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What role can agricultural biotechnologies play in helping developing countries cope with growing water scarcity?

The summary document of the FAO e-mail conference entitled 'Coping with water scarcity in developing countries: What role for agricultural biotechnologies?' has now been published. It provides a summary of the main issues discussed during this moderated email conference, hosted by the FAO Biotechnology Forum from 5 March to 1 April 2007, based on the messages posted by the participants, 75 per cent of which came from people in developing countries.

The major topics discussed were the application of biotechnologies (mainly genetic modification and marker-assisted selection) to develop crops with improved drought resistance or water use efficiency; the use of bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi in water-limited conditions; and the use of biotechnology in wastewater treatment.

See http://www.fao.org/biotech/logs/C14/summary.htm or contact biotech-admin@fao.org to request a copy.