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ABC(Agri–Bio-Culture) of present world

Dr.NAGARJ HEGDE
MD, HTAS, Bangalore
www.hightechagri.com

In a world where population growth is outstripping food supply, agricultural and that to crop biotechnology, needs to be swiftly implemented in all walks of life. According to United Nations projections, world population is expected to exceed 8 billion in next 25 years. On the other hand, agriculture, on which the whole world is dependent, is growing at an alarmingly slower rate of about 1.8 % annually. The estimate says that by 2025, about 800 million people will be food insecure and 160 million pre-school children suffer from malnutrition, which will lead to serious public health problems and a reduced human potential especially in developing countries.

Probably the single greatest management challenge to the farmers’ world over is that of pests, diseases and weeds. About one third of the crop productivity is reduced due to biotic stress factors. Synthetic pesticides are valued for their effectiveness, long shelf life and ease for their transportation, storage and application. But, they caused serious problems like fatal toxicity; soil, water and air pollution with known consequences on humans, wildlife and environment; development of pesticide resistance, necessitating the use of higher doses of at increasing cost to the farmer and to society as a whole. A farmer who protected his cotton crop with six sprays about 20 years ago, now spraying 15-20 times yet with without satisfactory control. Therefore, alternate pest and disease control strategies, both effective and low cost are urgently needed.

Agriculture biotechnology, in the form recombinant DNA technology can develop newer biological insecticides that can retain the advantages of classical biological control agents but have fewer or none of their drawbacks. Apart from widening the pool of useful genes, biotechnology allows the use of several desirable genes in a single event and reduces the time to introgress novel genes into elite background. Addition of one or a few genes to a plant may make it more productive to feed growing global population; more nutritious there by helping to eradicate malnutrition; impart resistance to insect pests, diseases, abiotic stress factors and enhance the durability of products during harvesting and shipping. It has the potential of completely eradicating the detrimental toxic chemicals from agriculture without affecting food security. Scientists and farmers are optimistic and enthusiastic about the prospects of using biotechnology to improve yields and nutritional value of crop plants.

Agriculture biotechnology shows great promise for crop plants in developing countries. New transgenic varieties could be resistant to locally important diseases and pests and have enhanced tolerance for drought or salinity. The nutritional content of staple crops such as rice, could be improved by adding genes, which increase production of vitamin A and some amino acids. Biotechnological approaches can make the bioagents, especially the entomopathogens more effective and efficient in different agro-ecological conditions with more penetration power and wider host range.

In the long run, the massive and immediate implementation of plant and agricultural biotechnology is more highly crucial than that of medical biotechnology, since more people worldwide die from famine and diseases related to malnutrition than from "modern", western diseases. While plant biotechnology has been applied successfully to produce dozens of transgenic crop plants, which are resistant to a range of insects, viruses and herbicides, this is not yet the case against abiotic stress factors such as drought, salinity, extreme temperatures, chemical toxicity and oxidative stress etc. Therefore, it implies on the wide scope in this area and encourages for harnessing the maximum benefits by the scientific community.