[hepr-vn] FAO: International dialogue on bioenergy and agricultural biotechnologies

[Vern Weitzel]

http://www.scidev.net/en/announcements/international-dialogue-on-bioenergy-and-agricultur-1.html

International dialogue on bioenergy and agricultural biotechnologies
Organisation: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Closing Date: 1 March 2009
EN
 From 10 November to 14 December 2008, the FAO Biotechnology Forum hosted a 
moderated e-mail conference on "The role of agricultural biotechnologies for 
production of bioenergy in developing countries", jointly organised by the FAO 
Working Group on Biotechnology and the FAO Working Group on Bioenergy. About 430 
people subscribed to the conference and 88 messages were posted by 52 people in 
21 different countries. Sixty percent of messages came from people living in 
developing countries. Major topics of discussion included applying 
biotechnologies in jatropha; the potential benefits for small-scale farmers of 
applying biotechnologies for bioenergy production; biogas production in 
developing countries; and production of enzymes for efficient bioconversion of 
lignocellulosic biomass to liquid biofuels. Other issues discussed included the 
impacts of intellectual property rights; thermo-chemical versus biochemical 
conversion of lignocellulosic biomass; and microalgae. Of the different 
biotechnologies, most attention was paid to applications of genetic 
modification, molecular markers and tissue culture in crops (with only minor 
attention paid to forest trees) for biofuel purposes. All the messages posted 
are available at http://www.fao.org/biotech/logs/c15logs.htm or can be requested 
as a single e-mail (size 135 KB) from biotech-admin at fao.org.



Contact Details
John Ruane, PhD
FAO Biotechnology Forum Administrator
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
E-mail address: Biotech-Admin at fao.org
Biotechnology Forum website: http://www.fao.org/biotech/forum.asp
FAO Biotechnology website:http://www.fao.org/biotech/index.asp (in Arabic, 
Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish)

FAO website: http://www.fao.org