‘Biotechnology is an efficient scientific solution to increase crop productivity, enhance income for small farmers’
William D. Dar, Director General of International Crops
Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), has said that
biotechnology will pay an indispensable role in empowering the rural
sector by helping increasing the food production multi-fold to meet the
needs.
Speaking at a workshop organised by the
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) here on
Friday, Dr. Dar said biotechnology was an efficient scientific solution
to increase crop productivity, to enhance income for small farmers and
to improve nutrition in developing countries such as India.
“India
is facing a paradoxical situation where it has over 60 million tonnes
of foodgrain reserves on one hand and about 42 per cent of the country’s
children are malnourished on the other due to lack of nutritious food,”
he observed. There was a need to overcome such a strange situation, he
felt by stressing the need to move beyond Bt cotton and embrace GM food
crops, which could contribute the fight against poverty enormously.
Project
Director of National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology P. Anand
Kumar said two golden rice varieties with vitamin-A -- Swarna and Jaya would be tested in open fields in 2013 and the Bt pigeon pea and chickpea would be released for field trials in 3-4 years.
Dinesh
Kumar of Directorate of Oilseeds Research, S. Sivakumar of ITC
Agribusiness Division, S.V.R. Rao of Nuziveedu Seeds and several others
spoke.
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