My name is Behzad Ghareyazie. I am a senior scientist at the Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute of Iran (ABRII), a public research institute, and currently serving as the President of the Biosafety Society of Iran (a non-governmental academic society). I have been working on the development and release of transgenic rice during the last 20 years. I am attending in this conference on my capacity as the President of Biosafety Society of Iran and am not representing the government of Iran.

Before making my interventions, I wish to thank and present my gratitude for the organizers, participants and in particular the moderator for the arrangement of this on-line conference, exchange of information and the very excellent moderation.

I have  been following the discussion very closely though I was silent during the past 3 weeks. I was happy seeing relevant discussions and somehow disappointed with some interventions (in particular, messages 23, 44 and 35) because of emphasizing too much on "opinion" rather than the "facts" and scientific findings or updates. In message 44, Ms. Neha Saigal says "..the opinion that Bt brinjal will destroy the medicinal properties of brinjal… is not mine alone..". I was not expecting another round of endless ideological opposition (or support) from anti (or pro) groups/individuals against (or for) genetic engineering. Though I am also tempted to reply to those "opinions" and I may do that in my future interventions, but for now, I wish to merely obey our nice moderator and update the conference with the status of genetic engineering in Iran and the likely GMOs to be commercialized in the next years in my country.

Iran has a relatively strong genetic engineering program. Genetic engineering and biotechnology has received full support from the Supreme Leader and is reflected in the strategic plans. According to the Iran strategic plan for Biotechnology, Iran should grow minimum of 0.2% and 0.5% of global area under the transgenic plants in the short and mid-term respectively. According to the Iran's National Biosafety Law "all activities related to production, release, import, export, transit and transportation, commercialization, use and application of LMOs are permitted" and "the government should take all necessary actions to facilitate these". In the same law, decision making is based on scientific data and not on the ideological beliefs or other basis. 

Iran officially commercialized the first insect resistant Bt rice in the year 2004 coinciding with the international year of rice (James 2005). This rice was released among farmers who wanted to reduce application of chemical insecticides against striped stem borer which is a very devastating insect pest of rice in Iran. In the year 2005 with the election of Dr. Ahmadi Nejhad as the President of the country and the following changes in the administration, the "extension" of this transgenic rice was stopped on the basis of two excuses: 1) there was no national Biosafety law in the country, and 2) lack of harmonization among different stakeholders (Ministry of Agriculture, Environmental Protection Organization etc.). Though there was no moratorium and no court order or any officially made decision against any GMO in Iran, but the record of area under the cultivation of Bt rice was lost and the government did not support the release of GM crops in spite of relatively good investment in terms of R&D.

Since then, all the infrastructures including the national biosafety law were set in place and, as mentioned above, the Law asks the government to "facilitate" the release and use of living modified organisms (LMOs). 

Therefore the first LMO to be commercialized again in Iran is the Bt rice and the herbicide tolerant rice. The combination of these two will bring drastic changes to the current "unsustainable" and traditional methods of rice cultivation in Iran, saving a lot of practices/money for the farmers while reducing the environmental footprints because of the dramatic reduction in the application of agrochemicals. These plants are produced at public sector. So far no private sector is active in the LMO business due to the current administrations stand on the transgenic issue. Bt cotton, Bt sugar beet, herbicide tolerant canola and Bt alfalfa are the next GM crops to be released in the next 5 years.

In terms of transgenic animals, there is no project on production of transgenic animals for food production purposes. But there are transgenic goats called Shangool, Mangool and Habbeye Angoor (the three characters of the famous Iranian popular folk story “Shangool, Mangool and Habbe-ye angoor") that have been produced since 3 years ago with the goal to produce pharmaceuticals in their milk. Recombinant human proteins (factor 9) is produced in Shangool's and Mangools's milk and is currently extracted and purified from their milk. Habbeye angoor and other transgenic goats, also produced by the Royan Research Institute with the full support from the Supreme Leader of the country, produce tissue plasminogen activator (tPA). This is a protein involved in the breakdown of blood clots. tPA catalyzes the conversion of plasminogen to plasmin that is the major enzyme responsible for clot breakdown. Because it works on the clotting system, tPA is used to treat embolic or thrombolytic stroke. There will be no resistance in any parts of the government for commercialization of GM animals (the drugs produced in their milk) produced by the Royan Research Institute. The products will be in the market within the next 2-3 years. Erythropoietin and Albumin are two other proteins to be expressed in goat milk and is expected to be commercialized in the next 5 years. 

There are several other crop plants/traits at different stages of research and development but I do not think that they will be commercialized in the next 5 years. 
 
Behzad Ghareyazie (PhD Genetics)
Senior Scientist,
Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute of Iran (ABRII),
President, Biosafety Society of Iran.
President, Agronomy and Plant Breeding Society of Iran,
Executive Director, Iran Biotechnology Information Center (IRBIC)
Iran
Tel. Office: 0098-2632703536
Mobile: 0098-9121271496
Fax: 0098-2634482871
E-mail: ghareyazie (at) yahoo.com
URL: WWW.IRBIC.IR

[As Behzad mentions, the UN General Assembly designated 2004 as the International Year of Rice (IYR). As part of facilitating IYR implementation, FAO convened a Rice Conference on 12-13 February 2004 in Rome, Italy, that brought together leading experts from around the world to present their perspectives on latest trends and industry developments, covering also the topic of biotechnology. Proceedings of the conference are available at http://www.fao.org/docrep/008/y5682e/y5682e00.htm...Moderator]. 

[To contribute to this conference, send your message to [log in to unmask] For further information on this FAO Biotechnology Forum, see http://www.fao.org/biotech/biotech-forum/]

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