ABSTRACT
The Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project funded by the United Status Agency for International Development was launched in 1991 with a vision of making transgenic crops available to developing country partners. In the late 1990s, the World Bank was recommended to network with the world scientific community by supporting high-quality research programmes to exploit the potential of genetic engineering to improve the lot of the developing world. A concept of sustainability would imply management of agro-ecological systems in ways that ensure their sustenance. This requires a systems perspective rather than reductionism, for example, emergy analysis, evaluating resources and services in both ecological and economic systems. Most of the future agricultural research and development ought to work toward the Millennium Development Goals, probably requiring primarily public research funds. In addition to this criterion of relevance there is a need for reflexive objectivity, whereby values are taken into consideration.
