GREEN, the colour of fertility, of self respect and well-being, and of plants represents agriculture biotechnology. The global population will reach 9 billion in the year 2050. The world food production will have to double to keep pace with the population growth. The growth in the agriculture sector in our country during 1990-2007 was mere 1.2 per cent whereas during the same period our population grew at the rate of 1.9 per cent. The need of the hour is to fill this gap. How can this be done? One, we will need to produce more food in cultivable land. Even not-so cultivable land will have to be used. To improve agricultural productivity it will be essential to decrease inputs (water, fertiliser), provide environment friendly pest control methods, and develop new diagnostic tools for early detection of plant diseases. In India cotton is a success story. At present biotech/GM crops are under development in India, include cabbage, castor, cauliflower, corn, cotton, brinjal, groundnut, potato, rice, tomato and okra.

The agricultural practices have undergone major changes in the recent past. The knowledge intensive biotech based innovations have moved agriculture from ‘cross breeding and hybridisation’ to more precise and selective ‘single gene transgenic’ stage. These developments have brought in many new opportunities for the farmers.

Besides developing biopesticides and transgenic plants, which do not require external fungicide for their protection from pests and diseases, agri-bioscientists are working on methods to improve photosynthetic efficiency (by incorporating photosynthesis genes in crops) and altering plant metabolism for better accumulation of the desired products (like starch in potato tubers, fatty acids in canola seeds). Another area which is getting the attention of scientists is to better understand the role of nitrogen fixing bacteria in order to capture atmospheric nitrogen. Crop plants must also deal with the abiotic stresses such as drought, cold, heat and soils that are too acidic or salty to support plant growth. Biotech is finding ways to lessen the impact of abiotic stresses.

According to the 2008 World Bank Development Report, “Agriculture is a vital development tool for achieving the Millennium Development Goals that calls for halving by 2015 the share of people suffering from extreme poverty and hunger.” Green biotech has already started working on the modalities to meet this formidable global challenge. Biotech-based crops are now capturing the agriculture landscape at a much faster pace. After initial resistance, it is now receiving global acceptance. According to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, there is significant increase in acreage of biotech crops worldwide. The ‘biotech crop’ countries grew from six in 1996 to 25 in 2008. By 2015, 40 countries are expected to participate in this global venture. It took 10 years to reach the first billion acres (in 2005) but only three years to reach the second billion acres (in 2008). The value of global biotech crop in 2008 is estimated to be $7.5 billion.

India (7.6 million hectares) is the fourth among the 14 ‘mega-biotech crop’ countries; US (62.5 million hectares) tops the list. India registered a growth of 23 per cent in this sector in 2008. The principal biotech crops are soyabean (53 per cent of the global biotech area), maize (30 per cent), cotton (12 per cent), and canola (5 per cent). There are 13.3 million ‘biotech crop farmers’; out of these 90 per cent are from the developing countries. Five million farmers in India are engaged in planting 7.6 million hectares of Bt cotton. This was possible because of the benefits accrued like increase in yield (31 per cent), decrease in insecticide use (39 per cent), and higher profits(equivalent to $250 per hectare). With these impressive figures we hope India will further improve its position among mega biotech crop countries.

The writer is a biotechnologist and ED, Birla Institute of Scientific Research, Jaipur



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