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The potential impact of plant biotechnology on the Millennium Development Goals

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Abstract

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.

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Acknowledgments

Research in our laboratory is supported by Ministry of Science and Innovation-MICINN, Spain (Grant BFU2007-61413); European Research Council Advanced Grant BIOFORCE; Center Consolider, MICINN, Spain; COST Action FA0804, Associated Unit CAVA and SmartCell, FP7 Integrated project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Production and Forestry Science, ETSEA, University of Lleida, Av. Alcalde Rovira Roure, 191, 25198, Lleida, Spain

    Dawei Yuan, Ludovic Bassie, Maite Sabalza, Bruna Miralpeix, Svetlana Dashevskaya, Gemma Farre, Raviraj Banakar, Chao Bai, Georgina Sanahuja, Gemma Arjó, Eva Avilla, Uxue Zorrilla-López, Nerea Ugidos-Damboriena, Alberto López, David Almacellas, Changfu Zhu, Teresa Capell & Paul Christou

  2. Chemistry Department, ETSEA, University of Lleida, 25198, Lleida, Spain

    Sol M. Rivera

  3. Department of Medicine, University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain

    Gemma Arjó

  4. Département Soutien Formation, IRD, 44 Boulevard de Dunkerque, CS 90009, 13572, Marseille Cedex 02, France

    Gunther Hahne

  5. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK

    Richard M. Twyman

  6. Institució Catalana de Reserca i Estudis Avançats, Passeig Lluís Companys 23, 08010, Barcelona, Spain

    Paul Christou

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  1. Dawei Yuan
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Correspondence to Paul Christou.

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Communicated by R. Reski.

A contribution to the Special Issue: Plant Biotechnology in Support of the Millennium Development Goals.

Appendix 1: The Millennium Development Goals in full (UN 2010a)

Appendix 1: The Millennium Development Goals in full (UN 2010a)

  • Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

    • Target 1A: Halve the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day

    • Target 1B: Achieve decent employment for women, men, and young people

    • Target 1C: Halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

  • Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education

    • Target 2A: By 2015, all children can complete a full course of primary schooling, girls and boys

  • Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

    • Target 3A: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005 and at all levels by 2015

  • Goal 4: Reduce child mortality rate

    • Target 4A: Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate

  • Goal 5: Improve maternal health

    • Target 5A: Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio

    • Target 5B: Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health

  • Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases

    • Target 6A: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS

    • Target 6B: Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it

    • Target 6C: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

  • Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

    • Target 7A: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs, and reverse loss of environmental resources

    • Target 7B: Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss

    • Target 7C: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation

    • Target 7D: By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers

  • Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development

    • Target 8A: Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system

    • Target 8B: Address the special needs of the least developed countries (LDC)

    • Target 8C: Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island developing states

    • Target 8D: Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term

    • Target 8E: In co-operation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable, essential drugs in developing countries

    • Target 8F: In co-operation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications

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Yuan, D., Bassie, L., Sabalza, M. et al. The potential impact of plant biotechnology on the Millennium Development Goals. Plant Cell Rep 30, 249–265 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-010-0987-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-010-0987-5

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