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Updates of news and events relevant to agricultural biotechnologies in developing countries

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FAO-Biotech-News <[log in to unmask]>
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FAO-Biotech-News <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 31 Oct 2013 17:33:41 +0100
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Dear Subscribers,

Here is Update 4-2013 of FAO-BiotechNews. It is also the 100th Update of this newsletter which was first sent out on 25th January 2002 and since then has been regularly providing news from FAO and its partners about agricultural biotechnologies in developing countries! Having reached this momentous and impressive age, we would like to thank all of you who joined up and followed us through the years. From FAO, I would also like to particularly thank Andrea Sonnino, Chief of the Research and Extension Unit, for the technical back-up during all these 11 years, as well as all my colleagues both in Rome and in the other FAO offices working with crops, livestock, fish, trees, agro-industry and the other myriad areas that FAO covers. A final thanks goes to Maroun Atallah, Eugenio Delaney, Natalia Rodriguez Hidalgo, Patricia Horry, Ludmilla Vorobej and Jian Zhao for their excellent translation work.

We encourage you to tell your colleagues about FAO-BiotechNews. The newsletter is published in six different versions, one per language i.e. Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian or Spanish. If any of your colleagues wish to subscribe, they can send a message to [log in to unmask] indicating which e-mail addresses are to be subscribed and in which language they wish to receive the newsletter. Alternatively, they can subscribe themselves. Instructions for people to subscribe or unsubscribe themselves are provided at the end of this message.

Finally, to ensure that updates of FAO-BiotechNews will not be treated as spam or be moved to your junk folder, we encourage you to add [log in to unmask] to your Junk e-mail Safe Senders list.

With best wishes

John

John Ruane
The Coordinator of FAO-BiotechNews, 31-10-2013
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
E-mail address: mailto:[log in to unmask]
FAO Biotechnology website http://www.fao.org/biotech/en/ (in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish)

*** NEWS *** (http://www.fao.org/biotech/biotech-news/en/)

1) Case studies of biotechnologies for smallholders: New FAO publication 

FAO has just published "Biotechnologies at work for smallholders: Case studies from developing countries in crops, livestock and fish", edited by J. Ruane, J.D. Dargie, C. Mba, P. Boettcher, H.P.S. Makkar, D.M. Bartley and A. Sonnino. This 198-page book documents a series of 19 case studies where agricultural biotechnologies were used to serve the needs of smallholders in developing countries. They were prepared by scientists directly involved in the initiatives who describe the background, achievements, obstacles, challenges and lessons learned from the different case studies. After an introductory first chapter, the next three chapters are dedicated to case studies in the crop, livestock and aquaculture/fisheries sectors respectively. The final chapter summarizes the background, challenges, results and lessons learned from the 19 case studies. See an FAO press release at http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/202820/icode/ (in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Italian and Spanish), together with related Question-and-Answers and a radio interview; read the book at  http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3403e/i3403e00.htm or contact [log in to unmask] to request a copy, providing your full postal address.

2) Third Africa Rice Congress

The Third Africa Rice Congress took place on 21-24 October 2013 in Yaoundé, Cameroon, co-organized by the Africa Rice Center and FAO in collaboration with the Government of Cameroon. With its main theme of 'Rice science for food security through smallholder and agri-business development in Africa', the Congress took stock of advances in rice science and technology aimed at improving production, processing and marketing practices across the rice value chain in Africa. Attended by over 650 participants from 60 countries, the first two days of the Congress allowed participants to discuss scientific progress through presentations and poster talks, many of which dealt directly or indirectly with the use of biotechnologies, in five parallel sessions. A 'Cameroon rice day' was organized on 23 October while the final day included a Ministerial Policy Dialogue. The previous Africa Rice Congress took place in 2010. See http://www.africarice.org/arc2013/ (in English and French) for the Congress Declaration, daily digests, abstracts, presentations and more; an FAO press release at http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/203574/icode/ (in Arabic, English, French and Spanish), together with a radio interview; or contact [log in to unmask] for more information.

3) Socio-economic considerations under the Cartagena Protocol

At the 6th meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety in October 2012 in India, decision BS-VI/13 on socio-economic considerations was adopted, comprising a series of activities to be undertaken prior to the 7th meeting to be held in September 2014 in the Republic of Korea. These included a series of regional online real-time conferences which took place on 13 June 2013 for the Western Europe and Others Group and Central and Eastern Europe; 17 June for Asia and the Pacific; 20 June for Africa; and 27 June for Latin America and the Caribbean (in Spanish). See http://bch.cbd.int/onlineconferences/portal_art26/se_main.shtml for transcripts of the conferences, plus other related resources, or contact [log in to unmask] for further information.

4) Low level presence (LLP) of transgenic plants

As part of its Series on Harmonisation of Regulatory Oversight in Biotechnology, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Environment, Health and Safety Division recently published "Low level presence of transgenic plants in seed and grain commodities: Environmental risk/safety assessment, and availability and use of information". The scope of this 89-page document covers a situation where seed contains low levels of transgenic seed that have been reviewed for environmental risk/safety and received authorization for commercial cultivation (unconfined release) in one or more countries but not in the country of import. The document covers commercial seed used intentionally for planting as well as commodities (e.g. grains and oilseeds) that can germinate and grow into plants when unintentionally released into the environment during handling and transport or when intentionally used for planting. See http://www.oecd.org/science/biosafety-biotrack/latestdocuments/ or contact [log in to unmask] for more information.

*** EVENTS *** (http://www.fao.org/biotech/biotech-events/en/)

10-23 August 2014, Abuja, Nigeria. Plant tissue culture: Tool for genetic engineering of plants. This theoretical and practical course is organized by the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) on behalf of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB). Nationals of ICGEB Member States are eligible to attend on an ICGEB grant to cover accommodation and local hospitality for the duration of the course, while travel is not funded. Deadline for applicants is 1 January 2014. See http://www.nabda.gov.ng/component/content/article/104 or contact [log in to unmask] for more information. 

3-6 November 2014, Amman, Jordan. OLIVEBIOTEQ-2014. Organized by the Association of Agricultural Research Institutions in the Near East and North Africa (AARENINA), International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and National Center for Agricultural Research and Extension (NCARE), the conference aims to bring together scientists, technicians, managers, exporters, policy makers and students to exchange experience of new approaches to olive production and marketing, and to develop new thinking for approaches to a sustainable and more profitable global olive industry. Researchers are invited to submit papers related to olive growing and production on a number of themes, including 'biology, physiology and biotechnology'. See http://www.icarda.org/olivebioteq-2014 or contact [log in to unmask] for more information.
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This newsletter contains news and events items relevant to agricultural biotechnologies in developing countries. Its main focus is on the activities of FAO, other UN agencies/bodies and the 15 CGIAR research centres. Items from the newsletter may be reproduced, provided that the source (FAO-BiotechNews, http://www.fao.org/biotech/) is given. 

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