Challenges in Achieving a Second Green Revolution”: Technology Application in Less Developed Regions.

Last Green Revolution (GR), based on N fertilizers, irrigation, and improved cultivars, allowed India and China to become food sufficient, paving the way to current economic expansion. Yet, the Millennium Development Goals to “end poverty and hunger by 2015” are in jeopardy. Africa is dragging behind, the population increase of India and China has absorbed most benefit of previous GR and there is pressure to have a “new green revolution”. In that context, the explosion of biotechnological research towards crop improvement has created optimism for a second GR. Biotechnology can indeed speed up breeding with new tools/approaches and can help accessing useful traits buried in germplasm banks. Biotechnology can equip cultivars with multiple traits, boosting their productivity and profitability. However biotechnology is only one step in a continuum of interventions that would be needed to achieve a second GR. Good agronomic practices, including fertilizers, will be critical to close the large yield gaps between experimental and farmer’s field. Clearly identifying the target clients of any biotechnological improvement will be a must. Affluent farmers may become the main drivers of biotechnological improvement needs, as it happens in developed agriculture, while subsistence farmers may not really “need” biotechnological improvement, but rather a diversified package of non-biotechnological options. Research is critically needed on why, how, by whom biotechnologies are adopted or not, to influence decision on what technologies are really needed by the poorest farmers. Where biotechnologies have a niche in less developed regions, boosting local human and physical capacities will be challenging. We recommend focusing biotechnologies on complex issues, targeting key partners, and better integrating with downstream research disciplines. Biotechnology can contribute to agriculture development but needs to be humble in its goals as the complexity of developing a new GR goes way beyond technological issues.