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Moderated conference on Genomics in Food and Agriculture

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Biotech-Mod3 <[log in to unmask]>
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Biotech-Mod3 <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:54:08 +0100
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This is Raul O. Castillo, Director, Sugarcane Research Center of Ecuador.
 
I've been following the interesting conference on genomics and I am impressed with so many people presenting their practical views and also the number of scientists working in this issue who have gone further with gene sequencing and gene identification for several crop plants and some animal species. However, most of the research is done for the economically important crops of worldwide consumption. Minor crops of local consumption are hardly studied or included in such projects. Albeit, these crops feed millions of people living in the less developed world with increasing needs of food. After introducing this comment, let's analyze two issues:

1. Developed countries, although some of them are in economic crisis nowadays, should support research by arranging regional projects for genomic studies of these local important crops to dig in the genetic information in order to speed up the breeding processes to develop varieties suited to these environments. Some of these crops would never be in a developed country market or part of their culinary resources; they will be mainly for local people requiring more food. 

2. The need of plant breeders is evident all over the world; we have less and less students entering in schools to pursue plant breeding or animal breeding. Therefore, we should start thinking of preparing good plant/animal breeders with good knowledge and understanding of genetics (including genomics), biology and statistics in order to use the best combinations possible available today and select the best materials and release outstanding varieties for general or local consumption. In fact, the world needs more stimulated people doing research in the field to apply the knowledge released from laboratories. 

In summary, we still need good plant/animal breeders in the developing world in order to use the advances of "omics" and have a sustainable use of genetic resources still available in those "centers of diversity". One big question that people have is: how much do we know of all those collections held in many gene banks? Can we sustainably use diversity from the natural reserves? The advance in genomics will certainly help us to understand and use it.

Raul O. Castillo, Ph. D. 
DIRECTOR GENERAL
CENTRO DE INVESTIGACION DE LA CAŅA DE AZUCAR DEL ECUADOR (CINCAE)
Elizalde 114 y Malecon 
Guayaquil
Ecuador 
Tel.+5938 5166660 ; +59385164222
Email: rcastillo (at) cincae.org
www.cincae.com

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