marker-assisted selection in wheat - ictsd

464Marker-assisted selection – Current status and future perspectives in crops, livestock, forestry and fishfor variety, strain or breed selectionthrough markers and quantitative genetics,attending to minor species and removingbottlenecks. However, for some crops suchas maize (see, for example, Chapter 8),wheat, soybeans and cotton, and for somelivestock (Narrod and Fuglie, 2000) andaquaculture species, the private sector is asignificant player in both the upstream andapplied molecular biology and quantitativegenetics components.This situation reflects the varying incentivesprovided for private agriculturalresearch by a combination of incomedrivendemand-led market growth for thecommodity(ies) or value chains in question,new technologies, changes in IPR regimes,market structure and the globalization ofagricultural input markets, and public scienceand investment policies that have bothsupported private and undercut publiclyfundedresearch. However, the impulsesprovided by effective demand-led marketgrowth of commodity chains and by policiesto promote private sector investmentin R&D are much weaker in lower incomecountries, and governments that simplylack the cash are left to pick up the total bill.This, in turn, blurs the focus of the R&Dconducted by their NARES which, ratherthan directing resources more towards science-orientedpre-product research (suchas molecular marker development and validationfor selection), attempt, often withinone or two institutes, to cover the wholespectrum from strategic, applied and adaptiveresearch, through to development andon to diffusion of products and services.At the same time, the wider andinterlinked contexts within which the agriculturalsector now operates are increasinglyrequiring ministries, and the research institutesresponsible for agriculture that areunder them, to forward proposals for policies,legislation, programmes and projectsthat are not only sound, convincing andprioritized within and between subsectors,but also aligned with the needs perceivedby other ministries, e.g. health, education,trade and the environment. Critically, inpreparing plans for both domestic anddonor finance, they must provide convincingevidence of engagement with thoserepresenting the interests of agriculturalproducers and other sectors of rural societyincluding women’s groups and the poor,private commercial and non-governmentorganizations (in addition to involving theirown officials and technical experts).In other words, the pressure is real andgrowing both nationally and internationallyfor more “joined up” governance andgreater participatory diagnostic and decision-makingin helping to define, implementand assess the outcomes and impacts ofpublic sector interventions, the expectationbeing that this will focus both minds andfunds on tackling the problems of greatestrelevance to the largest number of poorpeople in rural areas. This raises the issueof how NARES can better ensure that theiragendas, including plans for using modernbiotechnological approaches like MAS (thatclearly requires long-term budgetary support),better meet the needs of the poor.Besides macro and sectoral policiesthat provide appropriate price and marketincentives to agricultural producers andservice providers, developing countrieshave a number of options for creating themore conducive and enabling environmentnecessary for MAS research and the developmentand adoption of the products thatemanate from it.Building political supportThe biggest policy gap in many developingcountries is perhaps the lack of official