Colombia: Biotechnology can be a great ally for climate change
Colombia
Published Oct 8, 2021
Tridge summary
For Paul Chavarriaga, new technologies will not solve major structural problems, but they can offer localized solutions in terms of production and climate. As part of the series of talks It is time for the field of the Society of Colombian Farmers (SAC), a space was given to talk about the crops of the future with the PhD. Paul Chavarriaga, leader of the genome editing and transformation platform of the Bioversity-CIAT Alliance.
Original content
During the conversation, the expert scientist in crop improvement explained the relationship between climate change and agriculture, and how this connection has been changing the paradigm when improving plants that are currently crops of commercial interest. For Chavarriaga, we are forced to think and respond in a different way: “The climate has always been changing. We are now entering a new period of change evidently driven by human activity. Before, we took more time to establish a breeding program that lasted 15 or 20 years; but today the change is so severe and so fast that it is forcing us to rethink how we do the same but faster ”. Old problems, new challenges However, he clarified, these challenges that climate change brings to agriculture are not new. High temperatures, frosts, droughts, floods, in addition to pests and diseases, are events that have always existed but that will become more acute and recurrent, thus threatening the viability of some key crops in the diet ...
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