Table Of ContentACCADEMIA NAZIONALE DELLE SCIENZE
DETTA DEI XL
Proceedings of the International Meeting
TOWARDS A SECOND GREEN REVOLUTION
FROM CHEMICAL TO NEW BIOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGIES
IN AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS
ORGANIZED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE
COMMISSION OF EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES AND WITH ENEA
Rome, 8-10 September 1986
EDITED BY
G.B. MARINI-BETTOLO
ROME
DEVELOPMENTS IN AGRICULTURAL
AND MANAGED-FOREST ECOLOGY 19
towards a second green
revolution
From Chemical to New Biological Technologies
in Agriculture in the Tropics
Proceedings of the International Meeting organized by the Accademia
Nazionale delle Scienze detta dei XL, Palazzo Civilta del Lavoro,
Roma, Italy, in collaboration with the Commission of European Communities
and with ENEA, held in Rome, Italy, 8-10 September 1986
Edited by
G.B. MARINI BETTOLO
ELSEVIER
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(g) Copyright 1987
ACCADEMIA NAZIONALE DELLE SCIENZE DETTA DEI XL
ROMA
ISSN 0392-4130
ISBN 0-444-98927-7 (Vol. 19)
ISBN 0-444-41515-7 (Series)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
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Printed in Italy
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
ABDUL JAMIL M.: Deputy Director Extension in the Dept. of Agriculture Jalan
Mahameru, 50624 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
BALLIO A.*: Istituto di Chimica Biologica, Universita di Roma « La Sapienza »,
Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00195 Roma, Italy.
BARBOSA S.: FAO, Plant Production and Protection Division, Via delle Terme di
Caracalla, 00100 Roma, Italy.
BASSINO J.-P.**: General Secretary of IOBC-WPRS, Chief of the Department for
Development ACTA, 149, Rue de Beny, Paris, France.
BIFANI P.: Chemin du College 135, 1261 Chavannes de Bogis, Suisse.
CAUFIELD C: 19, Edith Street, San Francisco, California 94133, U.S.A.
CIRIO U.: Department of Agricultural Biotechnologies, ENEA, C.R.E. Casaccia,
Via Anguillarese km. 1,300, 00060 Santa Maria di Galena (Roma), Italy.
COLOMBO U.*: Chairman ENEA, Viale Regina Margherita 125, 00198 Roma,
Italy.
DOBEREINER J.**: EMBRAPA, Chefe da UAPNPBS Seropedica, 23851 Rio de
Janeiro, Brasil.
DOMENICHINI G.: Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Facolta di Agraria, Isti
tuto di Entomologia, 29100 Piacenza, Italy.
DUBACH P.: CIBA-GEIGY, CH-4002 Basel, Suisse.
GHATAK S.: University of Leicester, Department of Economics, University Road,
Leicester LEI 7RH, U.K.
HARTMANS E.H.: Senior Consultant IFAD, Project Management Department, Via
del Serafico 107, 00142 Roma, Italy.
JORGENSEN S.E.: Royal Danish School of Pharmacy, Dept. of Pharmaceutical
Chemistry AD, 2 Universitetsparken, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
— Χ —
KORTE F.: Director Institut fur Okologische Chemie, Ingolstadter Landst^e 1,
D-8042 Neuherberg, GSF Munchen, F.R.G.
LINDQUIST D.A.: Joint FAO/IAEA Division, Head, Insect & Pest Control Section,
Wagramerstrasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria.
MANNI E.: Preside, Facolta di Medicina e Chirurgia, Universita Cattolica del Sa-
cro Cuore, Largo F. Vito 1, 00167 Roma, Italy.
MARINI-BETTOLO G.B.*: Dipartimento Biologia Vegetale, Universita di Roma « La
Sapienza », Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Roma, Italy.
MARRE E.*: Universita di Milano, Milano, Italy.
MATTHEWS G.A.: IPARC, Imperial College at Silwood Park, Sunninghill, Ascot,
Berkshire SL5 7PY, U.K.
MONTALENTI G.*: Emerito, Universita di Roma « La Sapienza », Piazzale Aldo
Moro 5, 00185 Roma, Italy.
MOUTSCHEN-DAHMEN J.: Universite de Liege, Laboratoire de Genetique et Cyto
logic Generates, Sart-Tilman B22, B-4000 Liege, Belgium.
NAPOMPETH B.: Director, National Biological Control Research Center, Kasetsart
University, P.O. Box 52, 10900 Bangkok, Thailand.
ODHIAMBO T.R.*: Director, ICIPE, P.O. Box 30772, Nairobi, Kenya.
OKIGBO B.N.: Deputy Director-General IITA, Oyo Road, PMB 5320, Ibadan,
Nigeria.
OLEMBO R.: Director Environmental Management Office of Environment Pro
gramme, UNEP, P.O. Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya.
OLIVER Α.: ACTA, 149 Rue de Bercy, 75595 Paris Cedex 12, France.
PARISH D.: IFDC, Director, Outreach Division, Muscle Shoals, Alabama 35662,
U.S.A.
PICCARDI P.: Istituto Donegani, Via G. Fauser 4, 28100 Novara, Italy.
PICCIURRO G.: Direttore Dipartimento Agrobiotecnologie ENEA, Casaccia c.p.
2400, Roma, Italy.
PIMENTEL D.: Cornell University, Dept. of Entomology, Comstock Hall, Ithaca,
New York 14853, U.S.A.
PLIMMER J.R.: Joint FAO/IAEA Division, Head, Agrochemicals & Residues
Section, Wagramerstrasse 5, P.O. Box 100, A-1400 Vienna, Austria.
POCCHIARI F.: Director, Istituto Superiore di Sanita, Viale Regina Elena 299,
00198 Roma, Italy.
- XI -
REED W.: ICRISAT, Principal Entomologist, Patancheru P.O., Andhra Pradesh
502 324, India.
SAXENA R.C: IRRI, Principal Research Scientist (ICIPE) and Entomologist
(IRRI), P.O. Box 933, Manila, Philippines.
SCARASCIA MUGNOZZA G.T.*: Rettore delPUniversita di Viterbo, Via Riello,
01100 Viterbo, Italy.
SWAMINATHAN M.S.*: IRRI, Director General, P.O. Box 933, Manila, Philip
pines.
TRIOLO L.: Department of Agricultural Biotechnologies, ENEA, Casaccia c.p. 2400,
Roma, Italy.
VALENTINI G.: Commissione delle Comunita Europee, Direzione Generale Ri-
cerca e Sviluppo, Rue de la loi 200, B-1049 Bruxelles, Belgium.
WILKINS R.M.: Department of Agricultural Biology, University of Newcastle-
upon-Tyne, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE1 7RU, U.K.
* Fellow of the Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze detta dei XL.
* Unable to attend but sent the paper to be read.
OTHER TITLES IN THIS SERIES
1. Plant Modification for More Efficient Water Use
by J.F. Stone (Editor)
1975 χ + 320 pp.
2. Tree Ecology and Preservation
by A. Bernatzky
1978 viii + 358 pp.
3. Cycling of Mineral Nutrients in Agricultural Ecosystems
by MJ. Frissel (Editor)
1978 viii + 356 pp.
4. Interactions Between Non-Pathogenic Soil Microorganisms and Plants
by Y.R. Dommergues and S.V. Krupa (Editors)
1978 xii + 476 pp.
5. Ecology of Root Pathogens
by S.V. Krupa and Y.R. Dommergues (Editors)
1979 χ + 282 pp.
6. Soil Disinfestation
by D. Mulder (Editor)
1979 xiv + 368 pp.
7. Management of Semi-arid Ecosystems
by B.H. Walker (Editor)
1979 χ + 398 pp.
8. Management and Analysis of Biological Populations
by B.S. Goh
1980 χ + 288 pp.
9. Comparison of Forest Water and Energy Exchange Models
by S. HaUdin (Editor)
10. Alternative Methods of Agriculture
by R. Boeringa (Editor)
1980 vi + 200 pp.
11. Wetlands of Bottomland Hardwood Forests
by J.R. Clark and J. Benforado (Editors)
1981 xviii + 402 pp.
12. Plant Production and Management under Drought Conditions
by J.F. Stone and W.O. Willis (Editors)
1983 vii + 390 pp.
13. Evapotranspiration from Plant Communities
by M.L. Sharma (Editor)
1984 vii + 344 pp.
14. Forest Amelioration
by O. Riedl and D. Zachar
1984 viii + 624 pp.
15. Floodplain Forest Ecosystem
by M. Penka, M. Vyskot, E. Klimo and F. Vasicek
Part I. Before Water Management Measures
1985 466 pp.
Part II. After Water Management Measures
in preparation
16. The Origin and Domestication of Cultivated Plants
by C. Barigozzi (Editor)
1986 vi + 218 pp.
17. Soil Microbial Associations
by V. Vancura and F. Kunc (Editors)
1987 In preparation
18. Tree Crop Physiology
by M.R. Sethuraj and A.S. Raghavendra (Editors)
1987 xii + 361 pp.
19. Towards a Second Green Revolution
by G.B. Marini-Bettolo (Editor)
1987 xiii + 532 pp.
UMBERTO COLOMBO (*)
Introductory Remarks <**)
I should like to welcome you all, and particularly those of you who come
from abroad, on behalf of both the European Communities and ENEA.
Prof. Paolo Fasella, the Director General for Research and Development of
the Commission of the European Communities, was scheduled to be here for the
opening session, and in fact he was in Rome yesterday, but was obliged to fly
back to Brussels last night because of an urgent task. He asked me, in my position
of Chairman of the Committee for the European Development of Science and
Technology, to greet you all on his behalf. The Communities are engaged in an
extensive research and development programme, a major component of which is a
set of Research Action Programmes aiming at the protection of the environment,
the management of resources, the improvement of agricultural practice through
science and technology, the fight against desertification. Obviously, these activities
are extremely relevant for the developing countries, and there is a link therefore
between these research programmes and the policy of cooperation with the de
veloping countries followed by the Communities.
You may ask yourselves why amongst the sponsors of this meeting there is
ENEA, the Italian National Agency for Nuclear and Alternative Energy Sources.
The subject matter of this meeting seems to be rather remote from nuclear and
alternative energies. It is not so, however. Since the 1950s, when the Agency was
created, first as a branch of the National Research Council, then as an independent
body, a scientific activity in agricultural research was started.
The idea was to investigate the effects of radiation on agricultural products,
and the possibility of using ionizing radiations to provoke genetic mutations
eventually leading to crop improvements. Rather than starting this activity on
(*) Fellow of the Acadenly; Chairman of ENEA, Rome, Italy.
{**) To the International Meeting "Towards a Second Green Revolution: from Chemical to
New Biological Technologies in Agriculture in the Tropics * (Rome, 8-10 September 1986).
— 4 —
purely empirical bases, it was very wise that the scientists who supervised this
area in our Agency decided to set up a laboratory devoted to basic agricultural
genetics, and other areas of rather fundamental research. Radiations were
considered as one of the several factors that could induce genetic mutations, but
they were not the only area of research. Through the years, our Agency has
developed in its agricultural laboratories a set of new varieties of crops, and
of hybrid varieties, which enjoyed a great success in the Italian market and
abroad. The Creso variety of durum wheat, for example, covers now about one
third of the Italian market.
In addition, the use of atomic radiations to sterilize insects and thus fight
their propagation through diffusion of sterilized males in the atmosphere, was
vigorously pursued by our agricultural research experts.
A few years ago the scope of the Agency, which at the beginning was only
nuclear, was extended to new and renewable energy sources, to energy conservation
and to research on the environment. This led us to extend the area of our interests
in the agricultural sector.
Because agrochemical fertilizers and pesticides are energy-intensive products,
and have severe environmental effects, it was natural to study ways and means
to reduce their consumption by the introduction of alternative technologies and
practices. Obviously, biotechnologies are at the centre of the stage here.
A better understanding of the mechanisms of fertilization may lead to the
progressive elimination of nitrogen fertilizers, if the nitrogen-fixing genes could
be cloned in the chromosomes of useful agricultural crops or if it were possible
to realize conditions of symbiosis of a nitrogen-fixing bacterium such as rhizobium,
at the roots of, let us say, wheat, corn or rice.
But a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of fertilization might also lead
to the reduction in the use of potassium and phosphate fertilizers, as well as to
appreciating the function of critical oligoelements in the plant life.
All of us know how much agricultural production owes to pesticides. Our
Chairman, Prof. Marmi-Bettolo, is going to touch on this subject in his address
and will mention the ill effects of chemical pesticides. We at ENEA are quite
conscious of this problem area, and are investigating integrated pest control
technologies, based on a combination of chemical and biological agents.
These are problems that concern all the world, including the North. But they
are particularly grave in the developing countries, where agricultural as well as
environmental protection infrastructures have not been adequately developed,
where the need for increased agricultural production is more acute owing to
population pressure, and where climatic conditions make agriculture more exposed
to the danger of pests.
Here I wish to call attention to the primary importance of agricultural ex
tension services, which are the indispensable link between the research laboratories
and the farmer, who is the final user of research.
Well, I realize that my words of welcome, aiming at illustrating briefly why
the European Communities and ENEA are interested in the subject matter of this
meeting, must not become the pretext for a speech. I therefore would like to
close by wishing all of you a happy stay in Rome, and a happy return home after
what promises to be a most interesting and productive meeting.
