'Bt crops can boost agri yield'

Shrinking agricultural land due to rapid industrialisation and urbanisation needs to be compensated by increasing productivity through adoption of engineered seed technology, said Clive James, founder and Chair of International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) in his latest report titled “Global status of commercialised biotech/ GM crops: 2008”. However, Bt is not the panacea to food shortage, James added.

Meanwhile, Sharad Pawar, the Union minister for agriculture has alarmed that Indian farmers are becoming poorer while industrialists are growing wealthier. India’s 28 crore (80 per cent of the 35 crore) population was dependent on agriculture at the time of independence which has grown remarkably to 66 crore (60 per cent of 110 crore) today. If the country has to achieve the real all round growth, it will have to increase farm production and focus on allied activities including dairy, fisheries and floriculture, Pawar said.

Several studies have shown that farmers’ income has been continuously deteriorating over the years through conventional means of sowing because of depleting fertility from soil. Additionally, salinity in soil and excess insecticides spray has lessened the shelf life of various agriculture products.

Scientists are working towards developing transgenic seeds for higher productivity in both flood and drought situations for the staple foods. If successful, it would create wonders like Bt cotton for Indian farmers especially when the population and food demand are likely to increase by 50 per cent by 2050. In a short span of six years, 2002-2007, Bt cotton has generated economic benefits of $ 3.2 billion, halved insecticides requirements, contributed to the doubling of yield and transformed India from a cotton importer to a major exporter with doubling the production to 28.5-29.5 bales in 2008-09.

These gains in crop production are unprecedented which is why 5 million small farmers in India in 2008 elected to plant 7.6 million hectares of Bt cotton which represented 82 per cent of the total national area of 9.3 million ha, the largest cotton area in any country in the world.

Studies are also on for brinjal, rice, cabbage, maize, cauliflower, tomato, castor seed and host of other food, vegetables and edible oil seed crops.

“We need to adopt modern technology of farming sooner or later. Its not a compulsion for farmers but a means of raising their income by improving productivity and post-harvest soil and commodity management,” said R K Sinha, executive director, All India Crop Biotechnology Association (AICBA). “After precautionary studies, we must commercialise Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) seeds so that farmers can adopt them,” Sinha added.

Improved seeds have been a key contributing factor to quantum increases in crop productivity and production in India during the last 50 years.