant was recently made available on a royalty-free basis to smallholder farmers in Bangladesh. Researchers estimate that farmers growing the new Bt eggplant varieties could obtain yield increases of 30%–45% while reducing insecticide use. The USAID has also funded projects to enhance the productivity of banana, a staple food crop for more than 100 million people in East Africa, and which is susceptible to several serious diseases. Many strategies to control this disease rely on genetic engineering because most bananas don’t produce seed and are propagated clonally. Bananas with resistance to banana Xanthomonas wilt disease , have recently been genetically engineered with the rice XA21 resistance gene. These examples demonstrate the success of non-profit and public–private partnerships in translating basic research discoveries into benefits at the farm.
Well funded, long-term, multinational, multidisciplinary collaborations are vital if we are to continue making significant progress in developing new crop varieties to enhance food security in the developing world. In a recent report, leading scientists highlighted the need for significant investment in plant breeding and estimated that US$200 million annually is needed to carry out such a systematic, concerted, collaborative global effort .Despite the scientific consensus that the genetically engineered crops on the market are safe to eat, have massively reduced the use of sprayed insecticides, and have benefited the environment, they are still viewed with skepticism by some consumers. Without public support for genetic technologies, regulatory costs will continue to climb. The end result may be that only multinational corporations can afford to develop and license such crops . This exclusivity places constraints on broad access to genetic technologies because large corporations have little incentive to develop subsistence and specialty crops —for poor farmers that need them. Costly regulations also hinder the creation of small businesses that wish to translate discoveries in plant genetics into commercially viable enterprises. To reduce regulatory costs, many scientists and regulators in the US and Europe advocate for a trait-based, regulatory approval process that would assess the benefits associated with a new crop variety, as well as the risks and costs of not adopting a particular variety. The advantage of this approach is that it would advance the deployment of agricultural technologies that could contribute to sustainable agriculture. Currently, GE crops are regulated on the basis of the technology used to generate them. A related issue, which applies to most seed developed by corporations, is that intellectual property rights constrain sharing of genetic resources.
Whereas seeds protected by the plant variety protection act include exemptions for farmers to save seed for next year’s planting and for breeders to include the variety in breeding programs, certain plant varieties, including GE crops, can be protected by patents, which are much more restrictive and prohibit seed saving by farmers and breeders. The US Supreme Court recently affirmed that farmers are not permitted to reproduce patented seeds through planting and harvesting without the patent owner’s permission . Whether the principle of patenting genes is morally or ethically correct is a matter of intense debate. There are those who see all biological material as a public good or a gift from nature and, therefore, something that cannot be owned by an individual or company. Some fear that patenting will restrict inventions and progress in breeding if germplasm and genes are removed from the public domain. Others see patents as a spur to the process of discovery and development of socially beneficial products. Although ,25% of the patented inventions in agricultural biotechnology were made by public sector researchers , many of these inventions are exclusively licensed to private companies . Five firms produce the majority of the world’s seeds and control many of the older technologies such as Bt and transformation. Fortunately, the business landscape is changing as many of the earlier patents expire or as alternatives to enabling technologies controlled by corporations emerge in the public sector and as more countries use genetic engineering to create a greater variety of crops. The European Commission predicts that in the near future, half of the new GE crops will come from national technology providers in Asia and Latin America that are designed for domestic markets . The reduced dominance of multi-national seed companies may alleviate concerns of consumers,planting blueberries in pots some of whom oppose modern plant genetics because they see it as a tool of large corporations. University scientists have also been active in reversing the trend of exclusively licensing genetic technologies to a few corporations that control most of the world’s seed production. For example, the Rockefeller and McKnight Foundations joined leading US agricultural universities and plant research institutes to establish the Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture . PIPRA helps universities to retain rights of their technologies for humanitarian purposes and for crops that are vital to small-acreage farmers. The goal is to create an agricultural and food system that is directed broadly at the public good, not one dominated by private interests. Ultimately, the continued translation of basic research into tangible crop improvement will rely not only on the research itself but also in communicating the vital role that agriculture and plant genetics plays in all of our lives. In the developed world where less than 2% of the population are farmers, the challenges of producing food in a sustainable manner is far removed from the average consumer. In our role as educators, plant biologists can promote agricultural literacy through the establishment of elementary and university curriculums that highlight the social, economic, biological, environmental, and ethical aspects of food production. We can more fully engage with the policy makers, non-governmental organizations, and journalists by providing science-based information in more creative ways—for example through social media and videography.
Many such efforts are now being launched around the globe. An engaged, informed public will help us to attain an agricultural system that can produce safe food in a secure, sustainable, and equitable manner.Groundwater access has allowed for significant social and economic development, improving food security and livelihoods worldwide . However, growing populations and socio-economic development have required the expansion of irrigated agriculture and urbanization into areas with limited precipitation and inadequate surface water access, forcing a six-fold increase in global groundwater withdrawals over the last century . Over two billion people and more than 40% of the world’s agricultural production systems rely on groundwater as their primary water source, and it now accounts for one-third of the global freshwater supply . This development threatens groundwater resources and is apparent in high rates of aquifer depletion and degradation around the world . Decreasing reliability of surface water and depleted groundwater aquifers in groundwater-dependent regions severely impacts domestic water supplies , food security , and natural ecosystems . This is especially the case in arid and semiarid regions where poorly monitored and often unregulated pumping has contributed to many negative impacts including lowered groundwater levels , loss of aquifer storage capacity , degraded water quality , seawater intrusion , land subsidence , stream flow depletion , and degradation of groundwater-dependent ecosystems . Managed aquifer recharge includes a suite of methods that are increasingly used to improve the quantity and quality of groundwater . MAR is the intentional diversion, transport, storage, infiltration, and recharge of excess surface water into aquifers during a wet period for subsequent recovery during dry periods or for environmental benefit . Over the last century, MAR projects have been implemented globally for different purposes ranging from flood mitigation , groundwater quality improvements , protection against seawater intrusion , enhancement of environmental flows , to stabilization of drinking water supplies , and other beneficial uses . In rural areas, MAR has been primarily used to increase groundwater security to meet irrigation demand, reduce the lowering of groundwater tables, and improve the quality of irrigation water . Varying water sources have been used for MAR, including river water , storm water , treated wastewater , high-magnitude flows , and desalinated water . Dillon et al. provide a comprehensive summary of existing MAR methods such as river-bank filtration, infiltration basins, aquifer storage and recovery, soil aquifer treatment, and vadose zone infiltration devices . In recent years, managed aquifer recharge on agricultural land has gained popularity because it can effectively recharge aquifers using high flows from rainfall or snow melt that could not previously be stored or used before ocean discharge . Ag-MAR can utilize existing irrigation infrastructure to spread low-contaminant-load water over vast agricultural areas, allowing for large amounts of recharge in short time periods that would overwhelm more localized MAR systems . Because of its larger footprint, Ag-MAR has the potential to address or reverse many of consequences of groundwater overdraft . Identification of suitable groundwater recharge zones is often a first step in the implementation process of a MAR project , but requires the combination and prioritization of biophysical, socio-economic, and environmental criteria . Previous approaches have ranged from costly and time-consuming test drillings and stratigraphy analyses , statistical methods , on-site field investigations , and deterministic modeling . However, the most common approach used in the past 2 decades is an integrated remote sensing and geographic information system -based multi-criteria decision analysis . GIS-based MCDA techniques integrate various thematic layers and/or their individual features using a set of weights, a process for which no standard exists . MCDA approaches are increasingly supported or coupled with numerical modeling to provide more detailed and quantitative assessment of MAR opportunities and impacts . Among the existing studies, Russo et al. used a MODFLOW-2005 model of the Pajaro Valley in California to evaluate MAR project placement and operational parameters of potential infiltration basins. They concluded that combining a GIS-based MCDA analysis with a hydrogeologic model allowed assessing the relative benefits of different MAR scenarios and helped in assuring spatial data quality in the MCDA analysis. Zhang et al. conducted a GIS-based MCDA analysis to determine suitable MAR sites along the West Coast of South Africa.