The market for biotech based agricultural products is estimated to go beyond Rs 2,900 crore by end of 2003.

Major contribution in this segment is anticipated from increased local production of hybrid seeds and high-yielding varieties. The seeds industry is poised to attract an investment of Rs 150 crore in another five years. Increasing the shelf life of fruits and vegetables is another boom area, especially in a country that is the world’s largest producer of fruits and second largest of vegetables, but garners only one per cent of the export market due to post-harvest handling losses of more than $2 billion.

The need for high yield and disease resistant crop should not be emphasized just for the country’s food security. In the wake of the WTO agreement and the time bound removal of quantitative restrictions on import, the barriers for outsider access to domestic market have vanished. Therefore, there is an urgent need to improve productivity and quality of the farm produce to remain competitive in both domestic and international market. In this context, adoption of advanced technology and better farming techniques are being emphasised.

Implementingbiotechnological approaches to bring improvement in productivity and particularly value addition in horticultural crops has become the primary need of the hour.

“As agricultural scientists we can use the power of science and technology to improve agricultural productivity 80% of our population is involved in farming. We should make a focused effort to uplift the farming sector and increase profitability. All we need is a focused strategy, ” says Dr C S Prakash, a scientist.

“It is sad that the agri-biotech sector has been a neglected lot compared to the more visible sectors like biopharma or bioinformatics. Our biotech policy and the so-called ‘Biotech vision’ has been clouded by the Western world’s outlook which is tilted to healthcare. While here in India we still have to grapple with issues like poverty and malnutrition, focus on agri -biotech is the need of the hour,” says Padma Shree Dr.Manmohan Attavar, who pioneered this sector in India

His company, Indo-American Hybrid Seeds, started in 1965, today, has a revenue of Rs 35 crore in vegetable seeds alone. Unlike in the commercial crop seed production, there is little competition for him in the horticulture sector. Indo American produces more than 10 million banana plantlets by micropropagation, but still demand outstrips supply. He says there is no question of competition as there is enough demand to accommodate ten more such companies.

“We do large scale cloning of horticultural plants by tissue culture to multiply the plant saplings by the thousands. By this process, a seed or cutting which would have normally taken months, can now be grown rapidly in a few weeks time. Secondly, conservation of rare herbal species and supply of authentic mother culture is done to preserve endangered plants for the future.. Similarly, crop improvement is done by genetically engineering the seeds of rice and cotton,” he added.

Since India has been the leader in horticultural produce in the world, adoption of such innovative technology will bring about a major change. The Government has already taken up horticulture as a primary thrust sector.

The nutraceutical wave-The term “nutraceutical” is an amalgamation of ‘nutrition’ and ‘pharmaceutical’ coined in the 1980’s, as a marketing label to distinguish foods and food ingredients, taken from natural sources. But now with genetic engineering of plant genes, the word nutraceutical has acquired a new meaning. Now even rice can become a nourishing nutraceutical.

All stakeholders in the agri-biotech business-consumers, governments, traders and manufacturers are increasingly becoming aware and anxious of genetically modified crops. Regimes are attempting to address issues like labelling, disclosure and framing legislation. As GMO (genetically modified organisms)and related technologies are still evolving, policy issues governing their use will focus on labelling and disclosure.

Dr.Ravi Shankar, from Avestha Gengraine, a firm working on plant genome and bioinfromatics, says, “Even before non-GMO labelling and disclosure becomes a norm, Avesthagen is offering GMO testing services to give non-GMO certification on raw or processed products”.

This is especially true for exporters targeting advanced economies.

Needless to say, firms with non-GMO certified products, will have the competitive edge, first-mover advantage perceived value-addition

and greater acceptance.” With the use of biotechnology in food processing, India can become one of the world’s largest exporter of fruits and vegetables by 2020. Hindustan Lever, Monsanto, Pro Agro Dupont, Indo-American Hybrid seeds, ITC Zeneca, Hoechst Schering AgrEVO-PGS, Pioneer-Hi-Breed, SPIC, Novartis, AV Thomas, EID Parry, NOCIL, Rallis, Cadila Plant Biotechnology and Godrej-biotech are active plant biotech companies in India.

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