Expert consultation meeting for regional Agriculture Biotechnology

Cairo – Egypt 15-16 December 2007

Current Status of Agriculture Biotechnology in Saudi Arabia

Nasser Al-Khalifah

King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology

مركز أبحاث التقنية الحيوية

Introduction

Biotechnology is nowadays a strong tool in the hands of scientists for use to promote many aspects of biological applications. It is a resultant of a group of science fields.

It is partly biochemistry as it deals with promoters and inhibitors, microbiology as micro organisms are widely used as tools of transformation, and molecular biology as the genetic materials are the most common tools of biotechnology.

Saudi Arabia as a developing country has considered benefiting from biotechnology.

Biotechnology in agriculture is becoming increasingly important in the development process of Saudi Arabia.

Because of the significant role of the private sector in biotechnology, this new technology brings with it important and complex intellectual property issues.

Agriculture Biotechnology

It is a group of technologies that work individually or together and implemented to develop a plant , animal or micro bio- product to develop Agriculture in plant Production and protection , animal husbandry or products that finally leads to the service of human

The current Status implementation

Saudi Arabia has moved to advanced steps in its strategic plans to implement Biotechnology.

KACST as the concerned governmental department for science and technology had finalized its national plan 5 years ago which includes Biotechnology fields.

This year (2007) KACST also making the final draft of strategic plan.

This plan includes 13 technologies ,Biotechnology is one of them. The biotechnology implementation will be mainly in Agriculture, Health and Environment for the next five years

Interaction of Biotechnology

صحيةبيئيةزراعيه

الجهات ذات العالقه

المدينه

الجامعات

الوزارات

المراكز البحثيه

المؤسسات

القطاع الخاص

The Biotechnology Research Center

Considering the Great importance of biotechnology , KACST has established the national Biotechnology Center located in its campus in Riyadh , The mission of this center is to lead the national efforts in this field mainly in medical ,Agriculture and environment. It is considered as an application of KACST strategic plan.

Now BRC is carrying out research and coordinating with national and international similar institutes to facilitate Biotechnology in proper means

Biotechnology Directions

Administration and regulation

The National committee for Biotechnology 1992

The National committee for bioethics 2001

The National committee for Bio-safety 2002

The National committee for Biodiversity 1996

The national Sci. & Tech. Plan 2000

KACST Bio- tech Strategic Plan 2007

The current StatusResearch

Research mainly funded by KACST as a majorgovernmental research funding body.Now other than the General research Grants Program KACST also funds research through internal fund.

Beside these there will be Centers of Excellence programs which is part of the strategic plan implementation and will be a source of another research fund.

The current StatusResearch

Title InstitutionGranted

Budget

Induced Genetic Mutation in Wheat by Diethyl Sulfate.

KSU 168.000

Potato Diseases and Production of Pathogen -Free Potato Clones Via Tissue Culture in Saudi Arabia.

KSU 883.375

Genetic Epidemiologic Studies of Selected Neurologic Diseases in Saudi Children.

KFSHRC 479.000

Induction and Selection of Salt and Drought Tolerant Lines of Wheat by Plant Tissue Culture.

KSUG 625.000

Studying the Productivity of Native Chickens and the Possibilities of their Genetic Improvement in the

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.KFUH 810.160

Examples of Annual Research Program Projects Related to Biotechnology

The current StatusResearch

Examples of Limited Grants Program Projects Related to Biotechnology

Title InstitutionGranted

Budget

Patterns of Susceptibility or Resistance of Local Clinical Isolates to Commonly Used Antibiotics

Correlation with Antibiotics Consumption with Mech.

KSU 80.000

Routine Use of Prophylactic Antibiotics in Cesarean Section: A Multi Center Prospective Double-Bond Placebo-Controlled Randomized

Clinical Trial.

KAU 72.766

Residues of Diethylstilbesterol (DES) and Antibiotics in Milk, Meat and Eggs.

KFU-H 99.580

Screening and Identification of Resistant Plasmids in Multi-Drug Resistant Gram-

Negative Bacteria Isolated from Riyadh Area.KFU-H 84.900

The current Status ApplicationsBio Centers

Date Palm Research Center, Hofuf.

KACST &King Faisal Univ.

Training and Research Development of 2 tissue culture protocols for date palms

Field trials of tissue culture date palms.

Plant Production DepartmentK. Saud Univ. Riyadh

KACST &King Saud Univ.

Training and ResearchDevelopment of tissue culture protocols for arak (Salvadora persica),

date palm,

Qassim. UniversityKACST &

King Saud Univ.

Training and Research Development of tissue culture protocols for arak (Salvadora persica),

date palm, pomegranate, potato, and strawberries.

Pharmaceutical Department. KSU

KACST & King Saud Univ.

Production of active metabolites by tissue culture.

National Agricultural and Water Research Center, Riyadh.

Ministry of Agric.Serological typing of potato virus diseases using ELISA.Development of a tissue culture protocol for potato.

Tissue Culture Lab, Environmental Scientific Institute, KACST, Riyadh.

KACST &Japanese

Cooperation

Development of tissue culture protocols for date palm and salt tolerant plantsClassifying Date palm Tree’s Polymorphism.

Private Tissue culture labs Companies.6 labs all over KSA

Revenue from sales

Development of 2 tissue culture protocols for date palm.Field trials of tissue culture date palms.Technology DevelopmentMicropropagation of date palm.Commercial Production.Sales of micropropagated date palms to farmers.

The current StatusResearch

Title YEAR GrantedBudget SR

Studying the possibility of raising some firewood trees and shrubs and their economical and ecological importance in the central region of Saudi Arabia.

2002-2007 1.400.000

'Study of flower abnormality and fruit set failure in in-vitro derived trees of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.)'

2003- 2007 1.200.000

Applications of Biotechnology Techniques in Tomato Production and Improvement Under Arid Conditions of

Saudi Arabia2007- 1.100.000

Molecular Classification of Saudi Arabian camel based on RAPD techniques 2006-

Studies on red weevil behavior and effect on Date palm trees in KSA 2005

Example of some on going research Projects Related to Biotechnology in KACST

Cereal production in Saudi Arabia

Cereal Production

4136772

4574269

4702572

5042521

4859501

2668863

1931516

2338534

2202000

2452000

2214000

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

Annual cereal production in Mt

Food Production and Trade In Saudi Arabia

Food Production and Trade

0

20

40

6080

100

120

140

160

90-92 95-97

Ind

ex

Nu

mb

er

ImportsExportsProduction

No Commodity Quantity (Mt) Value (US $ 000)

1 Chicken Meat 492106 574002

2 Wheat 2,400000 374352

3 Dates 900,540 282292

4 Egg 143,000 124,164

5 Cow Milk 900,000 239,346

6 Tomatoes 440003 104,257

7 Sheep Meat 41,800 82,692

8 Vegetable Fresh 400,000 75.060

9 Camel Meat 39,938 55,957

10 Citrus Fruits 140,000 50,288

11 Grapes 101,653 47,157

12 Cattle Meat 22,787 47,130

13 Potatoes 320,897 46,546

14 Melons 245,564 43,541

15 Cucumbers 182,769 30,831

16 Watermelons 294,843 30,743

17 Sorghum 243,746 29,735

18 Goat Meat 19,092 29,069

19 Camel milk 90,000 28,750

20 Fresh Fruits 180,000 28,712

Commodity Production in Saudi Arabia, FAOSTAT, 2005

No Commodity Quantity (Mt) Value (US $ 000)

1 Paddy rice 1205129 592846

2 Barley 3854589 534286

3 Chicken Meat 427195 456457

4 Food Prepared 78549 446009

5 Cow Milk 112630 297709

6 Cigarettes 14633 271195

7 Sheep 2379159 241469

8 Maize 1581119 200732

9 Infant food 22496 173614

10 Cheese 53097 162213

11 Cake of Soya Beans 498933 127856

12 Pastry 37510 107701

13 Oil of Palm 185782 104467

14 Beverages 78080 99641

15 Beef 48970 99117

16 Processed Cheese 27040 93861

17 Mutton and lamb 41911 97078

18 Sugar 541213 93349

19 Butter of Cow milk 37548 92267

20 Oil of maize 98659 85006

Commodity Imports in Saudi Arabia, FAOSTAT,2004