Agri Biotechnology to Manage Climate Change

– Dr Ratna Kumria, Senior Director- Agricultural Biotechnology, Alliance for Agri Innovation, a special interest group of Federation of Seed Industry of India

The global calamities triggered by climate change, the disruption in food supply due to pandemic and geo-political instability have led the people to embrace science and agri-biotechnology. The quick solutions offered by biotechnology to manage the pandemic have also reinforced consumer’s faith in technological solutions for a myriad of problems in food production and distribution. One such offering of biotechnology is GM crops that have been grown across the globe for more than 25 years with no proven negative impact, rather have contributed to increase in productivity, reduction in use of pesticides and fossil fuels. Many countries have newly adopted GM cultivation in the last 5 years to address food security for their population, these include China, Kenya, Malawi, Ghana and Nigeria.

China has allowed the commercial release of GM cotton and GM papaya so far. There are strong indications that a few more GM crops, especially GM maize and GM soybean would be allowed for commercial release soon. Some African regions have been experiencing severe problems of malnutrition, food deficit, inadequate food production, and crop loss. Modern biotechnology had been opposed in Africa over human health and the environmental concerns. However, GM crops are proving their mettle as they have contributed to solving farm problems and attaining sustainability across the continent. South Africa, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria have received political and public support to adopt biotechnological solutions for improving agricultural productivity. Taking the example of on such nation, Malawi had approved its first GM crop which is BT-cotton in 2019 and since then farmers have been able to cut down crop losses due to pest infestation. The cotton yields in Malawi have increased from 400 kilograms per hectare to 800 kilograms per hectare. The country is looking into adopting the technology to find solutions for other crops like maize and traits like drought.   Scientists in many vulnerable nations are trying to come up with biotechnological innovations that would help boost crop output, offer strong resistance to pests and diseases, and enhance the nutritional value of different crops.

The government of India has been funding and supporting for many decades the use of modern science and its application in agriculture to enable the transformation of the farm sector. GM crops with enhanced traits and nutritional value have been developed both by public and private sector. The commercial release of GM mustard has paved a way for other GM crops with enhanced traits to be accepted and cultivated.

There has been growing public awareness about the need for GM technology to combat climate change, feed fast-growing population and end malnutrition. One major benefit of using GM crops for the environment is a significant reduction in the use of fertilizers and pesticides. Studies have shown that insect-resistant and herbicide-tolerant GM crops have led to a reduction in pesticide spraying by over 8 percent in the two decades of their cultivation.  Water and nutrient use efficient GM crops reduce the use of water and other crucial resources respectively.

Besides, the obvious reduction in chemicals and inputs, some other subtle advantages of GM crops include improvement in air quality, quality of water in water bodies, improvement in soil health and local biodiversity. The reduction in pesticide inputs and lower fossil fuel usage in GM crop cultivation leads to lower carbon emissions on GM crop farms compared to conventional crops. The adoption of GM crops contributes to preventing a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions e.g CO2 emission reduction associated with GM cultivation due to reduced fuel use and additional soil carbon sequestration in 2020 was found to be equal to the removal of 15.6 million cars off the road. This is important from the climate change perspective. People’s experience with GM foods and awareness about their benefits has led to an increase in acceptance of modern science applications.

To evert environmental disaster and ensure food security for over 10 billion people, we need to increase food productivity without bringing more land under farming, hence preserving forests and biodiversity. The abiotic and biotic stresses faced on the farm due to climate change also need to be mitigated while improving carbon capture and sequestration. The average yields of GM crops are 22 percent higher while they reduce the requirement of pesticides by 37 percent, reveals a global meta-analysis. Furthermore, genetic modification can help us achieve not only higher productivity with greater resistance to diseases and pests but also better taste, high nutritional content, longer shelf-life, and improved resilience to climate change.

GM technology can contribute to food and nutritional security of nations vulnerable due to their delicate ecosystem or high populations. It can be a boon for the economically poor and undernourished populations as well as small resource-poor farmers worldwide. As a bonus GM technology is also helping reduce the environmental footprint of agriculture.