54 | Agricultural Innovation in Developing East Asia
increase yields and profitability and reduce potential adverse environmental and health effects associated with pesticide use. In China, for example, more than 90 percent of cotton growers have adopted GM varieties. However, urban consumers are still resistant to the adoption of GM technologies for food crops. The government is sensitive to this resistance and sees wider adoption of GM technology not as a technical issue but as a public relations and awareness issue. New breeding techniques, including genome editing
A new generation of techniques known as new breeding techniques can help the East Asia region develop more resilient and nutritious crops. The new breeding techniques include a variety of techniques that introduce genetic mutations indistinguishable from the processes of natural breeding. Genome editing (GE) has already been used in agriculture in China, Japan, and Korea. Many activities are at the experimental stage (FAO 2019c). Current projects and initiatives include research into commercially and nutritionally important crops such as rice and wheat (box 5.6). China has invested significantly in GE as part of a wider, technology-based push to improve agricultural output, and is about to become the global leader. Differences in regulation between the European Union and other countries such as the United States have created potential barriers to the use of GE, however. In 2018, the European Union declared that GE crops should be subject to the same stringent regulations as conventional GM organisms (Callaway 2018). Elsewhere, as in the United States, decrees and enforcement ordinances are generally encouraging of GE (FAO 2019c; Green 2018).
BOX 5.6
New breeding techniques New breeding techniques (NBTs) include techniques such as genome editing (GE), reverse breeding, and agro-infiltration, with GE attracting the most attention. Whereas genetic modification involves the artificial transfer of genes between organisms that are not bred, or the introduction of genes from outside an organism’s genome, GE methodologies (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats [CRISPR] and transcription activator-like effector nucleases [TALEN]) introduce genetic mutations that can be indistinguishable from those found in natural breeding. CRISPR has become the preferred GE technique because of its simplicity and efficiency. In agriculture, the NBT trend seems positive because it can help strengthen resistance to pathogens in crops such as rice and tomatoes, and prolong shelf life. In the United States, GE crops are already on the market, including a browning-resistant mushroom, a waxy maize that produces higher starch, and an improved storage potato. Berkeley-based Caribou Sources: Cohen 2019; FAO 2019c; Green 2018.
Biosciences is also using GE to create drought- resistant corn and wheat. China has invested in GE technology since 2014. It has at least 20 research groups across the country dedicated to GE use in agriculture. Chinese scientists have used GE technology to create soybean mutants that can adapt to low altitude areas, paving the way for the breeding of new soybean varieties. The soybean mutants exhibited late flowering, improved height, and an increased number of pods, providing a basis for the breeding of soybean varieties that grow well in low altitude regions. Many activities are at the experimental stage. Current projects and initiatives include research on commercially and nutritionally important crops such as rice and wheat (resistance to powdery mildew), and cold-resistant, lean-body-mass pigs. The first GE product, high oleic soybean oil, was successfully commercialized without the regulations applied to genetically modified crops.
