With the world population set to exceed 9 billion in less than 50 years, there will be increasingly great demands placed on agriculture, according to Calestous Juma, an internationally-recognised authority in the application of science and technology to sustainable development worldwide.
“Clearly, the task at hand is to significantly increase agricultural productivity on existing land while conserving natural resources. Therefore, it is critical to maximise the agricultural toolkit, including plant biotechnology, to feed the world for decades to come,” said Juma, professor (practice of international development) and director (The Science, Technology and Globalisation Project) at Harvard University in Cambridge.
The original goal of plant biotechnology, he said, was to improve crops and minimise the environmental impact of agricultural activities. But, it (plant biotech) has also displayed the potential of enhancing nutritional benefits of many foods.
“Admittedly, the major cause of global malnutrition is not food shortage. It is the absence of essential nutrients from diets and dysfunctional food grain distribution systems in developing nations,” he said, adding that billions of people worldwide suffered from conditions such as anemia, blindness and rickets due to a lack of essential vitamins and minerals such as iron and vitamin A and D.
Nutritionally-enhanced biotech crops such as ‘Golden Rice’ (beta carotene-enriched rice) have the potential to deliver necessary nutrients to large populations in a cost-effective manner, according to him.
Stating that while biotech insect-resistant crops such as Bt cotton and maize reduce the need for pesticide applications, saving farmers time and money, Juma said herbicide-tolerant crops had significantly reduced the back-breaking work of weeding and promoted sustainable practices such as conservation tillage.
“Moreover, drought-resistant crops have the potential to allow re-vegetation of lands that are no longer suitable for cultivation,” he said.
According to studies, from 1.7 million hectare worldwide in 1996 to 160 million hectare in 2011, accounting for a 94-fold increase, the uptake of biotech crops has been one of the fastest adoption rates for any agricultural technology in history.
“Over 16.7 million farmers from 29 countries grew biotech crops in 2011, with more than 90 per cent (15 million) of them being small, resource-poor farmers from developing economies. This year, it is predicted that more biotech crops will be cultivated in developing nations than in developed ones,” Juma said.
