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SOUTH
AMERICA:
Biotech Opens
Doors to Andean Development
Humberto Márquez*
CARACAS, (Tierramérica) -
The aid of the sweet potato for
fighting vitamin A deficiency in
Africa, and a biological agent
that fights moulds which attack
roses and bean crops are just
two examples of how
biotechnology is being used to
make the most -- socially and
economically -- of the
biodiversity in South America's
Andean region.
The countries of the Andean
Community ”hold great wealth of
biological diversity and native
species, and modern
biotechnology offers the
opportunity to turn it into an
element of economic and social
development through its
valuation, sustainable use and
conservation,” according to a
study by the Economic Commission
for Latin America and the
Caribbean (ECLAC) and CAF, the
Andean regional development
agency.
CAF is the financial arm of the
Andean Community, which
comprises Bolivia, Colombia,
Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.
The bio-fungicide discovered by
Guillermo Castellanos, of the
Colombian International Centre
for Tropical Agriculture, CIAT,
is an extract of swinglea (Swinglea
glutinosa), an African tree
introduced in Colombia by
sugarcane producers to be used
as a sort of living fence around
their plantations.
Castellanos noticed that the
swinglea plants were free of
pathogens, and came up with an
extract of the tree that
effectively fights Erysiphe
polygoni and other moulds that
affect beans, roses, coffee and
the Isabella grape.
He made the discovery two
decades ago, ”but at the time
the agro-chemists were in
charge,” Castellanos has said.
Farmers have begun using his
extract in recent years on bean
crops, but also on fields of
roses, one of Colombia's top
export products and source of
some 140,000 jobs.
The Peruvian sweet potato
(Ipomoea batata) is rich in
vitamin A. Deficiency of this
vitamin is a risk factor for
pregnant women and is a major
cause of infant mortality across
much of the African continent.
With this in mind, the
International Potato Centre (CIP
for its name in Spanish), based
in La Molina, in the outskirts
of Lima, has joined the Vitaa
programme, or Vitamin A for
Africa, seeking improved
varieties of sweet potato, of
better quality and resistant to
pests.
The CIP holds the seeds of 5,000
potato varieties, 6,500 sweet
potato varieties, and 1,300
other edible roots and tubers,
Marc Ghislain, a biotech
specialist with the centre, told
Tierramérica.
The Peruvian institution ”helped
in the recovery of the seed
collections that were destroyed
in Afghanistan, participates in
a programme for bringing
resistant sweet potatoes to the
lands salinised by last year's
tsunami in Asia, and is planning
to send seeds to North Korea to
help confront its food crisis,”
he said.
Colombia, Peru and Venezuela are
the Andean vanguard in the use
of biotechnology in the
sustainable exploitation of
their biodiversity, with Bolivia
and Ecuador lagging a bit
behind, perhaps because of their
complicated political
situations, says Roberto López,
head of sustainable development
for CAF, which alongside ECLAC
conducted a study of the biotech
sector in the region.
In the Andean countries ”there
is a gap between what is being
done in the universities and
research centres, and the
requirements and trends of the
markets. The efforts of
institutions like ours aim to
create bridges between them,”
beginning by identifying areas
of potential, López told
Tierramérica.
The five nations of the Andean
Community are among the 10 most
biodiverse countries on the
planet. In Colombia alone there
are 45,000 varieties of
flowering plants, and in Peru
there are 1,703 species of
birds.
The barely tapped potential of
Andean biodiversity stands
before markets that, according
to a study by Fernando Quezada
for CAF, last year moved more
than 90 billion dollars,
including sales of medicines
(including vaccines) for humans
and livestock, for around 41
billion dollars, but also of
cosmetics and personal care
products, especially for the
skin.
On top of this are the
burgeoning markets for herbal
medicines and ”functional foods”
(foods consumed for specific
health ends), which mobilised
around 20 billion dollars in
2004; agricultural biotech (from
seeds to bio-pesticides), with
four billion dollars; and at
lesser volumes, industrial
enzymes, biogenetics (databases
and software on genetics), and
electronic bio-conductors, a
sector that is growing by 40
percent annually.
The basic knowledge existing
about living organisms covers 91
percent of 45,000 vertebrates
and 85 percent of 270,000
plants, but less than seven
percent of 72,000 fungi and less
than one percent of 8,000
bacteria and viruses.
The Andean governments ”have
available the public policy
instruments for supporting the
development of biotech,” and at
CAF, ”where we have begun to get
our feet wet” in this area,
experts are identifying the
areas where it is essential to
take action, said López.
These areas include support for
the scientific and technological
communities, and the development
of human resources. Both require
budgetary measures and promotion
of research and development, but
also stimulus for marketing the
products and the search for
international strategic
alliances, he said.
The Andean governments
understand that the exchange of
information and experiences is
vital for sustaining their
possibilities, but also have set
up regulations to ensure their
sovereignty over their
biological resources, an element
that has emerged in the
negotiations of a free trade
agreement with the United
States, López explained.
(* Humberto Márquez is an IPS
correspondent. Abraham Lama
contributed reporting from Peru.
Originally published Jul. 2 by
Latin American newspapers that
are part of the Tierramérica
network. Tierramérica is a
specialised news service
produced by IPS with the backing
of the United Nations
Development Programme and the
United Nations Environment
Programme.)
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