Innovative Technology Accelerating Agriculture Advancement

By Dr Renu Swarup, Former Secretary, Government of India, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science &Technology

NEW DELHI, 23 November 2022: Science led innovations have revolutionised the development agenda globally across sectors. The impact of science and new technologies on society has been experienced by humanity in the recent pandemic. Technology is also a key driver for meeting our SDGs. It is imperative that we keep pace with the fast-moving technology advancements for accelerating our economic and social progress.

Improved Agriculture has seen major technology infusions since the Green Revolution ,when new High yielding varieties of rice and wheat were made available to our farmers with new agricultural farming practices of fertilisers, pesticides ,irrigation systems and other such technological advances .The impact was seen on increased farmers income ,reduced poverty and hunger and improved food and nutritional security .The  increased production and productivity also gave the country a position of a food grain producer and exporter , moving away from the net importer status .

Our researchers have continuously been striving hard to build technological competence for development and adaption of the fast-changing technology landscape to ensure that our farmers are not deprived of any technology advancement. We have in the country today a very well-developed Agriculture and Biotechnology Research and development ecosystem which focusses on building capacities both in terms of skilled researchers and cutting-edge infrastructure. Our Policy environment today is also highly favourable for high-risk investment in new innovations and working in an all-inclusive manner encouraging the PPP model of engagement of Industry and Academia and promoting a vibrant and robust start up ecosystem.

The recent decisions by the Government releasing the Guidelines for safety assessment of Genome edited crops and allowing the Environmental release of GM Mustard are very positive and encouraging for the research and scientific community and for the growth of our Agriculture benefiting the farmers. Not only does this now encourage cutting edge research but also allows new improved crops to be made available in the hands of our farmers.

GM technology has huge potential and has been adopted largely by over 71 countries and nearly 200 m ha has been grown by about 29 countries. The potential of these technologies has been well established both in terms of human and environmental safety and they have shown great promise in terms of increased yield, biotic and abiotic stress resistance  ,increased nutritional quality and climate resilience.

The  long awaited decision of the Regulator - the GEAC ( Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee ) of Ministry of Environment &Forest and Climate Change, on 25 th October 2022 has allowed the Environmental release  of transgenic mustard hybrid DMH-11 and parental lines bn 3.6  and modbs  2.99 containing  barnase ,barstar and bar genes  for developing new parental lines and hybrids .This  major decision  will go a long way in improving the crop yield and nutritional quality considering that today India meets nearly 55 percent to 60 percent of its edible oil demand through imports .

To meet this increasing domestic demand the deployment of Genetically modified (GM) Mustard hybrids is today the best available option. The GM mustard developed by Prof Deepak Pental’s group at Delhi University, after more than 3 decades of research, is the first food crop to be approved for environmental release in India . The only other GM crop approved for cultivation is Bt Cotton which was cleared in 2002 and today covers nearly 80 percent of the cotton growing in farmer’s field. A study indicates that genetically modified crop of Bt cotton in India, has reduced chemical insecticide use by 37 percent, increased crop yields by 22 percent, and increased farmer profits by 68 percent.

GM mustard lines and the first hybrid DMH-11 have gone through very stringent biosafety tests in India. GM mustard hybrid DMH 11 has demonstrated the potential to increase the per hectare yield by 25 percent to 30 percent over traditional varieties. In the field trials conducted during the biosafety testing, hybrid DMH-11 was found to   yield 28 percent more than the mustard mega variety Varuna and 37 percent more than the zonal check varieties. Mustard is a self-pollinating plant and this technology allows the development of a very robust  hybridisation system for Mustard for making available improved hybrids to the farmers.

GM mustard contains three transgenes - bar (a marker gene, that confers resistance to herbicide Basta), barnase (causes male sterility-MS), and barstar (leads to fertility restoration-RF) which have been isolated from a soil bacterium Bacillus   amyloliquefaciens. These three genes were used first in rapeseed, a sister crop of mustard, for hybrid seed production. The MS and RF lines and their hybrids in rapeseed were released and grown in Canada since 1996, the USA since 2002, and Australia since 2007. With a versatile MS, RF system available, more productive hybrids, and hybrids with better oil and meal qualities will follow.

The decision of the Government in Match 2022 to release biosafety guidelines for safety assessment of Genome edited crop plants was also a very significant positive indication of our emphasis on new technology advancement for agriculture improvement for meeting our food and nutritional security demands.  

The COVID pandemic has been the largest crisis faced by humankind in recent times, yet there was a lot of learning. We could understand the importance of science led innovations and their impact on society. We also witnessed the strength of a robust and vibrant research and translation  ecosystem and the power of collaboration .These collectively helped us to fight the COVID war with the indigenous development of diagnostics and a large portfolio of vaccines .  This learning is important in the context of other sectors specially Agriculture. We must prepare a technologically strong and robust ecosystem to have improved crop varieties delivered in the hands of our farmers to meet our growing food and nutrition demands.

It is  a very progressive step to see that  through these new technology advances of Genetic engineering and Gene editing  in Agriculture , we have not just developed improved crops but  platform technologies ,tools and processes which give us the ability to have many more improved crops developed  in a short period of time.This Accelerated Agriculture Advancement not only allows the country to meet its own demand of improved ,high yielding ,nutritionally improved crops but makes the country ready for exports —a true fulfilment of the vision of Atmanibhar Bharat - self-reliance for the country and new technologies and products for the world.