<i>Crop biotechnology </i>
Munir Uz Zaman / Driknews
Agriculture is the largest contributor of the economies of many developing countries, generating more than half of the annual GDP. Fifty percent of the world's poorest people are small and resource-poor farmers, and another 20% are the rural landless dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods. It is unfortunate but true that we live in such a world where one amongst every six persons, in the developing world, has no access to food and 2.8 billion people live on less thanUS$2 per day. At the World Food Summit, 186 countries pledged a reduction by half in the number of undernourished people by 2015. Combating poverty involves actions to increase food security and per capita income. Increasing income of small and poor farmers contributes directly to the poverty alleviation of a large majority of the world's poorest people. Science and technology are globally recognised as the drivers of increased wealth and continuously improving standard of living. Agribiotech comprises a wide range of biological discipline, offers enormous potential to speed up the development of plant varieties with pro-poor traits such as drought tolerance, higher yields, increased nutritional value among others. Biotech/GM crops can play a great role to alleviate global poverty. In the USA, farm income gain from biotech crops(HT soybean, Bt potato, Bt maize etc.) is $15.9 billion. Biotech cotton has already made a significant contribution to the income of poor farmers in the first decade(1996-2005),and this can be enhanced significantly in the second decade. India has already adopted biotech crops and is benefited a lot. India's cotton areas represents 25% of the global area of cotton but the indigenous cotton yields were some of the lowest in the world. It was in 2002 when India adopted Bt cotton(a biotech crop) for the first time and became the leading cotton growing country of the world in 2007.Approximately 3.8 million small and resource-poor farmers planted Bt cotton. China has been also benefited hugely by producing biotech crops like Bt cotton, biotech rice. A transparent and science based debate is essential for maximising the potential of crop biotechnology.
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