Opportunities for Orphan Crops: Expected Economic Benefits From Biotechnology.

An enabling, evidence-based decision-making framework is critical to support agricultural biotechnology innovation, and to ensure farmers' access to genetically modified (GM) crops, including orphan crop varieties. A key element, and often a challenge in the decision-making process, involves the balancing of identified potential risks with expected economic benefits from GM crops. The latter is particularly challenging in the case of orphan crops, for which solid economic data is scarce. To address this challenge, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in collaboration with local economists analyzed the expected economic benefits to farmers and consumers from the adoption of GM crops in 5 sub-Saharan African countries. This paper focuses on case studies involving insect-resistant cowpea in Nigeria and Ghana; disease-resistant cassava in Uganda and Tanzania; and disease-resistant banana in Uganda. Estimations from these case studies show substantial economic benefits to farmers and consumers from the timely adoption and planting in farmers' fields of GM orphan crops. Our analysis also shows how the benefits would significantly be reduced by regulatory or other delays that affect the timely release of these crops. These findings underscore the importance of having an enabling policy environment and regulatory system-covering, among other elements, biosafety and food/feed safety assessment, and varietal release registration-that is efficient, predictable, and transparent to ensure that the projected economic benefits are delivered and realized in a timely manner.

What are farmers really planting? Measuring the presence and effectiveness of Bt cotton in Pakistan.

Genetically modified, insect-resistant Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton is cultivated extensively in Pakistan. Past studies, however, have raised concerns about the prevalence of Bt cotton varieties possessing weak or nonperforming insect-resistance traits conferred by the cry gene. We examine this issue using data drawn from a representative sample of cotton-growing households that were surveyed in six agroclimatic zones spanning 28 districts in Pakistan in 2013, as well as measurements of Cry protein levels in cotton tissue samples collected from the sampled households' main fields. The resultant dataset combines information from 593 sampled households with corresponding plant tissue diagnostics from 70 days after sowing, as well as information from 589 sampled households with corresponding diagnostics from 120 days after sowing. Our analysis indicates that 11 percent of farmers believed they were cultivating Bt cotton when, in fact, the Cry toxin was not present in the tested tissue at 70 days after sowing (i.e., a Type I error). The analysis further indicates that 5 percent of farmers believed they were cultivating non-Bt cotton when, in fact, the Cry toxin was present in the tested tissue (i.e., a Type II error). In addition, 17 percent of all sampled farmers were uncertain whether or not they were cultivating Bt cotton. Overall, 33 percent of farmers either did not know or were mistaken in their beliefs about the presence of the cry gene in the cotton they cultivated. Results also indicate that toxic protein levels in the plant tissue samples occurred below threshold levels for lethality in a significant percentage of cases, although these measurements may also be affected by factors related to tissue sample collection, handling, storage, and testing procedures. Nonetheless, results strongly suggest wide variability both in farmers' beliefs and in gene expression. Such variability has implications for policy and regulation in Pakistan's transgenic cotton seed market.

Estimates and implications of the costs of compliance with biosafety regulations in developing countries.

Estimating the cost of compliance with biosafety regulations is important as it helps developers focus their investments in producer development. We provide estimates for the cost of compliance for a set of technologies in Indonesia, the Philippines and other countries. These costs vary from US $100,000 to 1.7 million. These are estimates of regulatory costs and do not include product development or deployment costs. Cost estimates need to be compared with potential gains when the technology is introduced in these countries and the gains in knowledge accumulate during the biosafety assessment process. Although the cost of compliance is important, time delays and uncertainty are even more important and may have an adverse impact on innovations reaching farmers.

Relación entre los comentarios acerca del peso corporal y la autopercepción morfológica en adolescentes de ciertos colegios de Lima: un estudio piloto / Relationship between comments about body weight and self-perception in adolescents morphological certain schools in Lima: a pilot study

Dada la gran relación documentada entre la satisfacción corporal y los comportamientos relacionados a este (llámese bulimia, anorexia dentro de los más alarmantes) y la influencia que existe cuando recibimos algún comentario con respecto al peso; nos pareció importante examinar el efecto de los comentarios acerca del peso corporal y la prevalencia de una autopercepción equivocada en alumnos que cursen secundaria debido a ser un grupo etáreo susceptible, para ello encuestamos a 96 alumnos de la INSTITUCION EDUCATIVA "JOSE MARIA ARGUEDAS", y los resultados fueron: 81.25 por ciento recibieron comentarios sobre su peso, el más frecuente fue estas gordo/a 33.33 por ciento y el lugar más frecuente donde recibieron estos comentarios fue en la escuela 38.09 por ciento, prevaleciendo los comentarios negativos 60 por ciento, y provenían principalmente de amigos/as 26.22 por ciento, concluyendo que la gran parte de los alumnos si recibieron comentarios sobre su imagen corporal. Al encuestarlos se observa que la mayoría de alumnos no están satisfechos con su imagen corporal (69 por ciento) y un porcentaje aún mayor (72 por ciento) tiene una autopercepción distorsionada de sí mismos. Esto podría indicar que la autopercepción morfológica en adolescentes si se encontraría afectada por los comentarios recibidos. Estudios más complejos y con mayor tamaño muestral son necesarios para poder definir una relación clara entre los comentarios recibidos por los adolescentes y su influencia en la autopercepción

Given the great link documented between the corporal satisfaction and the behaviors related to this one (bulimia and anorexia being the most common) and the influence that exists when we receive a comment about weight; it seemed important to us, to examine the effect of the comments and the corporal weight; also the prevalence of a mistaken autoperception in high school students due to be a high risk group. For it we poli 96 students of the EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION "JOSE MARIA ARGUEDAS ". and the results were: 81.25 per cent received comments about their weight, the most frequent was "You are fat" with 33.33 per cent and the most frequent place where they received these comments was the school representing a 38.09 per cent, prevailing the negative commentaries with 60 per cent, and the person who did most of the comments was a female friend 26.22 per cent, concluding that most of the students received comments about their body shape. With the questionairs we observe that most of them are not satisfied with their body image (69 per cent) and a bigger percentage (72 per cent) have a distortion of autoperception. This could implied that autoperception in adolescents is indeed modified by the comments received about their body image. More studies are needed to prove a clear relationship between the comments received and the autoperception in adolescents

Oncocitoma suprarrenal: a propósito de un caso clínico / Adrenal oncocytoma: a purpose of a case

Presentar las características clínicas, paraclínicas y anatomopatológicas de un tumor retroperitoneal poco frecuente. Estudio descriptivo de caso clínico y revisión de la literatura, de masculino de 45 años quien inició enfermedad de 2 años de evolución caracterizado por la presencia de tumor abdominal en epigastrio de crecimiento progresivo. Concomitantemente pérdida de peso, hiporexia y dolor abdominal. Se práctico ultrasonido que concluye tumor de glándula suprarrenal vs. tumor renal. Tomografía de abdominal de abdomen-pelvis que reporta extensa lesión de apariencia tumoral heterogénea con áreas centrales hipodensas asociadas a calcificaciones distróficas y realce post contraste que parece estar ubicada en la región suprarrenal izquierda condicionando desplazamiento inferior del riñon izquierdo, el cual conserva su morfología y funcionalismo. Se realizó laparotomía y exéresis del mismo con reporte anatomopatológico de tumor retroperitoneal: neoplasia maligna de estirpe epitelial, con necrosis extensa no siendo concluyente, por lo cual se realiza inmunohistoquímica que concluye adenoma, oncocitoma suprarrenal. El paciente evolucionó satisfactoriamente. En 8 meses no se ha evidenciado recidiva. El oncocitoma es una entidad infrecuente diagnóscada con el estudio anatomopatológico de la pieza quirúrgica. Puede tener comportamiento maligno o benigno y su exéresis es el tratamiento de elección.

Políticas sobre biotecnologías y recursos genéticos

Presenta un estudio acerca de las políticas de biotecnología y recursos genéticos en los alimentos modificados genéticamente y cuales son las relaciones de ese tipo de política con el hambre. Aborda la cuestión de la propiedad intelectual y los cálculos de los costos. Documento en formato PDF, requiere Acrobat Reader.