Developing countries have made substantial progress at improving food security, reducing poverty and improving human health. This has largely been achieved through growth in agriculture leading to increased food and feed production and improved farm
incomes. However, lately there has been stagnation in agricultural growth giving rise to concerns about food and livelihood security of large sections of population who make their living out of agriculture and related enterprises. Developments over the last two decades indicate that biotechnology has the potential to enhance productivity, profitability and environmental sustainability of farming systems. The widespread adoption of Bt cotton in India and China and Bt maize in the Philippines are clear indicators that biotechnology is able to deliver appropriate solutions to the problems faced by farmers in the developing countries.
Agricultural biotechnology research and development are being carried out by several organizations including global private sector companies, public sector organizations in national research systems, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) centers and other national and international initiatives funded by various agencies.
Despite the progress so far, it is being widely recognized that public and private sectors need to capitalize on mutual strengths to accelerate the process of development and field deployment of genetically modified crops so that the promised benefits reach the resource poor farmers. During the past few years, several partnerships have been developed within
and between public and private sectors with the objective of achieving these goals. These partnerships include transfer of technology (genes for desired traits) made available under certain financial terms and conditions, outright donation of technology, knowledge sharing, and capacity building. While some of the public-private partnerships (PPPs) have been
able to deliver the anticipated results in the form of improved varieties/hybrids with high farmers’ acceptability, others are yet to achieve the desired goals. In fact, successful partnerships in agricultural biotechnology especially between public and private sectors are still rare because of several constraints, viz. different objectives of each sector, high transaction costs of operationalizing and coordinating the partnerships, mutual mistrust, and negative perceptions.
