marker-assisted selection in wheat - ictsd

Chapter 19 – Technical, economic and policy considerations on marker-assisted selection in crops 391Figure 1Biotechnology research production meta-functionResearch outputsP MCBiotechnologyinnovatorBiotechnologytools userBBiotechnologyproduct userAP 1P 2 P 30Source: Morris et al. (2001).Research inputscircumstances, to improve current cropimprovement practices.• Biotechnology methods innovator, inwhich the research programme establishesthe full capacity needed to developinnovative biotechnology tools andproducts.Moving from one level of biotechnologyresearch capacity to the next usually requiressignificant investments in laboratory facilitiesand staff training. The practical decisionfacing research managers is not to determinethe optimal level of research investment, butrather to select from among the differentlevels of biotechnology research capacitycharacterized by increasing complexity andcost (A or B or C in Figure 1). The choiceshould be based on whether a given level ofresearch capacity can be expected to generateenough additional benefits to justifythe additional expenditure. For most plantbreeding programmes, benefits consist ofvalue added to crop production enterprises.Therefore, the incentive to investin additional research capacity will tend toincrease with the size of the area plantedand/or the value of the crops expected tobenefit from the research.There are few published estimates ofthe cost of moving from one level of biotechnologyresearch capacity to the next,and new estimates are not provided here.Empirical estimates would quickly beoutdated, as the cost of biotechnologylaboratory equipment and materials continuesto change very rapidly. However,