Genetic Engineering of Crop Plants: Colombia as a Case Study

Abstract Colombia was one of the leading countries in the formulation and negotiation of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, and as a megadiverse country has taken the challenge of developing technical and institutional capacities to ensure that applications of biotechnological developments do not pose risks to human and animal health or the environment. Since 2000 there are GM crops which have been approved for environmental release in Colombia. The first approved crop was blue carnation. To date, GM maize, cotton, flowers, and soybeans have been authorized for growing. The approval of foods derived from GM plants for human consumption in Colombia is a process that has been going on since 2003 and to date there are 104 genetically modified events approved for this purpose. Those events are present in maize, soybean, cotton, canola, sugar beet, rice and wheat. For their use as animal feed there are 59 approved events from six different crop species, mainly maize, soybean and cotton. Colombia has various research institutions, working on genetic transformation of crop plants of economic importance for the country, but to date none of them have reached the market. The adoption of agbiogenerics as an alternative approach by national research groups may reduce the time and cost associated and facilitate the eventual commercialization of a Colombian biotechnological crop. This presents a challenge that involves all stages of GM crop development.