The private sector's role in public sector genetically engineered crop projects

There is widespread interest within academia to work on public good genetically engineered (GE) projects to the benefit of the poor, especially to use GE-technology to contribute to food security. Not a single product from this work has reached the market. The major cause is GE-regulation, which prevents use of the technology for public good beyond proof-of-concept (Potrykus, I. (2010) Lessons from the Humanitarian Golden Rice project: Regulation prevents development of public good GE-products (these Proceedings)). There is, however, another key problem responsible for the lack of deployment of public good GE-plants: the public sector is incompetent and disinterested for work beyond proof-of-concept, and has neither capability nor funding to develop GE-plant products and introduce them to growers and consumers. The private sector has the expertise for both and in the right circumstances can be ready to support the public sector in public good enterprises. Public-private-partnerships are the best solution so far, to advance exploitation of GE-technology to the benefit of the poor. Public-private-partnerships are viable, however, only, if there is mutual interest from the private sector and initiative and funding from the public sector.