With the threat of bio-terrorism extending to the relatively soft targets like agriculture and livestock sectors growing rapidly, the agriculture ministry has drawn up plans to set up a national agricultural bio-security system to counter it effectively.
The Hyderabad-based National Plant Protection Institute has been renamed as the National Institute of Plant Health Management and given greater autonomy for developing trained human resource for effective bio-security. The institute’s infrastructure and faculty will be upgraded to make it a premier institution for capacity building in bio-security. It will also provide technical assistance to the neighbouring countries in this field.
The attention towards the need for agricultural bio-security was first drawn by the National Commission on Farmers (NCF), headed by noted agriculture expert M S Swaminathan, in its first report submitted to the government in December 2004. “Agricultural bio-security covering crops, trees, and farm and aquatic animals is of great importance since it relates to the livelihood security of nearly 70 per cent of the population and the food, health and trade security of the nation,” the NCF had said in its report.
It had also called for a thorough review of the existed infrastructure and institutional framework in the area of agricultural bio-security. The government had accepted this recommendation and included it in the National Policy on Farmers framed in 2007.
A note issued by the agriculture ministry on bio-security plan has pointed out that the threat to the country’s bio-security has increased in recent times on account of increasing international trade and emergence of trans-boundary diseases of plants and animals, such as the new Ug-99 strain of wheat rust and bird flu among the poultry.
Introduction of genetically modified organisms and climate change also have the potential to give rise to new forms of diseases, besides creating conditions for faster spread of existing diseases. “Bio-terrorism is also a potent threat in the present security environment,” the ministry note maintained.
As part of the national bio-security system, the agriculture ministry has taken steps to strengthen the regulatory framework relating to plant protection. All the 35 plant quarantine stations located in different parts of the country are being strengthened to carry out thorough inspection of consignments meant for import and export of plants and plant material.
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The Faridabad-based Central Insecticides Laboratory is actively pursuing the process of getting accreditation of the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL). The Faridabad laboratory is the premier referral laboratory in the country for testing pesticide samples under the Insecticides Act, 1968. The other two central regional pesticides testing laboratories located at Chandigarh and Kanpur have also applied for NABL accreditation.
The Pesticides Management Bill, 2008, which seeks to replace the Insecticides Act, 1968, to provide for more effective regulation of pesticide introduction and use in the country, has been introduced in the Rajya Sabha on October 21, 2008.
The basic objective of the national bio-security system is to enhance national and local-level capacity in initiating proactive measures for monitoring, early warning, education and research activities aimed at protection from bio-invasion.
The NCF had suggested that the national bio-security programme should function on the ‘hub-and-spokes’ model with effective central and regional quarantine facilities. “This should be capable of insulating the major agro-ecological and farming zones of the country from invasive alien species of pests, pathogens and weeds,” the commission had suggested.