FAO document on water scarcity and agricultural biotechnologies

The background document for the FAO e-mail conference entitled "Coping with water scarcity in developing countries: What role for agricultural biotechnologies?" is now available.

The 16-page document gives an overview of the current status and future perspectives regarding water availability and use on Earth as well as a discussion of some major strategies that can be employed to deal with water scarcity. It then looks at the issue of water use in agriculture in more detail as well as some of the potential ways in which biotechnology could contribute to this area (e.g. increasing the efficiency of water use in agriculture; application of mycorrhizal fungi; or improving wastewater treatment).

See http://www.fao.org/biotech/C14doc.htm or contact biotech-admin@fao.org to request a copy of the document.

The moderated e-mail conference runs from 5 March to 1 April 2007 and is being organised by the FAO Biotechnology Forum in collaboration with colleagues in FAO's water programme to coincide with the World Water Day, which is celebrated each year on 22 March.