India Has To Embrace Cutting-Edge Technologies To Sustain Global Leadership : Shivendra Bajaj
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India has gone through various changes that had impacted the agricultural productivity from the core. There were days when Bt-cotton was the most burning issue in agriculture. Good or bad profitable or trade of loss, many versions of stories came and evaporated. In an exclusive interview with BW Businessworld, Shivendra Bajaj, Executive Director, Association of the Biotech Led Enterprises- Agriculture Focus Group (ABLE-AG), talks about various outcome-based approaches and ways to increase the productivity in agriculture through various technologies and interventions.
There are basically two adamant stands on genetically modified seeds in India, who do you think is more right? One who support it or the one who opposes it?
Let us take a step back. There are several technologies that can benefit agriculture. Modification of genes is one such trait. In our view, those who oppose this have not produced an iota of scientific evidence except spreading fear in the minds of the people. The real truth, however, is very different. Currently, only insect-resistant Bt cotton is approved and commercially available in India since 2002. In these 15 years, India has become a net exporter of cotton from a net importer due to productivity going up from 191 kg/hectare lint to 532 kg/hectare in 2013-2014. The introduction of Bt-cotton is estimated to have created Rs. 3, 57,500 crores (USD 55 billion) approximately to the Indian economy. It has benefitted Indian farmers by significantly increasing in farmer incomes from higher yields including reduced use of insecticides.
Increase in productivity is the only reason why GM is emphasized upon, can there be some way where local seeds may be modified for the same reasons?
The dream for every farmer is to reduce pesticide usage and increase productivity without crop loss. GM technology can do this better than most technologies. Both the Public and Private sector organizations have been carrying out extensive research in several crops with local varieties (chickpea, maize, rice, sugarcane, pigeon pea) and with several traits such as drought tolerance, insect tolerance, herbicide tolerance, nitrogen use efficiency apart from yield increase. These crops when approved will further boost our agriculture. The future of agriculture is through such technologies and interventions.
States like Rajasthan have clearly said that we have achieved similar yields from our country seeds which are equal to proposed GM seeds, how much truth is there?
If you are referring to recent statements on Mustard then it must be known that the GM mustard technology developed by Delhi University is a technology for enabling hybrid production. High yielding varieties can be further enhanced with other traits by producing hybrids with the new technology.
Diversification in agriculture may be a big factor of other south Asian nations to compete with India in production, what do you think is the need of the hour? Better income or higher production?
When land becomes a constraint higher production will definitely lead to better income. That said we must use every technology available to increase our production.
What is the scope of agri-biotech in India?
India has to embrace cutting-edge technologies to sustain global leadership. With climate change and strain on land use, agriculture will need modern inputs from seeds to practices. Again, as I said before, biotech can be expanded to several crops in India and specifically for Indian conditions. We are self-sufficient in cereals like rice and wheat today but we are still a huge importer of edible oils and pulses. Introduction of biotech (oilseed crops), pulses, India is going to face a serious shortage of pulses and oilseeds in the next 10-15 years when India’s population is expected to reach 1.5 billion by 2030. So how do you think these challenges are going to be met? We need multiple solutions.
Will agri-biotech be used to enhance the quality of Indian products? For instance, Indian wheat has less Zinc in it.
Starting from Banana there has been ongoing research in improving the quality of produce by public sector organizations in several crops like potato, tomato, castor etc. Nutrition is going to be the focus for the next two decades. Unlike other countries, India needs to address these challenges differently. We don’t have a culture of popping dietary supplements in our country. We need nutrition from our food.
Local crops are generally more climate resilient. How much improvement can biotechnology bring into it?
In India, according to a recent report by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, 30-35 percent of annual crop yield in India gets wasted because of pests. GM technologies can help Indian farmers in saving his crop from biotic stresses like insects and weeds, Abiotic stresses like water deficiency and salinity of the soil can also be combated through different modern technologies. For instance, with about 100m ha of rainfed agriculture in India, the drought-tolerant gene could make a big difference to the lives of the farmers. Biotechnology includes a range of scientific tools that can be applied to different aspects of agriculture, food production and nutrition and may play a role in these challenges.
What do you think restricts Indian farmers from practising modern approaches, even if they are not a costly affair?
Firstly we have to allow India farmers to take his own decision. For 15 years he is growing BT cotton. If it was not good, why will he continue to use these seeds? Also, modern practices do not lead to Costly practices. The cost of data and voice call has come down with the adoption of modern technology. Flying is as economical as going in a train. We are led to believe that one trump over the other which is not true.
