Surinder Sud: Transgenic success

FARM VIEW

Despite entering the field late, India is making rapid strides in biotech cultivation.

The government may have been a cautious approver of the genetically modified crops for commercial cultivation, but farmers seem to be very eager to try them out. This is reflected in the tremendous pace of expansion of area planted with transgenic crops, chiefly insect-protected Bt cotton hybrids, in just five years of their introduction in 2002. In 2006 alone, the acreage under these crops nearly tripled "" from 1.3 million hectares to 3.8 million hectares.

As a result, India is now the world's fifth largest biotech crops growing country, having overtaken China and Paraguay to get to that rank. However, India is still way behind the first-ranked USA, where biotech crops were cultivated in 2006 on 54.6 million hectares or even the second-ranked Argentina where such crops occupied about 18 million hectares. Brazil and Canada are the two countries ahead of India in this respect. But, in terms of year-on-year expansion of area under biotech crops, India surpassed all other countries, recording a whopping 192 per cent increase in acreage last year. The only other countries clocking over 100 per cent growth were South Africa (180 per cent) and the Philippines (100 per cent).

These numbers and other detailed information on the commercial cultivation of biotech crops have been brought out in the Brief No 35 (2006) released by the International Service for Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA). Authored by ISAAA chairman Clive James, who has been publishing such briefs annually ever since the commercialisation of transgenic crops began in 1996, this report contains comprehensive coverage of the Indian biotech sector which seems poised for further rapid growth.

Though Bt cotton is so far virtually the only genetically altered crop being sown extensively in the country, at least 15 more transgenic crops are in the pipeline. These are being developed or field-tested by private biotech companies as well as by public sector research organisations. These include rice (ordinary and basmati), wheat, maize, black gram (urad), chickpea (chana), pigeon pea (tur), rapeseed and mustard, cabbage, cauliflower, brinjal, potato, tomato, muskmelon, banana, coffee and tobacco.

In Bt cotton alone, as many as 62 hybrids have already been officially approved for commercial cultivation. These are being marketed by companies like MAHYCO, Rasi, Ankur Seeds, Nuziveedu Seed, JK Seeds, Nath Seeds, Ganga Kavery Seeds, Tulasi Seeds, Ajeet Seeds, Emergent Genetics, Vikki Agrotech, Pravardhan Seeds, Krishidhan, Prabhat and Vikram Seeds.

Interestingly, the relevant genes for these hybrids have been sourced from diverse sources. For instance, the Bollgard-I type of Bt cotton, the first to be released by the Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company, contained the cry1Ac gene sourced from Monsanto. Bollgard-II, also developed by MAHYCO, featured stacked genes cry1Ac and cry2Ab. The Bt cotton developed by JK Seeds featured the cry1Ac gene sourced from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. And the Bt cotton of the Nath Seeds used the fused genes cry1Ab and cry1Ac sourced from China.

Significantly, India enjoys the unique distinction of being the only country in the world to grow all the four species of this crop "" Gossypium barbadense (Egyptian cotton), G hirsutum (American cotton) and G arboreum and G herbaceum (both Asian cottons). However, nearly 90 per cent of the country's total cotton output is of American cotton. All the presently cultivated Bt cotton hybrids also belong to this species.

Indeed, India has been a late entrant in the field of biotechnology, including crop biotechnology. The total investment in developing gene-modified crops by the public and private sectors together is estimated at $25 million (roughly Rs 112.5 crore) annually. But what is important is that this investment is going into producing transgenics having different objectives and not protection against pest onslaught alone. Stress (read drought) tolerance, yield enhancement, nutritional upgradation and quality improvement are among the objectives sought to be achieved through biotech crops.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and private companies are participating in several global biotechnology initiatives, including the one aimed at unravelling the genetic composition of important crops like rice and wheat. A few nutrition-enhanced transgenic types of rice and mustard are currently under different stages of development and evaluation through field testing. In fact, Vitamin A-enriched Golden Rice suitable for cultivation in India is in the last stages of testing and might get approval for commercial cultivation soon. So are mustard transgenics having higher beta-carotene content. Genetically altered brinjal, capable of withstanding drought and having higher vitamin content, is also in the pipeline.