GM or Non-GM Crop ? + Price Rise & Farmers + Corporate Penetration In Rural India

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In This NEWS Bulletin *********************************** 1. GM or non-GM crop which is the solution - Unravelling The Rice Genome - Expect No Miracle In The Near Term - Applications Of Biotech Tools, However, May NOT Always Result In GM Crops

UNRAVELING THE RICE GENOME Expect no miracles in the near-term Applications of biotech tools, however, may not always result in production of GM crops, reports Ashok B Sharma http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=144254 Posted online: Monday, October 23, 2006 at 0354 hours IST Responding to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) call for increasing global rice production by additional 200 million tonne by 2025, the scientists are on the job of developing new rice varietal lines and hybrids to meet the rising demand for this major staple crop. Needless to say, technology would also be harnessed to develop suitable non-genetically modified (non-GM) high yielding rice with high nutrition content. In a major rice producing country like India, the annual rate of growth in output of this staple crop has tapered off to a level lower than the annual increase in population growth of 1.8%. “Though the yield potential of rice is 10

tonne per hectare, farmers on the average still harvest five tonne per hectare. To close this yield gap, we must develop varieties with more durable resistance to disease, insects and tolerance to abiotic stress,” says a noted plant breeder and World Food Prize recipient, Gurudev Kush. Scientists at the recently concluded 2nd International Rice Congress in New Delhi were of the view that no major technological breakthrough is in sight that would increase the yield of rice. A major technological breakthrough means increasing the photosynthesis in rice (C3 crop) to the level of that in maize, sorghum and sugarcane (C4 crop). The scientists are on the job of developing C4 rice, but it would take about a decade for the results to be forthcoming, they say. But the availability of rice genome structural sequence, has given agricultural scientists the confidence to proceed. The International Rice Genome Sequencing Project has

identified about 56,298 genes. “After this project of structural genomics, scientists are busy identifying its functions. Once the function of a gene is identified, it will be possible to develop better by introducing genes through traditional breeding in combination with marker-aided selections or through direct engineering of genes into rice varieties,” says Kush. Scientists, however, insist that applications of biotech tools would not result in production of GM or transgenic crops. An array of “novel crops” can be developed by using tools like marker-aided selection, molecular characterisation, exploitation of apomatic genes, allele mining, harnessing heterosis, pyramiding of rice genes and other biotechnological tools. These ‘novel crops’ would not be called transgenic, as no transgene from other crop would be involved, they say. The director-general of the International Rice Research Institute, Robert S

Zeigler says, “We have effective biotechnological tools at our disposal such as improved rice crops which would not be transgenic crops. The NGOs need not worry on this account. Development of transgenic crop is only one of the many options.” The director-general of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Mangla Rai says, “the ongoing successful efforts on cloning blast resistant genes, pyramiding BLB resistance genes, QTL mapping of salt tolerant, root traits and Basmati quality traits are likely to enhance our ability to manage biotic and abiotic stresses and improve quality traits effectively ”. One recent success story is the development of the non-GM rice for Africa with high nutrition content called the New Rice for Africa (NERICA). NERICA varieties, developed by the African Rice Centre (WARDA), combine the high yielding quality of Asian rice and the adaptability to the local conditions of African

rice. According to WARDA, these new varieties have shown productivity gains and could translate into substantial economic gains. Rai says that India needs to follow the Chinese example of increasing the area under hybrid rice. This would help India to raise its average rice yields from the current level of 2.08 tonne per hectare.--