Principles and applications of biotechnology in Kenya

1. Principles and applications of biotechnology in Kenya Bramwel Waswa Wanjala Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) www.kari.org Presented at the biotechnology awareness workshop 5 December, 2012.  Camunya Hotel Unguja

2. Challenges to human development Health • 2.4 billion people are without access to basic sanitation • 11 million children under five die annually from preventable causes Poverty • 2.8 billion people live on less than US$ 2 a day • 1.2 billion people live on less than US$ 1 a day Starvation • 840 million people are undernourished • 10% infant mortality and 17% under-five mortality in sub-Saharan Africa

3. Agriculture and food security • Food requirements will double with a global population of 8 billion • Malnourished people will be over 1 billion • 85% of global population will be in the developing countries • 60% of population in developing countries will live in cities • Climate change will create new environments for crops and farmers

4. Constraints to crop productivity Traditional Constraints to Agricultural Productivity Emerging Challenges Climate Change Environment degradation Nutritional diseases New plant and animal diseases Zoonotic diseases Rift Valley Fever, Bird Flu Biotic factors • Diseases • Pests • Weeds Abiotic factors • Drought • Low soil fertility

5. Options to address these challenges Hydroponics Organic farming Plant breeding Variety selection Some tools in agriculture Bio-technology Sustainable resource management Conservation tillage Integrated pest management OTHER OPTIONS Biotech is NOT the only answer to solving Agricultural Challenges

6. What is Biotechnology? Derived from combination of: Bio: meaning live and living form of nature and Technology: meaning ‘how-to…’ • The use of living organisms or live processes to: • Make or modify a product • Improve plants or animals • Develop micro-organisms for specific uses

7. Biotechnology builds on centuries of science 10000 BC Fermentation & Leavening 1900-1950 Antibiotics, Pasteurization, Preservation, Crop Breeding 1980 – 2000 Gene Sequencing, Biotech Crops, Human Insulin 1800’s Mendel’s Pea, Darwin’s Species, Pasteur’s Microbes 1950-1980 DNA, Human Nutrition, Fortification, Green Revolution 2001 Human Genome, Plant Genome, Animal Genome Building on centuries of science, biotechnology is a collection of tools used to improve and enhance plants, animals, and microorganisms for the benefit of society.

9. Centuries of plant improvement provide modern plants such as Maize Teosinte Modern Maize

10. Modern Biotechnology in Agriculture • Tissue Culture (TC) • Molecular Markers- assisted breeding • Development of transgenics • Plant and animal disease diagnostics • Development of recombinant vaccines for livestock diseases • Bio-pesticides • Bio-fertilizers • Bio-remediation

12. Or -Growing full organisms from single cells, tissues or organism’s parts

13. Benefits of Tissue Culture • Rapid multiplication of planting material • Virus disease elimination • Uniform and early maturity • High yields

14. TC application in various crops

15. Molecular Marker Assisted Selection (MAS) • Aims directly at at the genetic level (DNA) • Relates genetic level to the visible characteristics observed • Enhances conventional breeding to make it far more accurate • Greatly accelerates product development cycles • Allows work with traits that are difficult to evaluate through observable characteristics • Removes environmental variation

16. Marker Assisted Breeding • Characterization and mapping of Maize Streak Virus and Grey Leaf Spot resistance genes in maize • Development of drought tolerant maize and wheat varieties • Development of Russian Wheat Aphid resistant wheat lines • Fingerprinting of maize land races • Diversity Studies for Sweetpotato and Cassava • Characterization of Indigenous species of cattle, forages and tsetse flies

17. Genetic engineering

19. Gene gun

20. Field Production Line Selection Variety Development Product Concept Gene Discovery Transfor-mation GH & Field Evaluation Market Three Phases of Safety Assessment Discovery Product Advancement Line Selection } } } Post Market • Phase I • Safety of gene, protein, crop • Choice of genes / proteins • - mechanism of action • Source of genes • history of safe use • ethics • Environmental / ecological considerations • Phase III • Detailed product safety • Food • Feed • Environmental • Phase II • Biological / agronomic equivalence • Stringent agronomic performance and efficacy criteria • Greater than 99% of all events are eliminated • Key step in product evaluation for conventional varieties

21. Progress in Development of Transgenic Maize • Insect resistant maize (Bt) has been tested in the greenhouse and field – Excellent results • Plans are in progress of advancing this work • Three field trials of drought tolerant maize are currently underway at KARI Kiboko • KU developing drought tolerant maize in lab • Baseline work on nitrogen use efficiency work going on at the lab level • Testing sites being depleted.

22. WEMA- Water Efficient Maize for African Soils GEMADOT –Genetic Engineering of Maize for Drought Tolerance IMAS -Improved Maize for African Soils DTMA- Drought Tolerant Maize For Africa IRMA – Insect Resistant Maize for Africa Research Institutions KARI Kenyatta University CIMMYT AATF Monsanto Ltd Pioneer Hybrid

23. Example of WEMA concept of increased Yield Potential Step-Changes in Yield Potential INNOVATIONS IN AG TECHNOLOGY THROUGHOUT THE VALUE CHAIN CONTRIBUTE TO YIELD GAIN

24. Constraints to Cassava Improvement • Control virus diseases • Improve nutritional value • Increase after harvest shelf life • Post harvest value addition • Reduce Cyanide levels • Increase yield Biotechnology approaches to address two key constraints

25. Cassava mosaic disease (CMD) Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) Virulent CMD may cause a yield loss of up to 100%

26. Cassava roots are a rich source of calories, but do not provide complete nutrition.

27. Interventions • Virus Resistant Cassava for Africa (VIRCA) • Biocassava Plus (BC+) • Increase (6X) levels of iron and zinc. • Increase (4X) protein content • Increase (10X) bioavailable levels of vitamin A and vitamin E. • Progress • Progress • Field trials for virus resistance and vitamin A biofortification concluded at KARI Alupe ,- Very promising results • Nutrition Study confirmed importance of cassava in TesoBusia and Kuria Districts

28. African Biofortified Sorghum Nutritionally enhanced sorghum for the Arid and Semi-Arid Tropical Areas of Africa Progress • Green house experiments concluded on biofortified sorghum – Introgression of this trait to farmer preferred cultivars • Field trial planted and harvest at KARI Kiboko • and soon to be replanted

29. Preparations for Deployment of Bt cotton • Application for environmental release • Stakeholder training stewardship of Bt cotton • A commercialisation task force • Study tour to Burkina Faso for stakeholders • Participatory process • KARI • Monsanto • ISAAA • ABSF • Cotton Ginners • Ministry of Agriculture • Seed Companies 29

30. Development of Livestock Recombinant Vaccines • Rift Valley Fever • Lack of an appropriate biosafety testing facility for animals involving GMOs. • KARI collaborates with USDA and IAEA to carry out surveillance of the disease in Kenya. -Vaccines for other diseases – CBPP and Newcastle

31. Development of diagnostics livestock disease • Several rapid diagnostic tests developed and validated • Commercial deployment underway • e.g A latex agglutination test for the contagious CCPP • CAPRITESTR

32. Laboratory and Greenhouse Research • Disease resistant banana – IITA at BecA • Nematode resistant yams – IITA at BecA • Mechanisms for trypanosome resistance – ILRI • Insect resistant pigeon pea ICRISAT and KU • Insect resistant sweetpotato – CIP and KU

33. Human Resource Capacity Building On-going in all the main universities, and Research Centers CEBIB- University of Nairobi Moi University Kenyatta University JKUAT KARI BecA

34. Infrastructure Capacity Building • Construction of Biosafety Laboratories, greenhouses, screen-houses and CFT sites • KARI, BecA, KU,UoN,JKUATand KEPHIS

35. ASANTENI – THANK YOU Thank you