논문 상세보기
Research & development of GM crops in global ag-biotechnology industry
In 2012, the world population exceeded 7 billion and the need to address food security has never been greater. Achieving food security won’t be easy considering the megatrends of growing population, greater affluence, and increasing urbanization. Not only are more people demanding more food, but they want greater variety, including meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables. While demand for food is growing, farmers’ ability to increase productivity is facing unprecedented challenges. Scarcity of water, energy, and land is expected to define food production in the coming decades. Agricultural practices will also need to protect biodiversity through increasing productivity without expanding into natural ecosystems. Further exacerbating the situation is a changing climate that has led to higher temperatures and erratic weather patterns in some areas. Each day farmers face the challenge of growing more from less - increasing yields while protecting the environment by using less water, land, and energy. Global Agricultural Biotechnology companies like Syngenta have addressed these challenges through innovation in research and development by looking at the grower’s challenges holistically, including land, technology, and the community. The presentation will cover general R&D activities in an agricultural biotechnology company, which may differ from those in academic research institutes. Product safety and environmental considerations are integral to industry’s R&D work. To make earlier and better-informed decisions on which active ingredients or traits to move forward, normally companies begin safety trials early in the development process, facilitating timely engagement with regulators and other key stakeholders. Also to complement in-house expertise and bring in novel technologies which may or may not be used in agribusiness, companies are actively seeking value-adding partnerships and collaborations to bring exciting new offers to the grower. Development of a GM crop through all those activities mentioned above is quite a costly and lengthy process. My presentation will describe a typical process required for developing a GM crop in an agricultural biotechnology company from early discovery to commercialization to the market, which may give you a different perspective from academic point of view.
