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| Agri-Biotechnology |
India offers a huge market for agri-biotechnology, being still heavily dependent on agriculture. The domestic market potential, combined with scientific infrastructure in agriculture, rich bio-diversity and skilled human-power can make India an important global base for agri-biotechnology research.
Though Agri Biotech at present contributes a mere 7% of the total market value of Biotechnology in India, it is the fastest growing segment of biotechnology. The Agribiotech sector in 2004-05 registered a growth of over 150% with a value of US$ 73.3 million as compared to US$ 28.9 million in 2003-04. The most important area in Agri biotechnology is the hybrid seeds business. Bio pesticides and Bio-fertilizers are also emerging as areas of interest, given the growth of the organic products industry worldwide. |
| Hybrid Seeds |
Bt Cotton seeds sales accounted for over 75% of this market, with bio-pesticides, bio-fertilisers etc. accounting for the rest. Total Bt cottonseeds revenues in 2004-05 were US$ 56.3 million, recording a growth of 369% compared to 2003-04. Mahyco-Monsanto, the first company in India permitted to sell Bt cotton, was estimated to have grown by over 208 per cent to end the year at US$ 37 million.
In India, research on transgenic plants has been in progress in several government and private laboratories. Monsanto’s ‘Bollgard®’ Bt-gene, introduced by Monsanto-Mahyco into the Indian cotton hybrids by backcrossing with a transgenic line, was cleared for commercial use in 2001, after seven years of trials at various levels.
The year 2004-05 was a watershed year for Bt Cotton as the apex regulatory body, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), approved six new varieties of transgenic cotton in several other Indian states, taking the total number of Bt cotton hybrids approved for cultivation up to 17. The area under Bt-Cotton has increased over 20 times in the last three years soft its commercial cultivation.
With the success of Bt Cotton, the Government has woken up to the enormous potential of such technologies and is keen to put in place policies and regulations, which will promote responsible crop biotechnology.
Many seed companies in the country are beginning to invest significantly in crop biotechnology. Several of them already have capabilities to leverage Marker Assisted Selection technologies to augment their crop improvement programmes. They are now moving towards crop genetic transformation approaches, either by building the capabilities in-house, or by striking partnerships with other institutions. By 2010, India has the potential to become a major grower of transgenic rice and several genetically engineered vegetables. In the area of agribiotech research, the Delhi University is pursuing studies on production and characterisation of osmotic stress tolerant transgenic plants of Brassica juncea. The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) and the National Centre for Plant Genome Research (NCPGR) are jointly working on development of molecular marker based linkage map for chickpea. NCPGR has also developed nutritionally enriched potato lines by transfer of Ama1 gene of Amaranthus. Meanwhile, the University of Delhi, South campus, and IARI have spearheaded the Indian Initiative on Rice Genome Sequencing. The 28- member team contributed to about 10 per cent of the global sequencing effort. The Indian government has already started a US$ 8 million functional genomics project, which will help to identify/mine the useful genes. This project has created a critical pool of trained scientists, infrastructure and capability to conduct genome wide research on a range of agronomically important crops. |
| Biofertilisers and Biopesticides |
| The total market for the biopesticides and biofertilisers is estimated at US$ 17.8 million. The biopesticides market is growing at a rate of 25-30%, with many programmes to control major weeds and pest diseases of important crops, vegetables, plants and to increase their productivity through various biocontrol agents. A number of universities and institutes are working in the area of biofertilisers. The University of Hyderabad, National Research Centre for Plant Biotechnology, IARI; BARC Mumbai and TERI are working on development of transgenic microorganisms with high efficiency for nitrogen fixation, and phosphate solubilisation. Scientists at the New Delhi based International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) have developed a microbe-based biopesticidal formulation for the control of a range of agricultural pests. The formulation has been found effective in controlling diamond-back moth in cabbage and cauliflower; white woolly aphids in sugarcane; mealy bugs in grapes, citrus and mango; and white ants in teak plantations. The formulation is being commercially launched by its industry partner in 2005. |
| International cooperation in Agribiotech |
India and the US have signed a five-year agreement in the area of agribiotech research. The agreement signed is tripartite in nature, wherein the nodal agencies will be the USAID and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India. The research will be pursued with support from Cornell University, USA.
India has also signed a MoU with the Netherlands for cooperation in biotechnology in the areas of agriculture and health.
Given its large agriculture sector, there is a substantial level of public research in varietal development focussing on yield improvement and disease management, fed by a large base of manpower trained in agriculture sciences to provide extension services. As a result, there is a large reservoir of technical manpower (also available competitively) in the sector, which has been used also by private sector operators in agri biotechnology activities. Several international companies have set up research and development facilities in India for hybrid seeds and other biotechnology-based activities. |
| Regulatory aspects |
Approvals involving transgenics/ GMOs is closely scrutinized and monitored by Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology. There are six competent authorities, each with jurisdiction over a particular aspect of biotechnology. The process of obtaining approvals for recombinant research can be excessively tardy, as it involves securing approvals from several levels of committees, and eventually the Ministry of Environment and Forests before release. Monsanto’s GM cotton took more than seven years to obtain the clearances for field trials, despite the successful use in several other countries.
Companies engaging in scientific research are allowed 150% rebate on own R & D expenditure, and 125% rebate if research is contracted in public funded R & D institutions. |
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ICREON