Rome, Italy
January 19, 2009
As part of its Land and Water Discussion Papers series,
FAO has
just published "Coping with water scarcity: What role for
biotechnologies?" by J.
Ruane, A. Sonnino, P. Steduto and C. Deane.
The 39-page book
represents the outputs from an e-mail conference hosted by the
FAO Biotechnology Forum from
5 March to 1 April 2007.
The 39-page book is organised as follows:
- An introductory section, containing the acknowledgements and a
preface signed by three FAO directors I. Alvarez, P. Koohafkan
and S. Pandey
- A brief introduction to the Forum and the conference. (Chapter
1)
- A background to the subject, circulated before the conference
began. The chapter gives an overview of the current status and
future perspectives regarding water availability 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). (Chapter 2)
- A summary of the main issues discussed during the moderated
conference, based on the messages posted by the participants,
75% of which came from people in developing countries. The major
topics discussed were the application of biotechnologies (mainly
genetic modification and marker-assisted selection) to develop
crops with improved drought resistance or water use efficiency;
the use of bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi in water-limited
conditions; and the use of biotechnology in wastewater
treatment. (Chapter 3)
The book can be freely downloaded from
http://www.fao.org/docrep/011/i0487e/i0487e00.htm.
To receive a
free hardcopy version of the publication, please contact
Charlotte.Lietaer@fao.org to request a copy, providing your full
postal address.
We welcome any comments you might have on the
book - send them to biotech-admin@fao.org.
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