From Nikolaus.Gotsch@agrar.uni-giessen.de

[BIOSCI]

	From Nikolaus.Gotsch at agrar.uni-giessen.de  Wed Aug 31 12:28:22 1994
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	From: Nikolaus.Gotsch at agrar.uni-giessen.de (Nikolaus Gotsch)
	Message-Id: <9408311224.AA25729 at c1.hrz.uni-giessen.de>
	Subject: Message for the bionet user groups plant biology and tropical biology
	To: biosci at dl.ac.uk
	Date: Wed, 31 Aug 1994 14:24:01 +0200 (CET DST)
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	Dear Madam, dear Sir:
	I would like to post the following text in the "topic groups" plant-
	biology" and "tropical-biology". Thank you very much.
	
	Message:
	
	I am a Swiss agricultural economist. I did my Masters in agronomy (crop 
	production). My special scientific interest is the assessment of the 
	economic impact of new plant biotechnology. I am carrying out a 3-years 
	post-doc research project entitled "Determining the economic impact of 
	biotechnology on industrial crops in developing countries: the case of 
	cocoa" at the universities of Giessen, Germany, Dept. of Agricultural 
	Policy, at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, U.S.A., Dept. of 
	Agricultural and Resource Economics, and at ISNAR/IBS, The Hague, The 
	Netherlands. I have got your address from Dr. Joel Cohen, ISNAR/IBS who 
	gave me their publication "International Initiatives in Agricultural 
	Biotechnology". 
	
	My research project started this month. Its first part will be a 
	repeated anonymous expert investigation, a so-called Delphi survey, to 
	assess future technological developments for:
	
	- cocoa
	
	and other tropical tree crops which can be produced in the same agro-
	ecological regions. In addition to cocoa expected developments for 
	
	- coffee,
	
	- oil palm, 
	
	- coconut,
	
	- rubber,
	
	- banana
	
	will be assessed.
	
	A crucial point in the scope of any expert investigation is the 
	selection of the participating experts. I will choose them by a 
	"snowball system": I will contact a certain number of experts known to 
	me and ask them to tell me names of other experts in the relevant 
	fields. In a next step I will contact the experts named by the first 
	experts and repeat the procedure. Those experts named at least by two 
	more experts will be invited to participate in the expert 
	investigation. Hence, I would like to ask you if you could designate 
	
	- names, 
	
	- addresses, 
	
	- telephone/fax numbers,
	
	- Email addresses
	
	of experts for the above stated crops from one or more of the following 
	fields working in 
	
	public and 
	
	private research institutes in 
	
	industrialised and 
	
	developing countries:
	
	- Conventional plant breeding 
	
	- Biotechnology (in-vitro techniques) and genetic engineering
	
	- Resistance to diseases, pests, viruses, bacteria
	
	- Biological and microbial pest and disease control
	
	- Herbicide tolerance/resistance
	
	- Tolerance/resistance to environmental stresses (drought, heavy 
	metals, cold)
	
	- Nutrient assimilation capacity and availability (incl. BNF)
	
	- Quality of products and new metabolic products (including in-vitro 
	production of certain components of the above mentioned crops)
	
	- Photosynthesis (e.g. reduced photo respiration)
	
	It is not the primary goal of the expert investigation to obtain 
	consensus on future possible developments but to demonstrate imaginable 
	future developments for the crops investigated. It is therefore 
	important to contact persons with different or even conflicting 
	opinions on the expected future developments. Therefore the experts can 
	come from many different fields such as traditional plant breeding, 
	entomology, plant pathology, physiology, agronomy, plant nutrition, 
	biotechnology. I would very much appreciate your help in this matter. 
	
	Please do not hesitate to contact me for any further question. 
	
	My telephone number is +49 (641) 702 83 06
	
	My fax number is       +49 (641) 702 84 90
	
	Thank you very much.
	
	
	Sincerely yours,
	
	
	Nikolaus Gotsch
	
	Institut fuer Agrarpolitik und Marktforschung, Universitaet Giessen, 
	Senckenbergstrasse 3, D-35390 Giessen, Germany
	
	
	
	P.S.: Please confirm the receipt of this message to inform me that you 
	have checked for new mail messages. Thank you very much
	2