The symposium on Plant Biotechnology for Developing Countries, organized by FAO and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co­operation (CTA) in Luxembourg 1989, recommended a catalyst role of the FAO in the application of biotechnology to solve dragging problems in food crop production. This resulted in the establishment of the Technical Cooperation Network on Plant Biotechnology (REDBIO) and FAO's Global Programme on Plant Biotechnology.

During a planning meeting on appropriate biotechnology for crop production organized by the FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean in Brazil, November 1989, the foundation was laid for the establishment of the Technical Cooperation Network on Plant Biotechnology (REDBIO). A recommendation was made to FAO to analyze the basis for establishing a regional technical co­operation network among plant biotechnology networks. Therefore, the FAO Regional Office organized a survey among 173 plant biotechnology laboratories (public and private) in 17 countries of Latin American and the Caribbean in 1990. On the basis of the survey it was concluded that equipment and infrastructure were not felt to be the main constraints but that the most decisive factors for the development and application of plant biotechnology in food crops and plant protection were:

• The need for training in advanced plant biotechnologies, molecular biology, cell and tissue culture applied to genetic improvement and diagnostics of food crop diseases;
• An adequate operating budget;
• A network for technical co­operation in information exchange, training activities, and research and/or production projects in applied plant biotechnology.

Based on the results of this survey, REDBIO was officially established in 1990 under the sponsorship of FAO and with the co­operation of the International Agricultural Research Centres (IARCs) active in the region. REDBIO is a non­crop­specific horizontal network aiming at the acceleration of the generation, appropriation, transfer and application of plant biotechnology in order to contribute to the solution of constraints affecting regional plant resources and crop production. Following a recommendation by the FAO's Regional Conference held in Uruguay, 1992, REDBIO's future activities will also include animal biotechnology.

REDBIO activities
One of the first concrete activities of REDBIO was the preparation and distribution on paper and on computer disk of CATBIO, a catalogue of the surveyed laboratories. An update was published in 1994, comprising more than 350 laboratories in the region, which can be used for the exchange of germplasm and other materials, selection of candidates for courses, project formulation, technical advice and commercial advertisement. At the moment, data from laboratories in Anglophone Caribbean countries is collected to be included in CATBIO.

• Other activities under the aegis of REDBIO and mainly supported by FAO, national programmes, international organizations such as UNDP, UNESCO, UNIDO, IICA and IARCs, include:Training in advanced biotechnologies such as genetic engineering, molecular virology, and molecular biological techniques supporting plant breeding. In 1991, for example, a regional course on plant virus diagnostic (including DNA­probes) was organized in Argentina;
• Policy promotion such as the Code of Conduct for plant biotechnology and biodiversity which is presently being developed by FAO. A first draft of this Code of Conduct was prepared during a meeting in Chile in 1991. FAO divisions further develop this Code, considering interactions and avoiding duplications with similar initiatives from other agencies;
• Information exchange, including CATBIO and the publishing of a newsletter available free­of­charge in Spanish and English. Documents on molecular virology, integrated pest management through advanced biotechnology and a manual on tropical roots and tuber tissue culture have been published. REDBIO is organizing a regional data bank on theses conducted since 1985 by academic institutions and plant biotechnology centres, to be published in 1995;
• Germplasm exchange via in vitro plantlets of garlic and tannia to plant biotechnology and breeding programmes in several countries in the region. Technical documents on tissue culture have been prepared to support the exchanges;
• Selection of candidates for the BAC/UNESCO and the UN University fellowship programmes;
• E­mail consultation and discussion list;
• Support of national conferences.

Organizational structure
The Regional Co­ordination Committee, responsible for the preparation and execution of the activities of REDBIO, is constituted by representatives of those plant biotechnology programmes that have a co­ordinating role in one of the five sub­regions. The technical secretariat of REDBIO is administered by the Regional Plant Production Officer of the FAO Regional Office in Chile. On a national level, REDBIO has established focal point institutions. The network has established a Technical Advisory Council to set priorities and policies, supervise effectiveness and promote fund raising.

Global Programme on Plant Biotechnology
Although the FAO has actively supported biotechnology on request for around 20 years, it did not start its Global Programme on Plant Biotechnology before 1992. The results of a symposium on plant biotechnology and internal discussions within the FAO encouraged the start of this programme. In these discussions, it was noted that many biotechnology projects collapsed after the special programmes to finance them were discontinued. New ways were sought to improve the sustainability of the investments in other countries.

The Programme aims at providing co­ordination for FAO activities on plant biotechnology. In March 1993 in Rome, a panel of experts confirmed the major orientations and functions of the Programme on Plant Biotechnology:

• Information dissemination and co­operation. The programme will act as a 'broker' that will exchange information on research and field testing; available technologies for specific crops; sources of diagnostics, characterization of plant germplasm, etc.; public and private plant biotechnology laboratories; and, guidelines on procedures of the exchange of plant material;
• Establishing and providing advisory services. The programme will provide advice on policy and technical issues to the member states relating to crop propagation, breeding, germplasm conservation and exchange, legal and biosafety issues. This could include both ad hoc advice and the setting up of a scientific technical advisory committee to guide the implementation of plant biotechnology programmes;
• Building institutional capacity. The programme will promote the establishment of in vitro culture laboratories in the least developed countries, strengthening existing institutional and crop networks; fostering private­public relationships; and, providing research grants for equipment and maintenance costs;
• Promotion of research and technology transfer and adoption. The programme has a role in the transfer of applied technology to end users, and "up­stream" research to strengthen national agricultural research.

Regional activities
At national level, the concrete programme activities focus on the execution of projects and follow­up activities on plant biotechnology in several countries so far. At regional level, the Programme supports regional networks in Latin America (REDBIO), and Africa (African Plant Biotechnology Network, APBNet). REDBIO serves as a model for similar regional networks to be established in North Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. Once the networks are set up, the Programme expects to focus more on information exchange between the regional networks and shift from ad hoc to middle term project support.
The FAO programme currently assists the creation of a network on plant biotechnology for Eastern Europe which started with a state­of­the­art study of existing research and networks in the region. In October 1993, the initiative was presented at the Slovenian Symposium of Plant Physiology. FAO and UNESCO will organize a follow­up meeting, planned for May 1995 in Bulgaria, in order to identify partners, discuss other networking initiatives in the region, and define the Networks' scope.
The FAO programme Farmer­Centred Agricultural Resource Management (FARM) contains a sub­programme on biotechnology and biodiversity involving China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. This sub­programme, which started in 1993, aims at the establishment of an information sharing network Asian Bioinformatics; the assessment of the potential of new biotechnologies to contribute to integrated pest management, biological nitrogen fixation and micropropagation for reforestation; and, the assessment of biotechnologies to support characterization of biodiversity for conservation by farming communities.
Peter Commandeur

Contacts:
REDBIO, Dr. Juan Izquierdo, Technical Secretariat
FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean (RLAC)
P.O. Box 10095, Santiago, Chile
Phone (+56) 2 218 5323; Fax(+56) 2 218 2547
E­mail FAO­RLAC@CGNET.COM
E­mail discussion list redbio­l@cenargen.embrapa.br

Global Programme on Plant Biotechnology
Dr. Victor Villalobos, Plant Biotechnology Officer
Crop and Grassland Services, FAO
Vialle delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy
Phone (+39) 6 5225 3705; Fax (+39) 6 5225 3152
E­mail Victor.Villalobos@fao.org