First meeting of the NEPAD/ NABNet Bioinsecticides initiative
Project title:
" Study and production of Bacillus thuringiensis bioinsecticides useful in the Biological Control of the phytopathogenic insects and human disease vectors "
31 March-2 April 2008, Cairo, Egypt

Background

Following the call for proposals disseminated at December 2007 by NEPAD/ NABNet secretariat, many team leaders from North african countries have presented joint regional contributions in various areas of priority for research and development announced in the call. The proposals included a biopesticides initiative linking Algerian Egyptian and Tunisian teams. This initiative fitted the conditions established in the call. In particular the institutions to which belong the teams are pioneers in the region in terms of encouraging research and strenghtening use of biotechnology for development purpose. These institutions are holding programs dealing with the theme developed in the project, and the teams have an adequate skill and international notoriety and are developping research programs involving young researchers. Then a meeting gathering the team leaders in this initiative has been scheduled to follow up with the submitted project.

Venue and participants

The meeting has been held in National Research Centre, Giza, Egypt during three days: March 31 st –April 2 nd 2008. Attendees to this meeting are as follows:

Prof Kamel Louadi: Directeur du Laboratoire de Biosystématique et Ecologie des Arthropodes
Université Mentouri, Constantine, 25000, Algeria.

Prof Samir Jaoua: Laboratory of Biopesticides, Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax , P.O. Box. K. 3038 Sfax. Tunisia

Prof Magda Sabbour : Department Pests and Plant Protection, National Research Centre, El Buhouth St., P.O. Box 12622, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt

Agenda of the meeting

31 March 08: presentation of the activities of the teams in their respective institutions and justification of their involvement in the regional initiative based on their skill

1 April 08 : comprehensive discussion of the project workplan: including tasks, milestones, time line, responsible teams for deliverables

2 April 08 : comprehensive discussion of the context for implementing the project and strategy to be adopted for continuing, expanding and marketing the project.

Background of the NEPAD/NABNet bioinsecticides teams and their expectation/contribution from/to the project

Samir Jaoua: He presented the activities his Lab is developing in CBS and dealing with Bt as a valuable source for Biopesticides. He summarised the major results and capacity of his Lab and emphasized on his input to this project in genetical characterisation of Bt, biochemical characterisation of the insecticidal proteins, and genetic engineering of the promising strains. He presented also the facilities available to him for fermentation as well as field trials.

Kamel Louati : He presented the activities his Lab is developing in Mentoury Univ, dealing with biological and genetical studies of insects as well as their taxonomy. He finds that the skill of his group can be useful to the north african team for fighting against mosquitoes as vectors for human diseases and against insect pests harmful to plant culture.

Magda Sabbour: She presented the activities her Lab is developing in NRC, dealing with various microbial biopesticides and impact on protection of many crops. She is developing Lab analises and field assessment where she has developed a relevant expertise on formulation studies. She will provide experiense to the north african team in this latter level and will perform bioassay studies and assesment at the field for important crops including potatoes.

 Design of the project

The participants discussed about the proposed document at conceptual and implementing levels. The project is conceived as a two phases project. The phase 1 is supported from CIDA/NEPAD Fund through fellowships for students and meeting of the team leaders to follow up with the project's progress. This phase 1 corresponds to an initiating phase whereas the phase 2 will depend on the support from other supportive bodies from north africa or internationally.

Below is presented a general outline of the design of the Phase 1. A comprehensive document of the proosal will be presented by the group based on the discussions of the meeting at April 15th the latest. Professor Jaoua will be coordinating this effort.

Major Goal : The overall goal of this project is to produce different bioinsecticides applicable for the biological control of different families of phytopathogenic insects and human disease vectors. This will contribute substantially to imporve plant production, protect environment and lead to a better humain health status

General Objectives and related tasks:

-Bt north african collections will be enriched and based on their screening new insecticidal delta- endotoxins will be identified.

-Already identified delta- endotoxins and new discovered ones will be characterized and evaluated against several phyto-phagous insects.

-Delta- endotoxins effect on human disease vectors will be assessed.

-The genes encoding the most interesting bioinsecticides will be characterised

-Improvement of encoding genes by fusion of toxin domains will be approached.

-The interaction of toxins to insect receptors will be studied and bioassays will be conducted

-Development of processes for optimizing the fermentation and liquid and powder formulation

-Trials will be performed at field conditions in the three countries

Expected outcomes:

-New knowledge available to the scientific communities about Bioinsecticides and related Bt genetic background.

-Available natural and chimeric biopesticides with improved insecticidal effect

-Protection of cultures from insect pests and fighting against insects vectors of human disease

-Condition for fermentation established and formulation and treatment procedures processed at field

Potenial impact:

-Industrial development of bioinsecticides production at the regional level.

-Improvement for biological agriculture and conventional agriculture

-Better humain health status

-Protection of the environment by substitution of chemical pesticides by biological ones

-Safety of consumers and facilitation of the exportation of North african products.

Extending and expanding the Biopesticides initiative

The group agreed to do its best to produce results and to generate impact during 2008 and 2009. During this period other teams in the region will be harnessed for input and will be involved in the project to be prepared during this time frame and that to be implemented later during the phase 2 to be initiated at 2010. To this end the group will pursue its international effort for valorising this NEPAD initiative and will develop various complementary links. On the other side an effort will be made to meet the need of the development sector by inter alea initiating some pilote trials for protecting cultures against insect pests and people against diseases vectors. These efforts are destined also to strenghten the project so it can be marketed by NEPAD with potential sponsors nationally and internationally, and used as a plateform for involving the team in skilled consortia seeking high level international collaborative projects

Based on the skill of the biopesticides group and its readiness to progress with pace through its tasks, and based on the high quality of the targets of the proposed project, NABNet Director contacted NEPAD for more support to this group. He has been promised to promote this initiative to the status of a 2 year regional project by dedicating about not less than 20 000 US$ for 2008-2009 if the regional team can have complementary support from the implementating institutions.

Mohamed Elarbi Aouani

NEPAD/ NABNet Director