Technological innovations will play a crucial role in enhancing productivity: Ashok Kumar Singh
Basmati man of India, Ashok Kumar Singh spoke to businessline on agriculture sector’s challenges. Excerpts:
You know that the population by 2047 is likely to grow to 1.6 billion, for which we need to increase our foodgrain production close to 500 million tonnes from current 335 mt. Will we be able to meet this challenge, or we need some big reform now?
Yes, there are challenges. The area under cultivation is not going to increase, rather going to shrink. So, the challenges imposed by climate change and its adversities will be major deciding factors in enhancing productivity. The only way we can meet the challenges are the technological innovations which have happened, which are taking place, and which will take place in times to come. Those technological innovations are going to really play significant role in enhancing productivity, vertically.
Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has developed almost 2,900 varieties of different crops, out of which 2,666 are climate resilient, which can perform under drought, stress conditions under high temperature and also able to tolerate water logging situations. Looking into nutritional requirement of the country, 152 biofortified varieties with elevated levels of micronutrients – iron, zinc, vitamin, folic acid– have been released in last 10 years.
What about ICAR’s research on pulses and oilseeds, where blame comes on scientists as India has lower productivity. What is your take?
Yes, these are the two areas where still are not faring very well. But situations have improved in pulses as from almost 16 million tonnes in 2017, production has improved to almost 26 mt.
A few days back the Agriculture Minister made it very clear that, there is no scope for GM technology. Where do you see India’s technological innovations to come from, if the technology which is available in the world is not allowed here?
No. We must realise that out of the total edible oil that we are importing, close to 3 mt is soyabean oil. That soya oil is being imported from countries like Brazil, Argentina and US. In all these three countries, 100 per cent of area under soyabean cultivation is based on GM technology, particularly herbicide tolerance. Productivity of soyabean in India is about 1,200 kg per hectare, while the world average is 2,500 kg. So, the point is we are already importing the soya oil, which are being consumed for last several years without any ill effect or adverse effect.
But we have innovations in the field of genome editing. The government has come out with the standard operating protocol, and also the guidelines for genome editing in crop plants and two methods of genome editing. If the products (new varieties) are developed using these two methods of genome editing, the product will be called as non-GM.
Published on January 3, 2025