Editorial 1: Seeds for growth: How technology can boost Indian agriculture
Recent Context:
- Agriculture and allied sectors are central to the Indian economy.
- Keeping this and a sustainable future in mind, the Indian government is promoting technology-enabled sustainable farming, including natural, regenerative and organic systems, during its G20 presidency.
More need to be done in agriculture sector
- Though India has achieved food security with the production of food grains reaching 330 MT still the demand for coarse cereals, pulses, oilseeds and vegetables is not fully met.
- In addition, they are not affordable for a large part of the population, leading to a high proportion of the under/malnourished population, with a sizable percentage of child wasting (19.3 per cent).
- Alongside fulfilling its goal of increasing profitability in agriculture and its share of export in the world market, India needs to close the gap between potential and achievable productivity in most grain crops and vegetables
- By reducing the cost of production
- promoting cultivation and consumption of nutritionally-rich crops like millets, and
- focus on the quality of the agricultural produce.
- Therefore, it’s imperative that focus be given to ensuring the availability of quality seeds and maximising the performance value of every seed — the most critical input in agriculture.
There is need to adopt technology in agriculture sector
- Currently, agriculture sectors are facing multidimensions challenges such as deletion of natural resources, a burgeoning population, extreme weather conditions and natural disasters because of climate change. It poses bigger challenges to Indian and regional agriculture, dominated by smallholder farmers.
- India’s performance in achieving the SDGs, especially goals one, two and three, ones linked to agriculture, are yet to reach desired levels.
- To ensure that India meet the targets for food and nutrition security, and the population’s well-being in a sustainable manner, it’s crucial to effectively utilise every available technology including traditional knowledge in agriculture.
Role of seed industry in India’s agriculture growth:
- The Indian seed industry was built on a strong foundation in the 1960s with the establishment of the National Seeds Corporation and further boosted with several enabling policies and regulatory support from the late ’80s.
- The introduction of the Protection of Plant Varieties & Farmers Rights Act, 2001, and the release of Bt cotton hybrids for commercial cultivation in 2002 were important milestones towards the era of a technology-driven seed sector, which boosted the industry and helped Indian farmers with better productivity.
- Therefore, the focus of the seed industry should be to promote varieties and technologies to combat the serious threats posed by climate change.
Promoting technology in seed sector
- Being nutrient-rich, hardy and grown in a short cycle, millets are recognised as well-suited for sustainable agriculture.
- India is the global leader in millet production. By producing quality-assured seeds of improved varieties of millets, especially minor millets, it has the potential to capture the global seed market.
- The advancements made in seed technology can maximise the availability and quality of seeds and help them perform well under a wide range of conditions.
- Therefore, in upcoming years molecular technologies, speed breeding and gene-editing tools, applied seed technologies would ensure good performance even under less favourable, unpredictable, and harsh environments.
- Hence, seed technology today must combine genetic advancement with applied technologies to provide quality-enhanced seeds of improved varieties having higher productivity, high input use efficiency and the ability to withstand a range of biotic and abiotic stressors
- Along with promoting R&D efforts in public and private sectors can complement each other in developing environment-friendly, better-performing seeds at affordable cost
Seed-based technology would comprise:
- Development of technology in seed sector will result into
- Genetic manipulation in variety development that are subject to regulatory compliances;
- priming or physiological advancement protocols; film coating, pelleting with or without active formulations;
- seed treatments with biologicals, or chemical pesticides having contact or systemic mode of action; bio-stimulants and nutrients for higher germination and faster seedling establishment;
- incorporation of AI responsive sensors/substances in seed to help modulate plant responses to external stimuli; and production of “clean and green” planting materials in horticultural crops.
- For e.g. India is using most common these priming and film coating technology, which can be applied both under organic and inorganic cultivation to improve seed handling, precision planting and use as carriers of pesticides, nutrients, growth promoters and microbial inoculum
- Therefore, Priming and enhancement technologies are emerging as an essential package of practices to ensure that seeds perform well under a wide range of growing conditions.
- These are especially beneficial in agro-eco-regions that frequently experience moisture, temperature, and other abiotic stressors, or are prone to diseases and pest damages.
- Such treatments can work independently or complement the genotype of the seed in a manner that enhances its overall performance
India’s vision for “Clean Green Mission”
- A robust regulatory mechanism covering quality seedlings and planting materials is needed under the newly proposed “Clean Green Mission” by the Government of India as part of its G20 commitment to “Green Development”.
- “Next Gen” technologies may also introduce AI-based responses from seeds under specific external conditions (for example, moisture, temperature); or incorporate such molecules or metabolites that act as metabolic cues in biological pathways, which will require appropriate guidelines for application.
- Therefore, in the case of any technology, supportive regulatory guidelines will go a long way in the adoption and popularization of seed technologies
Conclusion:
- Thus, new seed technologies supported by scientific validation and enabling regulatory mechanisms offer significant advantages for sustainable agriculture at little additional cost.
Editorial 2: Snapshots of a breakthrough
Recent Context:
- Recently, as per Niti Aayog National Multidimensional Poverty Index: A Progress Review 2023’. report that the fastest reductions in poverty happened in UP, Bihar, MP, Odisha and Rajasthan.
Defining and measuring the poverty:
- There are multiple ways to define and measure poverty. Conventionally, poverty has been defined as percentage of population below a poverty line, the so-called head-count ratio. The current official poverty line is still the Tendulkar one.
- However, developmental economists have argued poverty is multi-dimensional. Hence, we transited through physical quality of life indicators and the human development index (HDI), before zeroing in on the currently favored MDPI (multi-dimensional poverty index).
Multi-dimensional poverty index reflects a better picture of poverty
- MDPI is more like a development index. It is based on three dimensions of poverty – health, education and living standards.
- Health (nutrition, child and adolescent mortality, maternal health) and
- education (years of schooling, school attendance) are important objectives of development and undoubtedly influence the future poverty of the individual.
- Living standards do reflect poverty.
- However, these should be on a somewhat different footing from living standards (cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets, bank accounts).
- The inclusion of health and education makes the word “poverty” elastic. But, when the poor have cried, many who are not Caesars have also wept. Therefore, we have this broad notion.
Highlights of Niti Aayog’s National Multidimensional Poverty Index: A Progress Review 2023’. report
- Following UNDP’s global report, Niti Aayog recently brought out India’s MDPI report for 2023.In both cases, improvements are primarily driven by NFHS-5.
- The UNDP report said 415 million people moved out of poverty between 2005-06 and 2019-21 and incidence of poverty declined from 55.1 per cent to 16.4 per cent.
- As per report,
- Poverty ratios declined from 24.85 per cent in 2015-16 to 14.96 per cent in 2019-21. (The slight difference in the 2019-21 numbers between the two reports is because of minor differences in indicators.)
- Between those two end-points, an estimated 135.5 million Indians exited poverty. That’s a huge number, and extrapolated, has implications not only for India achieving the relevant SDG target (specifically target 1.2), but also for the world as a whole. Of that, 34.3 million was the figure in UP alone.
- The Niti Aayog report tells us that the fastest reductions in poverty happened in UP, Bihar, MP, Odisha and Rajasthan.
- Bihar is now at 33.8 per cent, MP at 20.6 per cent, Odisha at 15.7 per cent and Rajasthan at 15.3 per cent. UP is at 22.9 per cent, with a base of 37.7 per cent in 2015-16, roughly similar to the base in MP. (Odisha and Rajasthan had lower bases in 2015-16.)
The following government’s schemes and programmes helped in poverty reduction
- As per Economic survey, MDPI is built around necessities. Therefore, Government’s schemes such as
- Awas Yojana, Jal Jeevan Mission, Swachh Bharat, Saubhagya, Ujjwala Yojana, Jan Dhan Yojana, Poshan Abhiyaan, Ayushman Bharat and Samagra Shiksha helped in reducing the poverty in multidimensional sphere.
- These are essentially implemented by states and it is better delivery in these that have led to such declines in poverty, concentrated more in rural India than urban
Conclusion:
- Therefore, MDPI is one kind of method to measure of development of while Development has other dimensions as well. In those too, BIMARU states are breaking the shackles.