Genes to feed the world: The weakest link?

The new science of genomics has an important contribution to make to the development of agriculture in the ‘Third World’ and thus to improving the livelihoods of many of the poorest people on earth. The persistence of poverty demonstrates, however, that this contribution is not yet being made. We therefore examine the web of connections between the two and enquire whether they could be strengthened in some way, perhaps by the addition of some vital ‘missing link’, so that the contribution from genomics can be maximised. Since the use of molecular markers to help develop improved crop varieties (marker-assisted selection) constitutes one of the main ways in which genomic knowledge could be used to improve rural livelihoods, we review this technology and discuss the ways in which it could contribute to plant breeding. We argue that marker-assisted selection (MAS) is likely to be most effective when it is both (i) linked to the farmers who are expected to cultivate the new crop varieties that will eventually be developed; and (ii) integrated with plant breeding and with a range of complementary disciplines. Such integration necessarily involves the formation of effective trans-disciplinary teams, an undertaking that is often problematic, and so the final part of this article considers the processes that this involves and suggests ways in which they may be managed effectively.