'Expand agri toolkit to feed the world'

With the world population all set to exceed 9 billion in less than 50 years, there will be increasingly greater demands on agriculture, according to Calestous Juma, an internationally-recognised authority in the application of science and technology to sustainable development worldwide.

“Clearly, the task at hand is to significantly increase agriculture productivity on the existing land while conserving natural resources. Therefore, it is critical to maximise the agricultural toolkit, including plant biotechnology, to feed the world for decades to come,” said Juma, professor (practice of international development) and director (The Science, Technology and Globalisation Project) at Harvard University.

The original goal of plant biotechnology, he said, was to improve crops and minimise the environmental impact of agricultural activities. But, it (plant biotech) has also displayed the potential to enhance nutritional benefits of many foods.

 

“Admittedly, the major cause of global malnutrition is not food shortages. It is the absence of essential nutrients from diets and dysfunctional foodgrain distribution systems in the developing nations,” he said, adding that billions of people worldwide suffered from conditions like anaemia, blindness and rickets due to a lack of essential vitamins and minerals like iron and vitamin A and D.

Nutritionally-enhanced biotech crops like ‘Golden Rice’ (beta carotene-enriched rice) have the potential to deliver the necessary nutrients to large populations in a cost-effective manner, according to him.

Stating that while biotech insect-resistant crops like Bt cotton and maize reduce the need for pesticide use, saving farmers time and money, Juma said herbicide-tolerant crops had significantly reduced the back-breaking work of weeding and promoted sustainable practices like conservation tillage. “Moreover, drought-resistant crops have the potential to allow re-vegetation of lands no longer suitable for cultivation,” he said.

According to studies, the uptake of biotech crops has seen one of the fastest adoption rates for any agricultural technology in history with it rising from 1.7 million hectares worldwide in 1996 to 160 million hectare in 2011, accounting for a 94-fold increase.

“Over 16.7 million farmers from 29 countries grew biotech crops in 2011, with over 90 per cent (15 mn) of them being small, resource-poor farmers from developing economies,” Juma said.