RAPID ADVANCES in agricultural biotechnology will have an important role in achieving the expansion in agricultural production essential to ensure political stability in various parts of the world, a conference at University College Cork has heard.
Dr Charles Spillane of the genetics and biotechnology lab at UCC said production increases represented a phenomenal challenge for agricultural research as they needed to be achieved in parallel with reducing the environmental footprint of agriculture.
He said it was important to address both the issues of research that would allow food production increases and policies that would ensure equitable access to food over the coming decades to avoid political instability.
"The rapid advances in agricultural biotechnology research that are now occurring indicate that biotechnology, including the science of genetics, will have an important role to play in delivering these productivity increases."
Dr Spillane was speaking at the International Agricultural Biotechnology Conference at UCC. He pointed to a background context where food prices were increasing, energy supplies were uncertain and global warming was now a political priority.
"Within the agricultural research arena, green biotechnology will have an important role to play," said Dr Spillane.
He pointed to the UN World Food Summit, which indicated food production must increase by almost 40 per cent by 2020 to meet demand, and the World Bank, which has indicated that one hectare of land will need to feed five people in 2025, compared to just two people in 1960.
"Increases in productivity per hectare are urgent - that is, we will need to grow more food on less land," Dr Spillane told the conference, which is being attended by some 450 delegates from over 20 countries.
The conference also heard from Eija Pehu, senior biotechnology adviser to the World Bank, who said that although transgenic crops had been taken up more rapidly in commercial farming, they had considerable potential in developing countries.
They had particular potential for improving productivity in smallholder farming and providing more nutritious foods to poor consumers in the developing world, though they were not without controversy in terms of environmental and food safety, she said.
However, Green Party chairman Senator Dan Boyle criticised the involvement of State agencies in the conference, which he said was unbalanced in favour of GM foods and as such was contrary to the objectives agreed in the programme for government. "While debate is always welcome and should be encouraged, the involvement of State agencies, particularly those with responsibility for food, in an event that is unbalanced is wrong," said Mr Boyle.
He said the programme for government stated quite clearly that an all-island GM-free zone was to be negotiated and State agencies such as Teagasc should ensure if resources were to committed to such conferences, they should take account of State objectives.
"Having no input on the lack of consumer confidence, the risks of environmental cross-contamination, and the dangers of market manipulation by GM companies at a conference like this is to leave aside an important part of this debate," said Mr Boyle.
A Teagasc spokesman rejected Mr Boyle's comments that the conference was unbalanced and said there were many views represented on the GM debate. Holding the conference in Ireland was an opportunity for Irish researchers to further expand their expertise, the spokesman said.