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Gopal Naik

AS agriculture provides livelihood for the majority of the Indian population, achieving a high growth rate and substantial reduction in poverty depends on the farm sector. While a significant growth rate was achieved in the 1970s and the 1980s, the 1990s showed signs of a slowdown, especially in foodgrain production. The demand for food has been increasing at about 2.75 per cent due to increase in population and income. In addition, many new problems related to chemical technologies, irrigation practices and management have also cropped up, raising barriers to agricultural production.

Some current agricultural technologies have problems of sustainability and caused more difficulties. Indiscriminate use of chemicals, especially pesticides, has led to widespread resistance of pests, soil and water pollution, affected soil fertility, and resulted in higher pesticide residue levels in foods. Nearly 42 per cent of the crop productivity is lost due to weeds, pests and diseases and an additional 10-30 per cent due to post harvest losses. Many importing countries are using this as a non-price barrier to restrict imports from India. While integrated pest management and integrated nutrient management practices should have helped alleviate these problems, the knowledge-intensive nature of these practices and illiteracy among farmers have prevented their faster adoption. However, biotechnology seems to offer solutions to these problems.

Indian agriculture in the new trade regime

The new trade regime initiated in the Uruguay Round of GATT 1994 (WTO) requires India to shift its agricultural policy focus from that of self-sufficiency to developing competitiveness. Technological solutions are becoming more important as some deficiencies in the institutional set up can be overcome through appropriate technology. Biotechnology is considered important in this context.

Major biotechnological applications adopted in recent years are micro-propagation using tissue culture, biological control of pests, bio-fertilisers and, most recently, transgenic crops. Plant tissue culture has succeeded in multiplying propagation materials for agriculture, horticulture, medicinal, aromatic and forest plants. Biotechnology is also used for biodiversity conservation — improvement in animal productivity and health care and aquaculture. Transgenic developments have taken place in two major areas of crop production: Input and output traits (Hillyer, 1999). Input traits related development is the first wave of biotechnology evolved to provide a new level of protection against pests and weed control. Technological developments related to output traits are enabling crop production with tailored traits that help value additions, such as high oil content in corn, hybrids with increased levels of amino acids, healthier oils in soybean, nutraceuticals — blending regular food product with health enhancing attributes such as golden rice.

However, the application of genetic engineering to agriculture has also triggered some opposition. The opponents question the safety, relevance and equity aspects of the technology.

Transgenic or genetically modified (GM) crops have made considerable progress in many countries. Transgenic soyabean, corn and cotton are being rapidly adopted in the US, China, Argentina, Australia and South Africa. The estimated global area of transgenic crops for 2001 is 52.6 million hectares. Around 5.5 million farmers have adopted transgenic crops. However, only a quarter of the total adoption has been in the developing countries

Many other countries have established strong biotechnological research programmes for various agricultural commodities. In Australia, transgenic crop was approved in 1997 for Bt cotton. In China, biotechnology research is being conducted in micro-propagation and varietal improvements of crops and forestry, diagnosis and control of plant diseases and insect pests, gene transfer technology of crops and forestry, aquaculture, animal and veterinary sciences and food sciences.

Socio-economic issues

Suicides among farmers in India are often linked to cultivation of crops, such as cotton. As these crops are input-intensive, especially with respect to pesticides, farmers borrow money to meet the costs and in the event of a crop failure, end up with large debts. A reason often cited as contributing to such crop failures is resistance build up among the major pests, such as bollworms and whitefly, to pesticides. Therefore, many argue that adoption of transgenic crops could help protect the crop against the most damaging pests and, thus, reduce the risk of crop failure.

The major change in the cost to the farmers due to transgenic technology will be that of the seed. This cost is expected to be higher than that of conventional seed. There could be changes in price of output due to lower preferences for GM crops in the market, fear of adverse effect on the health of farm animals, such as cattle and goat, and in the long run resistance build up

At the society level, the concerns common to biotechnology as such are effects on the health of human beings, animals, insects and birds, other plants and, therefore, effect on biodiversity. The standard practice followed by all countries is to establish biosafety before introducing this technology.

While the technology may generate large benefits, the question often asked is how much of it actually goes to consumers and producers. Considering the structure of the input market and nature of technology, firms may use monopoly powers to extract rent from farmers.

International experience

Studies have reported that GM cotton, soyabean, and corn varieties have increased yields and profits and decreased pesticide use of farmers in the US. The results indicated that farmers gain 43-59 per cent of all rents created from the introduction and adoption of Bt cotton. The innovators gain 47-26 per cent of the rent generated. In low infestation years, however, the innovators got major share in the rent. In Hebei/Shandong province of China, when farmers bought Bt seeds from the seed companies, about 83 per cent of benefits went to farmers. The study also found that farmers with less than one hectare size holdings benefited more (2.35 times) than the farmers with more than one hectare.

The same pattern was observed even if farmers are classified based on incomes. This pattern may be due to the difficulty encountered by small farmers in bollworm control. The study found that the insecticide load is only 10.3 kg/ha in the case of Bt cotton compared to 57.8 kg/ha non-Bi case. The percentage of farmers reported insecticide poisoning was high in the case of non-Bt farmers (22.2 per cent) compared to Bt cotton farmers (4.7 per cent).

India's experience

While biotechnology applications for micro-propagation, biofertilisers, bio-control agents and animal productivity have already achieved significant progress, approval on transgenic varieties of crops is still awaited. Cotton is a major crop of India grown in about 8 million hectares, highest in the world, accounts for about 20 per cent of the world acreage. Due to the low productivity of cotton — only 319 kg/ha lint yield, compared to the world average of 603 kg/ha — India ranks third in production of cotton.

The losses due to pests are estimated at 10-15 per cent annually. This necessitates repeated application of insecticides leading to debt and desperation and sometimes suicides. A study conducted in 1997-98 in Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu on the best-bet IRM techniques indicated that farmers sprayed 9 rounds as against the requirement of 5 rounds and therefore spent Rs 7184/ha instead of Rs 4177/ha as pesticide cost. A study conducted during 1995-96 by Insecticide Resistance Action Committee found that in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, the farmers used 21 sprays as against the requirement of 11 sprays and, therefore, spent Rs 6,249 per acre on pesticide application instead of Rs 2,428.

Research on inducing Bt trait in cotton is being conducted by ICAR research institutions and Mahyco. Mahyco, in collaboration with Monsanto, has been successful in transferring Bt trait into 40 Indian cotton lines. The experiment conducted to assess aggressiveness and persistence found that Bt cotton is not an aggressor on natural flora/habitat. Studies on toxicity on goats and allergenicity to brown Norway rats found that Bt cotton is non-toxic and non-allergenic.

In the age of globalisation, not adopting such technology will result in losses due to lower prices in the market. Such losses could make crop production non-competitive. To be competitive, it is essential to keep up with the cutting edge technology.

International experiences have consistently indicated that both yield increase and cost savings are the major benefits of transgenic crops. The experience of China is relevant to India as there are similarities with respect to size of holding and farming practices. The study indicates that farmer gets more benefit than the seed companies from Bt cotton and more interestingly small farmers benefit more.

Research indicates that such technology will play a key role in developing competitiveness of the country for agricultural commodities.

In the wake of the WTO agreement, India cannot afford to lag in adopting safer technologies. Protecting the livelihood of farmers, equitable growth, poverty reduction and sustainable production should be the objectives.

(The author is Professor, Centre for Management in Agriculture, IIM, Ahmedabad.)

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