World Food Day is celebrated on 16 October to honour the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations way back in 1945. With its motto Fiat Panis meaning “Let there be bread”, FAO has been spearheading international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security across the globe.
“Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” as defined by the FAO.
Efforts of millions of farmers supported by agri-value chain players and appropriate policy measures of state and central governments have ensured food-grain self-sufficiency of our nation. This in turn has enabled the enactment of the National Food Security Act which provides the right to food to every citizen of this country.
We as a nation have achieved food security as defined by FAO to a great extent and it is evident from the fact that we are not only self-sufficient in food grains but also a significant exporter of the same. However, the high level of malnutrition prevailing in India reflects that we have some distance to travel in holistically achieving the food security defined by the FAO.
The economic advancement we are witnessing will also pose further challenges, as we not only need to correct the stated anomaly but also support the changing dietary habits of the population. In addition, our high import dependency on edible oil and pulses, the important components of nutrition could further come in the way of achieving food security.
Leveraging the crop diversity of pulses and oil seeds with agri-biotechnology intervention
Technology intervention across the value chain of pulses and oilseeds is the way forward in addressing the challenges. This can be done by leveraging the advantage of diversified crops we cultivate in both oilseeds and pulses and also the varied agro-climatic conditions.
We could not replicate the substantial productivity enhancement we achieved in cereal crops for oil seeds and pulses. Low yield and inconsistent quality of oil seeds and pulses crops led to the present situation wherein we have become the biggest importer of both these commodities.
This is despite the fact that globally we are ranked number one in pulses production and fifth in oilseeds output. The gaps in yield and quality of output of these crops can only be achieved through further improvement of the genetic potentials of these crops cultivated in India.
North and South American countries have successfully leveraged the power of agri-biotechnology for productivity enhancement of crops such as maize, soybean and canola etc. This reflects the solution that India can adopt for addressing the above-mentioned pressing needs of productivity enhancement of oilseeds and pulses. Our own success in Genetically Modified (GM) cotton, though with only two GM traits reflects the power of agri-biotechnology.
India’s culture and culinary diversity are also visible in the varieties of crops cultivated and consumed within pulses and oil seeds. We cultivate edible oil seeds such as soybean, groundnut, rapeseed-mustard, sunflower, niger, sesame and safflower and non-edible oilseeds like castor and linseed.
On top of this, India is blessed with further sources such as oil palm, coconut, cotton seed, rice bran, tree borne oilseeds. We also have extensive pulses crops consisting of bengal gram, black matpe, chickpeas, green beans, and lentils, amongst others.
It is also important to note that these pulses and many of the oil seeds also have nitrogen-fixing properties which can further help in addressing our even greater challenges of soil degradation and an alternative to high import-dependent chemical fertilisers.
Limited hybrid development in key pulses and oil seed crops reflects the limitation of conventional hybrid development approaches because of the very nature of these crops. It is important to appreciate the work done in the successful indigenous development of GM mustard, which addresses the above-stated challenges of hybrid development.
Successful commercialisation of this technology will go a long way in leveraging agri-biotechnology aided solutions to address not only the challenges in pulses and oilseed crops but across agriculture, leading to substantial value enhancement to our farming community, representing the largest share of our population.
Following are multiple benefits of the adoption of safe and proven agri-biotechnology tools:
– Atma Nirbharta in pulses and oil seed crops, the indispensable elements of a healthy diet
– Leveraging Nitrogen fixation to offset soil degradation and fertiliser import challenges
– Solution for other agriculture challenges including climate by leveraging the enormous potential of agri-biotechnology
– Overcome malnutrition, having high economic cost and the well-being of our citizens
– Agri-biotechnology tools’ ability to enhance the income of farmers
– Larger participation in global agriculture commodity play enhances India’s standing
– Opportunity for the talent pool and development of scientific institutions
The support the industry is getting from the regulatory ecosystem such as the approval for conducting field trials of genetically modified cotton and GM maize, and, the easing of norms related to gene-edited plants, are a few steps in the right direction for the evolution of agri-biotechnology solutions in India.
Address short and long-term challenges
The outcomes of these actions will be reflected over a longer time horizon while we continue to address immediate challenges.
“Food saved is food produced” and this is evident from the opportunity we have in reducing wastage across the agriculture value chain. With the appropriate use of crop protection and crop nutrition products, we can address avoidable crop losses and yield enhancement which itself will boost availability. Further, enhancing storage and processing will help in reducing postharvest losses.
The Indian agriculture inputs industry along with the whole value chain is capable of addressing the short and long-term challenges with due policy support from governments and thus enhancing food security and improving the economic prosperity of farmers at large.
The writer is MD & CEO, Rallis India. The views expressed are personal.
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