Association for Sense About Science
Natural History Museum
Public Good Plant Breeding :
What are the international priorities?
London, 22 May 2003
Where the Green Revolution has left us and where we
need to go now?
M.S. Swaminathan, FRS
UNESCO Chair in Ecotechnology
President, Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai
Famines and Public
Good Plant Breeding
The Irish Potato Famine
of 1840s triggered the
search for new genes in
tuber-bearing Solanum
species.
“This Conference, meeting in the midst of the
greatest war ever waged, and in full confidence of
victory, has considered world problems of food and
agriculture and declares its belief that the goal of
freedom from want of food, suitable and adequate
for the health and strength of all peoples, can be
achieved”.
Resolution of Conference convened by
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Hot Springs
Virginia (18 May to 3 June 1943)
Major Famines of the 20th Century
Year
1943
1958-62
1972-75
1972-74
1973
Epicentre
Bengal
China
Ethiopia
Bangladesh
Sahel
Excess Mortality
2.7 to 3.00 million deaths
16.5 to 29.5 million
2 lakhs
1.5 million
1 lakh
Source : Amartya Sen, Poverty and Famines, 1981
Famine : Triage classification of countries
Haiti
Egypt
The Gambia
Tunisia
Libya
India
Pakistan
Can’t- be-saved
Can’t-be-saved
Walking Wounded
Should Receive Food
Walking Wounded
Can’t-be-saved
Should Receive Food
- Paul and William Paddock, 1967
Variation in Australian Average Wheat Yield (Ten-Year Mean) from 1860 to 2000
Fighting Soil Hunger
Water Conservation and Management : Key to
Crop Security
The rice terraces of Bali
Green Revolution in Europe
o Began with Liebig’s discovery of mineral
fertilizer in the 1850s
o Soil health, water management and plant
protection proved to be key factors in
determining crop productivity
o Mendelian genetics helped to breed strains
capable of responding well to soil fertility and
irrigation water management
Power of Mendelian Breeding
Daruma
(Japanese semi-dwarf)
Fultz
(U.S. winter wheat, high yield)
X
Fultz-Daruma
(semi-dwarf, high yield)
Locals
(adapted to
U.S. Northwest)
X
Turkey Red
(U.S. winter, high yield)
Norin 10
X
(semi-dwarf, winter, high yield)
Gaines
(semi-dwarf, winter,
U.S. adpted)
X
Local Strains
New Wheats
(semi-dwarf, high yield, adaptable,
rust-resistant, fast-maturing,spring)
Origin of the semi-dwarf wheats
Wheat Production – India now occupies the
Second Position in the World
1965: 10 Million t
2000 : 80 Million t
Public good Plant Breeding and assured and remunerative
marketing triggered rapid progress
Ehrlich 1968
o Some time between 1970 and 1985 the world will
undergo vast famines — hundreds of millions of
people are going to starve to death. That is, they
will starve to death unless plague, thermonuclear
war, or some other agent kills them first.
o The United States should announce that it will no
longer ship food to countries such as India where
dispassionate analysis indicates that the
unbalance between food and population is
hopeless.
Science and Agricultural Progress
1968 – The Beginning of Green Revolution
Synergy between Technology and Public Policy
Hundred Years of Wheat Breeding
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Pedigree Selection
Inter-varietal Hybridization
Winter x Spring Wheat crosses
Mutation Breeding
Aneuploid and Genomic Breeding
Restructuring Plant Architecture : Semi-dwarf wheat
Shuttle Breeding and Photo-insensitivity
Hybrid Wheat
Apomixis
Functional Genomics and Molecular Breeding
Land and Forest Saving Agriculture
New Plant Type in Rice
Non-lodging , greater absorption of sun light, better root
system, higher harvest index and photo-insensitivity
From Green to Gene Revolution in Rice
Potential yield (t/ha)
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
8000
BC
1950
1900 1930
Land Pureline Cross
races selection breds
1965 1990
Semidwarfs
(IR8) (IR72)
Public Sector
1995
Indica/
Indica
hybrids
2005
2010
2000
New Indica/ Biotechplant Tropical nology
type japonica
hybrids
Public-Private Sector
Access to Genetic Resources and
Biotechnologies for Food and Agriculture
Biotechnologies
(tools)
Genetic Resources
(building blocks)
Benefit-sharing
(collective rights)
(e.g. Farmers’ Rights and
the Global Plan of Action)
Intellectual Property
Rights
Commercial Products
(market value)
$
FAO – International Treaty – Art, 9
(also Art. 12 &13)
CBD – Art, 8 (j)
(individual rights) %
(e.g. Plant Breeder’s Rights)
WIPO
WTO/TRIPS (Art. 27.3.b)
UPOV
Sui generis Systems
(Rights)
Environment and Development : Early Warning
Rachel Carson 1962 : Silent Spring
“Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to
forestall. He will end by destroying the earth”
- Albert Schweitzer
Scientific rationale for an Ever-green revolution
“Intensive cultivation of land without conservation of soil fertility and soil
structure would lead ultimately to the springing up of deserts. Irrigation without
arrangements for drainage would result in soils getting alkaline or saline.
Indiscriminate use of pesticides, fungicides and herbicides could cause
adverse changes in biological balance as well as lead to an increase in the
incidence of cancer and other diseases, through the toxic residues present
in the grains or other edible parts. Unscientific tapping of underground water
would lead to the rapid exhaustion of this wonderful capital resource left to
us through ages of natural farming. The rapid replacement of numerous
locally adapted varieties
with one or two high yielding strains in large
contiguous areas would result in the spread of serious diseases capable of
wiping out entire crops, as happened prior to the Irish potato famine of 1845
and the Bengal rice famine of 1942. Therefore, the initiations of exploitative
agriculture without a proper understanding of the various consequences of
every one of the changes introduced into traditional agriculture and without
first building up a proper scientific and training base to sustain it, may only
lead us into an era of agricultural disaster in the long run, rather than to an
era of agricultural prosperity.”
- M S Swaminathan
Indian Science Congress, Varanasi, January 1968
Concept of Ever-green Revolution
What nations with small farms and resource
poor farmers need is the enhancement of
productivity in perpetuity, without associated
ecological or social harm. The green revolution
should become an ever-green revolution rooted
in the principles of ecology, economics and
social and gender equity.
- M S Swaminathan, 1990
Paradigm Shift : Adding the Dimension of
Environmental sustainability
Green
Revolution
Commodity Centered
Experiment Station
Research
Ever-green
Revolution
Integrated Natural Resources
Management Centered
Participatory Research
Fatigue of the Green Revolution
Growth Rates in the Production of Food Grain
5
Percentage
4
3
3.94
2.8
2.29
2
1.78
1
0
1970-71
1980-81
1990-91
Year
2000-01
Where do we need to go now?
o In population rich and land hungry countries,
there is no option except to produce more from
less per capita arable land and irrigation water.
o The smaller the farm, the greater is the need for
marketable surplus, to get cash income
o There is need for anticipatory research to face
future challenges like global warming and sea
level rise
o Obviously an integrated approach to Mendelian
and molecular breeding will be essential to
make progress
Mangroves : Useful Sources of Genes for
Salinity Tolerance
Anticipatory Research
cDNA libraries were constructed from
the Mangrove species Avicennia
marina
A number of genes with potential
application to abiotic stress has been
isolated and charactreised
Avicennia marina
Four isolated genes were used for
developing transgenics in rice,
Brassica and Vigna
Transgenic plants with salinity tolerance genes
Facing the Challenge of Sea level Rise
Integrated Mendelian and Molecular Breeding
Transgenic (T1) rice plants with genes from mangroves in
the greenhouse (salt tolerance upto 150 mM)
Organic Agriculture and Evergreen Revolution
“Organic agriculture includes all agricultural
systems that promote the environmentally,
socially and economically sound production of
food and fibres. These systems take local soil
fertility as a key to successful production.”
International
Federation
of
Organic
Agriculture Movement (IFOAM) - 2002
Biotechnology and Organic Agriculture
2) Water Quality
1) Soil Health
• Vermiculture
• Bio-fertilisers
• Stem nodulating
green manure
crops
6) Environment
• Bioremediation
3) Plant Health
• Genetic Resistance
• Biopesticides
Organic
Farming
4) Post-harvest
Technology
• Biomonitoring through
• New strains with
Bio-indicators
5) Animal Health
improved keeping,
• Higher Carbon
• Vaccines
processing and
Sequestration
• High quality
transport qualities
feeds and fodder
IFOAM : Genetic Engineering is excluded in organic agriculture
World Food Summit Plus 5,Rome (June 10-13, 2002)
Declaration on Biotechnology
“We are committed to study, share and facilitate the
responsible use of biotechnology in addressing
development needs”
Civil Society Organisations’ Declaration
“Genetically modified organisms represent a threat to
family farmers, other food producers, the integrity of
genetic resources and human and environmental
health. They will affect particularly the rural poor, who
cannot afford this costly alternative”
The Way Ahead
Our ability to achieve a paradigm shift from
green to an ever-green revolution and our ability
to face the challenges of global warming and
sea level rise will depend upon our ability to
harmonise
genetics.
organic
farming
and
the
new
Genetic Modification in Crop Plants:
IFOAM Concerns and Way Ahead
S.No
Concern
Way Ahead
1.
Negative and irreversible Needs careful monitoring; no
environmental impacts
documentary proof so far
2.
Release
of
organisms
which have never before
existed in nature and which
cannot be recalled
3.
Pollution of the gene-pool Declaring centres of origin and
of cultivated crops, micro- diversity
as
GMO
free
organisms and animals
sanctuaries
Applies to micro-organisms. First
patent for a LMO Pseudomonas
was
obtained
by
Anand
Chakroborty in 1981.
No
problem reported so far, but
prospects for bio-terrorism need
surveillance
Contd…
S.No
Concern
Way Ahead
4.
Denial of free choice, both Genetic literacy; labelling of GM
for farmers and consumers foods
5.
Violation
of
farmers’
fundamental
property
rights and endangerment
of their independence
Safeguarding Farmers’ Rights
through legislation and getting a
Universal Declaration on “The
Plant Genome and Farmers’
Rights” adopted in FAO
6.
Practices
which
are
incompatible
with
the
principles of sustainable
agriculture
Avoiding genetic homogeneity
and thereby genetic vulnerability
to biotic and abiotic stresses
through an integrated system of
pre-breeding and participatory
breeding with farm families
Contd…
S.No
Concern
Way Ahead
7.
Unacceptable
human health
threats
8.
Ban
GMOs
agriculture
in
to Strengthening
screening
for
allergenic properties; developing
and adopting “clean gene”
transformation techniques.
all Fifty years of research since the
discovery of the Double Helix
structure of DNA has revealed
enormous potential for the safe
and responsible use of genetic
engineering in medicine, agriculture, industry and environment
protection (bio-monitoring and
bio-remediation).
Rather than
repeat Lysenkoism in scientific
enquiry, it is important that
mandatory codes of conduct and
regulatory mechanisms which
inspire public confidence are put
in place.
NGO Declaration
FAO Rome World Food Summit Plus Five (2002)
S.No
Concern
Way Ahead
1.
GMOs represent a threat Need for greater public underto family farmers and other standing and public-professional
food producers
consensus on threats and
opportunities
2.
GMOs affect the integrity Declare areas of origin and
of genetic resources and diversity of crop plants as GMOenvironmental health
free
zones;
Avoid
genetic
homogeneity
3.
GMOs affect
human health
adversely Both the science (eg. antibiotic
markers)
and
food
safety
standards need careful review;
Codex alimentarius standards
have
to
be
appropriately
reformulated
S.No
4.
5.
Concern
Way Ahead
Public policies which can ensure
that appropriate genetic material
reach the unreached should be
put in place. They come under
the non-trade distorting provisions of WTO.
Monopolistic control by Enlarge support to public good
Multi-national companies research both National and
International
over food security
GMOs will affect particularly the rural poor, who
cannot afford this costly
alternative
Ever-green Revolution
“The problem before us is how to feed billions of new
mouths over the next several decades and save the
rest of life at the same time, without being trapped in a
Faustian bargain that threatens freedom from security.
The benefits must
come from an evergreen
revolution. The aim of this new thrust is to lift food
production well above the level attained by the green
revolution of the 1960s, using technology and
regulatory policy more advanced and even safer than
now in existence”
Edward O. Wilson, 2002
The Future of life