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R. Balaji

With Bt cotton having been introduced in the country, the question uppermost in many minds is whether it will help increase quality and production levels.

As India moves closer to the commercial exploitation of biotechnology in agriculture, farmers are looking forward to the realisation of the promises that biotech is said to hold, say farmers' representatives. Meanwhile, the industry is looking for proactive measures with political leaders backing the policy initiatives with the political will and actively wooing the industry to encourage greater investments.

While the southern states have clearly emerged the leaders in the field of knowledge-based industries because of the natural advantages, this should be fully exploited, they say. For instance, the enormous human resource that is technically qualified, the number of research institutions in the region and the initial advantage in information technology gives the region a natural lead. Because of the links in computational biotechnology, the strengths in information technology can be exploited to better advantage. BT is seen as a natural extension of IT.

The State Governments have actively pushed for setting up infrastructure facilities in biotechnology, with Karnataka going for a biotech city, Tamil Nadu a biotech incubator park and major initiatives in agriculture, pharma and food biotechnology and Andhra Pradesh with its national centre for biotechnology. They have also announced policies to back this up.

However, according to Mr K.O. Isaac, Managing Director, Shantha Marine Biotechnologies Pvt Ltd, it is important that the political leadership takes a keen interest in promoting the projects. For instance, the Chief Ministers of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have sent out a clear message in this regard. They are seen to be doing, the policy initiatives are clear at the ground level. Tamil Nadu, which was among the earliest to come out with a biotechnology policy and announce major project initiatives, should be "seen to be doing,'' and actively fostering this industry. The Chief Minister and the ministers should actively solicit industries' participation. This is crucial to attracting investments. The Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation has taken major initiatives, but the political leadership has to be seen in the frontlines, he said.

To the farmers, the wait has been long enough, the debate long winded, but now they, the primary stakeholders, will now have the option to decide with the Government in principle approving the commercial cultivation of the Bt cotton which is resistant to the cotton bollworm. But the delay and the convoluted procedures have shown the lack of coordination between the Government departments, said farmers representatives.

The Government of India has dithered enough on the issue and at least better late than never, it has decided on permitting cultivation, said Mr P Chengal Reddy, President of the Andhra Pradesh Farmers Association. They are now looking forward to the formal clearance and the release of the Bt cotton. The farmers' federation has urged Mahyco, which has developed this variety, to release sufficient quantities to cover 50,000 acres. The company's decision is not yet known, as are the technical details like the quantity of seed required per acre and the price.

But with the cultivation set to start in June, there is time yet, he said. But the lesson that this process has taught is valuable, he said. Even after the in-principle approval some of the Central Ministry were claiming that they were not involved in the process. The approval procedures have to be streamlined and the inter-departmental hassles ironed out. Decisions have to be time bound, he said.

For instance, both China and India started out with the concept of exploiting biotechnology in agriculture in the mid-1980s. But China now has more than four million acres under genetically modified crops, six varieties under cultivation and more than 80 crops in the pipeline. Whereas, in India the first genetically modified crop variety has just received the in principle approval, Mr Reddy said.

Thankfully, the State Governments particularly in the South have been more proactive. For instance, the Andhra Pradesh Government has a clear-cut plan and policy initiative and is encouraging. So too are the initiatives by the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka Governments.

According to Mr Isaac, while Tamil Nadu has come out with a policy, the message has not reached the investors. For instance, some of the countries that are world leaders in the field of marine biotechnology research and development are increasingly looking at Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, he said. While the natural advantages are available with the southern States, the crucial factor is the political will. With biotechnology being intellectual property oriented, the availability of qualified human resource, basic strength in subjects that form a foundation to biotechnology, like biochemistry, microbiology and the large numbers of research institutions is well distributed in the south. All the States are looking at biotechnology at the next field of opportunity. It is the political leadership that is going to decide which of the State emerges the leader, he said.

The opportunities for investments are limited only by our imagination. The scale of operations could range from one or two person outfit with just a few lakh rupees of investments or multi-billion dollar projects, he added. Applications, he pointed out, could be in the areas of pharmaceutical, cosmetics, food, agriculture, marine or simply doing job work of other major companies.

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