Breeding, Genetics, and Biotechnology as CSA

Breeding, genetics, and biotechnology are climate-smart practices that can enhance productivity, adaptation, and mitigation of climate change. The agriculture industry has strived for monocultures in crops or pure breeds in livestock. This has created vulnerabilities in the system. If a crop is a monoculture, it means that there is very little or no genetic variability which leaves little room for genetic adaptation. There is a small genetic variance in livestock due to a lack of interbreeding. These crops and animals are more diseases prone and if a disease is introduced it is likely to destroy an entire herd or crop because the disease resistance has been bred out. Agriculture of this type can be risky to produce as the climate change. Plants and animals should be bred or changed to better protect themselves against the changing climate. The result will be higher yields and more hearty plants. The type of crops and livestock chosen should be taken into consideration as well. In sub-Saharan Africa, crops like cassava and cowpea should be planted as they are indigenous to the area and have a higher likelihood of withstanding higher temperatures. There are also particular goats, sheep, and breeds of cattle that are native to those areas and have adaptation properties that will help them better navigate climate change versus breeds that have only been introduced into the area for a short time.

Crossbreeding is a technique that has been used for centuries. As technology has improved, it has become more easy to crossbreed cattle from one region with animals from another. For crossbreeding to be considered climate-smart agriculture, there are many factors that need to be considered. The local breed’s strengths and weaknesses should be noted. Many of the animals in the sub-Saharan regions have attributes like high-fat content in milk, heat tolerance, disease tolerance, and parasite resistance, however weight gain is slow. Using artificial insemination, embryo transfer, or other breeding techniques, these animals could be crossbred with breeds that put on weight quickly so that when the animals go for sale the farmer can earn more money.

Before enhancing genetics in animals is possible, there must be a higher production of crops. For a family to be self-sufficient with animals, they must produce enough crops to feed themselves and their animals. This can be very difficult as production yields are normally low. By 2050 Climate change is predicted to have significant impacts on African agriculture (Thornton et al. 2011)’. Climate change is causing these yields to become even lower as the growing season becomes shorter and drier as well as introducing new pests or creating an environment where preexisting pests can thrive. There are some benefits to the change in climate for specific species. Certain crops are predicted to grow better than others with the change in climates. Cassava will most likely see positive impacts from climate change, whereas other crops like bananas, potatoes, beans, and sorghum see negative impacts (Jarvis, A. et al. 2012).

Biotechnology and genetics can help alleviate some of the negative impacts seen in agriculture from climate change. The genetics found in domesticated plants as well as wild plants can facilitate adaptation. Plants and animals have shown the capabilities to adapt by natural selection, genetic diversity, and other capabilities. However, due to the rate that the environment is changing, plants and animals may not be able to adapt quickly enough to survive. Genetic technologies can possibly step in and help to preserve crops and animals by understanding which genes contribute to what adaptive strategies. One particular field of genetics that is helpful is epigenetics. Epigenetics is a relatively new method of study of the genetics family. Epigenetics is the study of mitotically and/or meiotically heritable changes in gene function that cannot be explained by changes in DNA sequence and involves a separate transient mechanism than the one required to maintain it (Felsenfeld, G. 2014). Epigenetics can cause intergenerational changes in the expression of a gene and can allow for further adaptation to the environment. These changes are also reversible. The problem with solely relying on epigenetics is that there are still many questions about what causes an epigenetic change. There is no solid evidence that the environment alone creates these changes.

Biotechnology is a broad term encompassing the application of biological components or processes to advance human purposes (NASCEM, et. al 2018). It can be used on a macro level by cloning or reproductive techniques, like artificial insemination, or on a micro level. Microlevel biotechnology can be used to insert, delete or expand a certain gene or genes within an organism. Biotechnology can also be defined as the use of living organisms to enhance crops, fuels, medical treatments, and a host of other tools that can help humans (Quaye, W. W., Yawson, R., Ayeh, E., & Yawson, I. 2012).  These practices can be helpful in climate-smart agricultural practices in sub-Saharan Africa. Cassava, as mentioned above, is one of the few crops that could have positive productivity impacts from climate change. If it was possible to locate the gene or epigenetic marker that caused this increase in productivity, it could be possible to transfer the gene into other plants to provide adaptation and mitigation practices. There are many crops with different traits that are being developed by public-private partnerships in sub-Saharan Africa. One crop are maize breeds that are resistant to Striga, a parasitic week, drought tolerance, and have resistance to maize streak virus.   (Thomson, J. A, Shepherd, D. N, & Mignouna, H. D. 2010).

There are tradeoffs and drawbacks to these methods. Many of the materials used in these genetic engineering techniques are costly. The expense has gone down, however, it still exceeds what average farmers in sub-Saharan Africa could afford. There are many programs and partnerships that work together with farms to provide biologically engineered crops, however, it is unknown what the adoption factor is. Another drawback is that to make genetic edits, the trait needs to be controlled by one gene or a sequence of genes. Many traits are pleiotropic, which means that they are controlled by more than one gene or gene sequence. If the trait is controlled by more than one gene it becomes much more difficult, even impossible, to edit that trait or insert the trait into another organism. Biotechnology is currently only plausible for plants as animal biotechnology is complicated and expensive compared with its counterpart. Policy for biotechnology and genetics is difficult as well. Every country has different laws and ethics that govern its research sector, and some less developed countries have no policies in place.

Additional resources

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Division on Earth and Life Studies; Board on Life Sciences; Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology; Committee on Strategies for Identifying and Addressing Potential Biodefense Vulnerabilities Posed by Synthetic Biology. Biodefense in the Age of Synthetic Biology. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2018 Jun 19. 2, Biotechnology in the Age of Synthetic Biology. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK535871/