Brussels, 24/06/2004 (Agence Europe) - The world population will grow from 6 to 9 billion in the next fifty years, and fossil resources will diminish while requirements for food, "bio-fuels" and "bio-materials" will increase. As the solution to this problem will entail the development of plant biotechnology, the Spring Summit of March 2003 launched an appeal for "the creation of technological platforms (...) to develop a strategic agenda for research in advanced technologies such as plant genomics". An initial stage has just been completed, with the presentation to the European Commission on Thursday of a document, "Plants for the Future", which was written by representatives of the science, food industry and biotechnology sectors, professional agricultural organisations and consumer associations. The Commissioner for Research, Philippe Busquin, indicated that a technological platform including a consultative assembly and several working groups would be set up "over the next few months, to create a strategic agenda for research by the end of the year". "Despite Europe having been at the forefront of plant science and biotechnology, it has lost this role (...) due to public concerns over the impact of these technologies, insufficient communication (...), and lack of strategic research programmes", said Mr Busquin. Whilst 650 million EUR is invested every year by American biotechnology sectors, their colleagues in the EU invest just 400 million EUR. Last year, the American government launched a national plant genomics programme with a total budget of 1.1 billion EUR for the period 2003-2008. The aid granted by the EU of 15 was put at around 80 million EUR a year.
In Europe, 17 million farms employ 8% of the active population of the EU of 25, while the agro-food industry has an annual turnover of 600 billion EUR. The document presented on Thursday stresses the role biotechnology and genomics could play in helping the EU to evolve into a knowledge-based bio economy using renewable plant resources by 2025. New stress-resistant plants will be capable of increased agricultural productivity, though requiring less fertiliser, pesticide and water. The strategic research programme could also lead to genetic diversity of crops, and stimulate the development of "green" materials, including bio-fuels. The document, therefore, recommends the creation of a European platform on plant biotechnology research, in order to: -develop a strategic research programme covering genomics, physiology, agronomy, ecology, bioinformatics and other skills; boost public and private investment in R&D; -increase industry support for the research programme established by the platform; -promote societal consensus.
Philippe Busquin underlined the need to reach "critical mass in terms of funding, and scientific and technological resources". He referred to an ERA-NET project on plant genomics which is already in place, and co-ordinated by Professor Folstar of the Netherlands Genomics Initiative, indicating that "other European and national initiatives and networks will be integrated in the next few months".