The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has released, through the latest edition of its newsletter FAO-BiotechNews and via its website, a full report on the activities and outcomes of its recent conference entitled Agricultural biotechnologies in developing countries: Options and opportunities in crops, forestry, livestock, fisheries and agro-industry to face the challenges of food insecurity and climate change (ABDC-10), which took place in Guadalajara, Mexico, from 1–4 March 2010.

Approximately 300 people attended the event, comprising policy-makers, scientists and representatives of intergovernmental and international non-governmental organisations from 68 countries, including delegations nominated by 42 governments.

The conference consisted of a mixture of plenary and parallel sessions, with the plenary sessions examining issues such as how to target agricultural biotechnologies to the poor; how to enable research and development (R&D) in agricultural biotechnologies; and how to ensure that the benefits of R&D are accessible in developing countries. 27 parallel sessions were also held, opening discussions on sector-specific, regional or cross-sectoral issues.

To view the report, as well as full documentation from the conference, please visit the ABDC-10 section of the FAO website.