Mr Otman Sebbata IT Specialist Coll: Dr Driss IRAQI Biotechnologist/ Mrs Fatima Gaboune Biometrist , Institut National d

1. Current status of ICT structure and applications existed to manage and disseminate information on Knowledge of agricultural biotechnology innovation information in Morocco Workshop on Agricultural biotechnology for Knowledge sharing in NENA Region Cairo Egypt2-4 July 2012 Mr Otman Sebbata IT Specialist Coll: Dr Driss IRAQI Biotechnologist/ Mrs Fatima Gaboune Biometrist , Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) Rabat, Morocco.

2. 1 Background • Agriculture plays a major economic role in Morocco • Accounts for 19 % of total GNP with 15% from agriculture and 4% from agro-industry • 80% of the 14 millions rural populations depend on revenues from the agricultural sector • Information is of major concern to decision makers, researchers, extension officers and farmers

3. 2 Biotechnology in Morocco National priority for Development of Science and Technology • Improve Food production (Quantity & Quality) • to meet the National demand due to the increasing population • To manage the problems of biotic and abiotic stresses • Assist the breeding programs, • Characterize and add value to the local biodiversity

4. 2 Biotechnology in Morocco • Started in 80’s with the use of plant tissue culture technique as a tool in crop improvement program • Institutions involved in biotechnology: • The National Institute of Agricultural Research “INRA” which is leading national research organization in agricultural biotechnology in Morocco with a network of 10 Regional Research Centers and 23 Experimental stations • The Hassan II Institute of Agronomy & Veterinary medicine: IAV, • The National College of Agriculture of Meknès: ENA Meknes • Water and Forest Administration: CNRF • Faculties of Sciences and Technology: FST • Private companies producing at a large scale banana, date palm, strawberry and potato in-vitro planting materials. • Professional associations to promote contacts and interactions between biotechnologists through workshops and similar activities

5. 2 Biotechnology in Morocco • INRA as a national leading institutions has developed capacities and capabilities in agricultural biotechnology research thus a new strategy was elaborated to integrate biotechnology as major tools in agricultural research: • Marrakech: Development of Date palm tissue culture propagation methods • Errachidia: Large scale Date palm micropropagation using developed tissue culture methods set in Marrakech to meet the increasing demand (3,212,000 of total demand for plantlets in 2007) • Kenitra: Genetic diversity and studies on tissue culture of citrus • Settat / Meknes: Application of Molecular marker for wheat breeding • Rabat: Genetic crop improvement programs, tissue culture, molecular markers Gene Cloning and Characterization and genetic transformation of plant, food Microorganisms Molecular characterization)

6. 2 Biotechnology in Morocco Collaboration and partnerships: • Collaborative research programs with NARS (IAV, ENAMeknes and Universities) and with IARCs (ICARDA, IAEA, IPGRI, ICGEB, ASTF, European commission) and NARS in countries (France, USA, Italy, Belgium, Portugal …etc) • A consortium between Moroccan NARS (INRA / IAV and ENAM) was set aiming in the biotechnology field to develop a joint biotech lab for collaborative programs for effective use of local expertise and available resources within the consortium • Biotech networks in Morocco are means for collaboration between NARS

7. 3 ICT infrastructure and Capacity • Hardware: • INRA made very important progress in the use of information technology • Over 450 of desktop computers are currently installed, INRA research centers and biotech labs are equipped with PCs of last generation and are running with a mixture of windows XP, vista and Win 7 • Servers are mostly based in central sites. They are using windows server NT, 2000 and 2003. In addition Linux and HP-UX are also used for internet services management. Network and Internet • PC are networked to small and medium LANs with access to the Internet (20 Mo LS in Rabat and DSL ranging from 8 to 20 Mo in all regional Centers)

8. 3 ICT infrastructure and Capacity Application Softwares: For desktop applications, MS office is widely used. INRA research centers and biotech research Unit are equipped with PCs using biotech specific software and DTP tools ( Data acquisition hardware, Computer, peripherals, and applications software (word processing, spreadsheets, DBMS, and Statistical packages);

9. 3 ICT infrastructure and Capacity Bioinformatics Unit: • The major focus of the bioinformatics unit is to develop information management systems using available tools that provide the required data capture, storage query and access interfaces to meet the demands • Managed by a biometric specialist with a bioinformatic background • Mission: supporting the work done by the biotech research unit. • Provided with PCs equipment under Windows and linux OS and applications tools (DTP, Statistical packages and specific biotech softwares) with access to the Internet. • Helping biotech and non biotech researchers to design their research protocols in addition to searching biotech databases (NCBI, Swissport, Unipro)and processing their collected data (statistical analysis)

10. 4 Information systems • With the advent of Internet, Websites are becoming the basis of any information systems for information management and communication • Moroccan NARS websites evolved in the last decade from a simple and descriptive html webpages to Portals with thematic and sub regional websites • The used Content management system, has enabled any user with an account to collaborate and make update in specific webpages in addition to management of information workflow and life cycle

11. 4 Information systems • Existing websites are not numerous in biotechnology, but this aspect can be found in a category or some thematic databases in the following list of Moroccan websites:

12. 5 Policy and strategies E-Morocco 2010” A national strategy launched in 2005 to stet up a knowledge economy and reduce digital divide: Content development: Avail a Moroccan content structured, useful, updated and adapted to targeted users needs; Strengthening ICT infrastructures in terms of offered capacity and improve the quality of services ; Training based on profiles needs ; Internet access: simplifying and generalization of access to internet; ICT Industry: development of national productive and competitive ICT industry; Tele-service: Development of call centers and offshore zone with ICT activities.

13. 5 Policy and strategies The Moroccan constitution(2011) in its article 27, stressed that Citizens have the right to access information held by public authorities Decision makers are becoming more receptive to information sharing and are boosting access to information through networks and portals; Use of Standards: Standards are being used as part of international collaboration in order to facilitate information exchange with regional and international information systems (FAO, ICARDA …) IPR issues in information management : Plant variety right (Official Catalogue) INRA used to register its released varieties in the Moroccan PVR (Official catalogue) wheat, Bean, citrus tree, date palm and other fruit trees registered in 2011. Patent: signed agreement with the Moroccan Patent Office ww.ompic.ma and several patents so far registered in biotechnology. For researchers to be more innovative, benefits from royalties must be shared

14. 6 Contents • Genebank: • National Plant Genetic Resources Conservation Morocco Genebank • based at INRA Settat, developed for medium and long term conservation and utilization of plant genetic resources (4500 species of higher plants of which about 200 species are considered as rare or threatened) • serves as a national repository for the collection of over 47000 germplasm accessions of different species. • The collection serves as insurance against genetic erosion and as a source of resistance to diseases and pests, tolerance to climatic and other environmental stresses, and improved quality and yield traits for crop improvement. • Application softwares : model used at genetic resources unit of ICARDA; and GRIS developed by IPGRI. INRA contributed to the new GRIN system • Information is accessed locally for collection management purpose

15. 6 Contents • Genebank: • Plant genetic resources database related to plant genetic resources FAO PGRFA • The World information sharing mechanism on the implementation of the global plan of action (GPA) for plant genetic resources for food and agriculture: with participation of major NARS institutions (INRA, IAVHII, ENA Meknes ) • Accessed on the Net:www.pgrfa.org/gpa/mar/welcome.htmx

16. 6 Contents • Research results: • Bibliographic database with full text access using FAO standards and tools is currently updated and is accessible through the Nethttp://webagris.inra.org.ma:120/agris • Patents: some findings results are patented • Eg.: Biological control by the strain of mucl 47354 pichia guilliermondii diseases of post-harvest registered in 2007 registered at the Moroccan patent office www.ompic.ma Patent number :ma 30121 b1 date: 02.01.2009 • Process for brewer's yeast debittering registered at the Canadian patent office • Patent number:[45] : 5,716,653 date of patent feb. 10, 1998 • News and Events: Published on the net through institutional Websites

17. 7 ICT applications • Biotechnology Management Tools: • Thanks to collaboration with IARCs (ICRISAT) some management tools are being tested for further implementation • Crop management information systems : integrated crop information system linking molecular, phenotypic and pedigree data. • Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) : designed to automate the sample workflow associated with molecular marker genotyping • Integrated Marker-Assisted Selection System iMAS: a single unified computing and decision support platform to facilitate identification of trait-linked markers for use in marker-aided selection and breeding • IMAS tool is currently used at the bioinformatics unit to analyze and process data collected by INRA’s Researchers.

18. 7 ICT applications Web application tools on biotechnology Developed by Post graduate students for their Msc thesis projects 6 Web application tools so far developed ( sugar beet, potatoes, grapevines, legumes and cereals) Provide access to a thematic databank (data on genomes downloaded from int. Database) and a tool to be used to input data on Moroccan crop genomes Will be installed on a server and used at local level by INRA’s researchers

19. 7 ICT applications Web application tools on biotechnology Grape genome analysis: SSR identification and related Primer design Used for searching Short Sequence Repeat (SSR) in the entire genome of grape (Vitis vinifera), and design of SSR markers for identifying genes or screening for disease such as mildew and fan leaf virus Grape genome consists of 190 contigs, 2,745,612 SSR. Of Microsatellites grape genomes Used Tools: NCBI (National Center for biotechnology information database MISA (Microsatellite) algorithm for SSR identification programming SSR research Use of Primer3 for Primer PCR identification Perl program for scripts Active perl interpreter for Perl script running PHP language for web bioseq design Mysql as DBMs and Apache as web server

20. 8 Information and communication channels • Informal channel: • Invisible college: interaction between researchers from different institutions at national or international levels • Formal channels: • On site visits for students/and scientists • Workshops, and fair • Scientific Meetings • Institutional Publications in different format (annual report, papers, books, leaflets, flyers etc) • Field demonstration and farmer field school (FFS) • Media

21. 9 Information and communication services • Institutional websites: • Information on research projects • List of Publications (books and journals) • News and events • Thematic Specific websites: • GPA website : The World information sharing mechanism on the implementation of the global plan of action (GPA) for plant genetic resources for food and agriculture: with participation of major NARS institutions (INRA, IAVHII, ENAmekneswww.pgrfa.org/gpa/mar/welcome.htmx • Bibliographic databases : INRA made use of WebAGRIS tools to publish on the Net its Reference database with links to full text (journal papers)webagris.inra.org.ma:120/agris • International websites: • Data on Moroccan crop genomes is input in international websites (NSBI)

22. 9 Information and communication services Extension and advisory information: INRA is collaborating to the production of an extension journal (190 issues) coordinated by the Directorate of Training and Research . Journal issues are on the netwww.vulgarisation.net/bulletin.htm Market information: A national website dedicated to market information was launched by the ministry of agriculturehttp://www.marocagriculture.com/maroc-agriculture/la-bourse-agricole

23. 10 Biotech Information Systems • Some Comments: • Lack of awareness of Decision makers resulted in unsupporting information exchange within NARS • Lack of existing strategy for coordinating information content generation and use in agricultural biotechnology research • Information exchange within information system is seen as an extra work if objectives are not well defined (no interests shown)

24. 10 Biotech Information Systems • Recommendations: • Raising awareness of Decision makers within NARS on importance of biotech information system • Indentifying application tools for web based content generation and management of agricultural biotech research that are commonly used and available at IARCs or NARS partners that can be of use for strengthening knowledge exchange within NARS and at the regional fora • Encouraging development of institutions, expertise and project databases at national and regional level to promote partnership at bi and multi lateral levels and to fulfill requirement and conditions set by sponsors for joint projects submission (European Commission as eg.)

25. Biotech Information Systems • Recommendations: • Targeting potential information producers made of researchers by providing support for capacity building on existing tools for information generation; • Making an inventory of successful information systems of agricultural biotechnological research within national, regional and international levels that can be used as a model by other NARS

26. Thank you for your attention