The potential impact of plant biotechnology on the Millennium Development Goals
Issue date
2011Author
Yuan, Dawei
Sabalza Gallués, Maite
Miralpeix i Anglada, Bruna
Sanahuja Solsona, Georgina
Arjó Pont, Gemma
Avilla, Eva
Zorrilla López, Uxue
Ugidos-Damboriena, Nerea
López, Alberto
Almacellas, David
Hahne, Gunther
Twyman, Richard M.
Suggested citation
Yuan, Dawei;
Bassie Rene, Ludovic;
Sabalza Gallués, Maite;
Miralpeix i Anglada, Bruna;
Dashevskaya, Svetlana;
Farré Martinez, Gemma;
...
Christou, Paul.
(2011)
.
The potential impact of plant biotechnology on the Millennium Development Goals.
Plant Cell Reports, 2011, vol. 30, núm. 3, p. 249-265.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-010-0987-5.
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Show full item recordAbstract
The eight Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) are international development targets for the year
2015 that aim to achieve relative improvements in the
standards of health, socioeconomic status and education in
the world’s poorest countries. Many of the challenges
addressed by the MDGs reflect the direct or indirect consequences
of subsistence agriculture in the developing
world, and hence, plant biotechnology has an important
role to play in helping to achieve MDG targets. In this
opinion article, we discuss each of the MDGs in turn,
provide examples to show how plant biotechnology may be
able to accelerate progress towards the stated MDG
objectives, and offer our opinion on the likelihood of such
technology being implemented. In combination with other
strategies, plant biotechnology can make a contribution
towards sustainable development in the future although the
extent to which progress can be made in today’s political
climate depends on how we deal with current barriers to
adoption.