Business Potential for Agricultural Biotechnology - Asian Productivity ...

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Summary of Findings
global biotech crop area, with the balance of less than 1% growing in the other nine countries. In
2004, the number of biotech mega-countries (growing 50,000 ha or more of biotech crops) increased
by 40%, from 10 in 2003 to 14 in 2004. The additional four countries that qualified as
biotech mega-countries in 2004 were Paraguay, Mexico, Spain, and the Philippines. Although 17
countries were reported to have grown biotech crops in 2004, a larger number are known to have
such crops in various stages of development leading up to commercial plantings. The public
sector will be an important source of crop biotech products for poor farmers, as there are currently
known to be more than 99 crop variety-trait modifications undergoing different stages of
testing by public institutions in Asia.
The global value of total crop production from biotech crops in 2003 was estimated at
USD44 billion. Net economic benefits to producers from biotech crops in the U.S. in 2003 were
estimated at USD1.9 billion, while gains in Argentina for the 2001–02 season were USD1.7
billion. China has projected potential gains of USD5 billion in 2010, USD1 billion from Bt
cotton and USD4 billion from Bt rice, expected to be approved in the near term. The number of
farmers benefiting from biotech crops continued to grow, reaching 8.25 million in 2004, up from
7 million in 2003. Notably, 90% of these 8.25 million farmers benefiting from biotech crops in
2004 were resource-poor farmers planting Bt cotton, whose increased incomes have contributed
to the alleviation of poverty. These included 7 million resource-poor farmers in all the cottongrowing
provinces of China, an estimated 300,000 small farmers in India, and subsistence farmers
in the Makhathini Flats in KwaZulu Natal province in South Africa and in the other nine developing
countries where biotech crops were planted in 2004. In 2004, the global market value
of biotech crops was estimated at USD4.70 billion, representing 15% of the USD32.5 billion
global crop protection market in 2003 and 16% of the $30 billion global commercial seed market.
The market value of the global biotech crop market is based on the sale price of biotech seed
plus any technology fees that apply.
The future of crop biotechnology products will depend on their proven benefits to the farming
community, a regime of acceptable biosafety oversight, and public/consumer acceptance.
Regulatory frameworks for biosafety are being developed by many countries that are signatories
to the Cartagena Biosafety Protocol under the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the
methodology for safety assessment has also increasingly been improved vis-à-vis its science and
acceptance by governments.
Frontiers and Advances in Transgenic Biotechnology of Animals and Fishes
Transgenic animals are produced by introduction of foreign DNA into embryos using
various transgenic technologies, such as microinjection, embryonic stem cells, pronuclear microinjection,
and nuclear transfer. The foreign DNA is inserted into the genome and may be expressed
in specific tissues for particular purposes. Some useful peptides relevant to animals
could be used to increase yield and decrease production cost through transgenic technologies.
The techniques provide a powerful approach for improving the quality of bioproducts to advance
the quality of life. Potential applications of transgenics in animal production include enhanced
prolificacy and reproductive performance, increased feed utilization and growth rate, increased
disease resistance, and improved milk production. Furthermore, an important application of
transgenics is the production of therapeutic proteins for human clinical use in so-called bioreactors.
The recombinant proteins in animal milk can provide an economic and safe system for production
of valuable proteins, such as pharmaceutical proteins for treatment or prevention of
human disease or biomaterials for medical use. Through genetic engineering, commercial application
in producing therapeutic proteins for human clinical use creates high economic value. A
gene transfer system also allows the production of many transgenic varieties having special genetic
traits, especially for aquacultural finfish and shellfish. Transgenic fish provide great potential
benefits for enhancement of aquatic species for aquaculture by improving production efficiencies,
enhancing food quality and growth rate, increasing disease resistance, and increasing