Role of agricultural biotechnologies in addressing food and nutrition security challenges in Africa: Perspectives from the Agricultural Research Council, South Africa

1. AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
FAO: Agricultural Biotechnology Symposium
23 November 2017
Dr. S. R. Moephuli

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CHALLENGE OF FOOD AND NUTRITION INSECURITY
 African agriculture has been spearheading increased yields, but food insecurity
remains persistent
 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World
 Global hunger 815 million people – 2016
 243 million in Africa
 Africa has highest prevalence of undernourishment 23 % of population
 Although sufficient food energy needs in some, there remains deficiencies in
micronutrients (protein, vitamins, essential minerals etc)
 Increased obesity
 Stunted growth in children and poor learning outcomes.
 Increasing urbanization
 Increasing population growth
 Diminishing agricultural production and productivity

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PERSPECTIVES FROM THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
 A public entity established by the government of South Africa to conduct and drive
research and technology development in order to transfer scientific solutions and
information to the agricultural sector.
 Identifies and utilizes the most appropriate and effective tools to ensure:
 Efficiency and stability of food production systems;
 Protection of crops and livestock against biotic and abiotic stress
 Safety and quality of food products;
 Efficient use and protection of environmental resources (incl. biodiversity)
 Protection of environment, crops and livestock and consumers from harmful effects
of chemical and biological entities in food production system
 Agricultural Biotechnology critical tool for wide range of applications

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APPLICATIONS OF BIOTECHNOLOGY THROUGH RESEARCH
EXAMPLES FROM AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH:
1. Animal Genetics – population genotyping for breeding and disease management
2. Food Safety – Diagnostic tools for regulatory decisions
3. Fruit Breeding – farmer production, productivity improvements for income generation
4. Pest and Disease identification to enable yields for food security
5. Climate Change resilience -- Drought tolerance for enabling yields
6. Vaccine Development – increased meat production for nutritional needs
7. Livestock forage for improved production
8. Impact of research on income generation
9. Beef Genomics Partnership

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APPLICATIONS OF BIOTECHNOLOGY FARMER OUTREACH

6. Commercial
meat type breeds
B: Savanna
C: Kalahari Red
D: Boer
Developed breeds
E-G: Village ecotypes phenotypic representations
Kwazulu-Natal (Zulu)
North West (Tswana)
Limpopo (Venda)
Eastern Cape (Xhosa)
Local language
and does not
represent breeds
Naming system
H: Feral goat population
Tankwa
Genotyping of SA indigenous goat populations
Nguni ecotype
• SA Veld goats
• Indigenous
ecotypes
• Kept by breeders
in Kwazulu-Natal
192 goats

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PRINCIPLE COMPONENT ANALYSIS
Boer
Savanna
Kalahari Red
Zulu
Venda
Tswana
Xhosa
Tankwa
Commercial
Village ecotypes
Nguni
PCA Population
PC1 Commercial vs
Indigenous
PC2 Tankwa
PC3 Zulu/Venda vs
Tswana/Xhosa
PC4 Tswana vs Xhosa
PC5 Outliers of Savanna
and KR

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AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH FOR FOOD IDENTIFICATION

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AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH FOR FOOD SAFETY REGULATION
 Provide scientific solutions to government for policy and decision making in food
safety
Aim:
 To detect contamination and adulteration in meat projects, using high throughput DNA
sequencing
 To set up a national testing and monitoring system
 To advise on acceptable thresholds for different communities
 Funded by Department of Agriculture Forestry & Fisheries, South Africa
Result:
Develop a rapid, high sample throughput and routine workflow for investigating and managing
species contamination vs adulteration in the meat industry of South Africa.

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BREEDING HIGH QUALITY PEARS FOR A WARMER CLIMATE
• ARC integrated plant breeding
programme ensures that South
Africa remains one of the world
leading exporters of top quality
pears.
• Blushed pear selections suitable for
warmer climates are highly sought
after in the market.
• Pears in South Africa are the third
largest fruit crop after grapes and
apples

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NEW DROUGHT TOLERANT & INSECT PROTECTED MAIZE
HYBRIDS TESTED ON-FARMS
• During the information days, 517 x
2kg promotional seed packs of
these hybrids were given to
smallholder farmers in Eastern
Cape, Free State, Gauteng,
KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo,
Mpumalanga and North West.
• An invasion of the fall army worm
was experienced in most Provinces
and these Bt maize hybrids were
found to be resistant.
• ARC – University – Private sector
partnership on disseminating
solutions

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NEW DROUGHT TOLERANT & INSECT PROTECTED MAIZE
HYBRIDS TESTED ON-FARMS
• The ARC through the WEMA project developed five
drought-tolerant and insect-protected (Bt – MON
89034) TELATM hybrids, namely:
WE6206B
WE6207B
WE6208B
WE6209B
WE6210B
• Twenty-six TELATM hybrids demos were planted on-
farm in the Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng,
KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape
and North West.
• These demons were used to host information days to
introduce the hybrids to extension officers and farmers,
as well as to demonstrate correct way of planting
refuge (a strip of maize crop without Bt-gene)

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Research on Vaccines, Vaccine Production and Provision of Analytical
Services
• Continued to produce blood vaccines marketed by
OBP against:
• Erlichiocia
• Anaplasmosis
• Babesiosis
• Research into new generation vaccines continued
especially on diseases like:
• PPR
• Sheep pox
• Goat Pox
• Rift Valley Fever
• Lumpy skin disease
• Continued to provide analytical services to DAFF for
exports of meat products to Europe:
• Continued export of these products is
dependent on passing the EU inspection
mission

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HEARTWATER – AN ECONOMICALLY IMPORTANT DISEASE
• Caused by: Rickettsial (Ehrlichia ruminantium)
• Affects: Ruminants (wild & domestic)
• Transmitted by ticks: (Amblyomma; A. hebraeum)
• Mortality rate high (up to 90 %) in susceptible animals (per-acute,
acute)

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HEARTWATER VACCINE – PROGRESS TO DATE
ACHIEVED:
1. The effective application of the intramuscular route of vaccine inoculation in animals
replacing the previously established intravenous injection making the procedure easy to use
by farmers.
2. Vaccine safety and efficacy in goats, sheep, cattle
3. Optimization of vaccine dose for goats, sheep, cattle
4. Duration of immunity in sheep
5. Reversal of vaccine strain to virulence (no reversion)
6. Vaccine dispensing Standard Operating Procedures
FURTHER DEVELOPMENT (CURRENT)
a) Vaccine up-scaling in conjunction with Onderstepoort Biological Products Company (OBP)
b) Quality control of the vaccine prior to regulatory approval for sale and distribution
c) Development of regulatory registration dossier
d) Large scale manufacturing and sale by OBP

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BREEDING FORAGES FOR INCREASED ANIMAL PRODUCTIVITY
• ARC Forage Breeding Group at Cedara successfully bred a new forage variety named
Endurance
• Endurance is a dual-purpose crop with:
• high-yielding roots and leaves for animal consumption
• its soft leaves are considered very palatable for use as mfino/morogo
• Breeding of forage cultivars is a painstakingly slow process:
• Initial crossing trial: crossing of a unique late-flowering fodder radish line (from
New Zealand) and ARC’s two soft-leafed fodder radish cultivars “Geisha” and
“Sterling”.
• Selection and breeding trial: 8 years of annual selection and breeding

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ENABLING AGRICULTURE RESILIENCE TO CLIMATE CHANGE
• South Africa - mild winter conditions
• Chilling Requirement for dormancy release not met for
most apple cultivars
• Prolonged Dormancy Symptoms (PDS):
– Delayed foliation/extended rest
– Reduced branching - Lateral vegetative budbreak absent or
irregular
– Terminal buds open more later or not at all
– Less synchronised breaking of buds and fruit ripening
• Dormancy breaking chemicals
– Expensive, labour intensive
– Pose a Health and Environmental risk
– Usage now banned
Low Chilling Requirement
Anna

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APPLES: LADY WILLIAMS & ANA POPULATIONS
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Numberofindividuals
Flowering time in Julian Calendar days
Lady Williams x Anna population
flowering time

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KEY ISSUES TO UNRAVEL RESPONSES TO CLIMATE CHANGE
1. Enabling full use of genetic yield potential under sub – optimal conditions
2. Early maturing varieties to escape the heat and drought
3. Resilience of pollen viability to stress
4. Water use efficiency – rooting systems and evapotranspiration
5. Nitrogen use efficiency
6. Breeding for higher temperature optimum
7. Introduction of genetic diversity through use of crop wild relatives etc

20. IMPACT ANALYSIS OF ARC CONTRIBUTIONS TO AGRICULTURE
• ARC released 96 peach and nectarine
cultivars since 1937
• Tree planting density increased by 57% to
956 trees/ha
• ARC cultivars used for 45% nectarine
exports, 100% canned peaches
• 16 of the top 39 plum cultivars
exported from SA are ARC bred
• Every R100 invested in plum research
in ARC returns R114
• 67 000t of plums produced annually,
49 000t exported.

21. Developments in Plant Breeding
Intuitive Breeding Cross Breeding
Mutagenesis technologies
Hybrid technologies
Tissue culture developments
Transgenesis: GM Plants
“New” Plant Breeding
Technologies
Biotechnology Introduced• Regulatory Frameworks
• New Intellectual
Property (IP) Develops
EU GMO legislation
European Commission
Workgroup: “NPBT”

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NEW PLANT BREEDING BIOTECHNOLOGY
1. Directed Nucleases (e.g. ZFN, TALEN, CRISPR,
meganucleases)
2. Oligonucleotide Directed Mutagenesis (ODM)
3. RNA interference (RNAi)
4. RNA dependent DNA Methylation (RdDM)
5. Reverse Breeding (and similar)
6. Grafting onto GM rootstocks
7. Cisgenesis and Intragenesis
8. Agro-infiltration
9. Synthetic Biology
Targeted
Mutagenesis/Genome
Editing
Negative (null)
Segregants

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SPECIES AND TRAITS ALREADY REPORTED
PLANTS
9 genes in Soy at once, CRISPR/Cas, various traits, DuPont Pioneer
ALS2 gene, resistance to chlorsulfuron (herbicide), Maize, Rice, wheat. The mutation is a
single nucleotide change resulting in Pro165Ser shift. Reported by various
organizations/groups
Promoter swap in Maize, Drought tolerance, DuPont Pioneer
elF4e gene, virus resistance to Cassava brown streak and mosaic viruses
DMR genes, Downy mildew resistance, tomato, various groups

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SPECIES AND TRAITS ALREADY REPORTED
ANIMALS
Pol gene mutations results in no horns in dairy cattle (Holstein), Recombinetics
inc.
NANOS2 gene, germline ablated male pigs with elite boar SCC transplanted to
result in increased elite sperm production
Myostatin knockout results in double muscle layers, i.e. more meat and was
done in pigs
CD163 exon 7 knockout, Porcine reproductive respiratory syndrome viral
(PRRSv) resistance, porcine, Genus, MU and Roslin
CD18 mutation, Bovine respiratory disease resilience, cattle, Genus

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CURRENT LIMITATIONS FOR WIDESPREAD USE
Legislation is unclear in many countries
Patents are still being disputed on the CRISPR technology, though a report
suggests the technology would be free for agricultural purposes
Unknown genome sequences for target species/cultivars, i.e. cannot locate the
gene homolog to be targeted in the line of interest
Unknown underlying molecular mechanism for trait of interest, i.e.
trait/phenotype linked to specific mutation/gene
Crop specific tissue culture protocols are not always available or work only for
some lines in a crop
Infrastructure requirements for implementing the technologies, e.g. growth
facilities, tissue culture, access to gene parts, etc.
Trained personnel on the technologies in a fast changing field

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KEY ISSUES TO ENABLE THE USE OF BIOTECHNOLOGY
1. Ensuring the use of biotechnology to respond to local, national and global needs
2. Awareness and recognition of the contributions of biotechnology
3. Integrated research and development with farmers, policy makers, manufacturers,
retailers and other actors
4. Ensuring biotechnology contributes to environmental protection and sustainable use
of natural resources
5. Enabling POLICY & REGULATORY SYSTEMS
6. Infrastructure for public research and development
7. Skills and capacity development
8. Increased investment into research and development (consistently for many years)
9. Partnerships & Collaboration at Local, National and Global
10. Anticipation of new technologies and understanding of implications for food
security

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SO WHAT NEXT?
 African countries – tremendous progress in last decade
 Progress has been limited in some instances
 Science Technology Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA)
 Science Technology Innovation Agriculture Policies
 Biotechnology critical to reducing the yield gap
 Africa must take leadership in harnessing new technologies and innovation for food
and nutrition security as well as agricultural development
The Future is in our Hands

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ARC TEAM
 Dr. Farai Muchadeyi
 Prof. Toi Tsilo
 Prof. Norman Maiwashe
 Dr. Kingston Mashingaidze
 Dr. Ansa van Vuuren
 Dr. Dirk Swanevelder
 Dr. Andrew Mthuthuzeli Magadlela
 Dr. Nthabiseng Motete

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COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS
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