Transcript Transforming Indian Agriculture Technology Applications

Transforming Indian Agriculture –
Technology Applications
Bharat Char
4th BIO-NANO Agri Summit 2015
New Delhi
3 Sept 2015
Priority areas for India
• Protecting current yields
– Insect resistance, disease tolerance
– Climate change-induced challenges: coping with abiotic stresses
– Maximizing yields while optimizing fertilizer inputs
• Deficit in pulses and oilseeds
– Key technologies that can contribute to reducing dependence on
imports
• Labour availability and its impact
– Labour-saving technologies
• Subsidy issue on fertilizer
– Higher efficiency uptake of nutrients
Water availability – a looming crisis
• 68% of sown area is subject to drought in varying degrees
• Rainfall is erratic in 4 out of 10 years.
• Per capita water availability is steadily declining
increase in population, rapid industrialization, urbanization, cropping intensity
and declining ground water level
• Technologies under development
- can protect crop yields by up to 60%
- maintain yields under normal conditions
- possible commercialization by 2020
Source: DAC, 2014
WUE for Pulses: Chickpea
•Area under chickpea: 9.14 m ha
•Production: 8.49 mn tonnes (929 kg/ha)
• Current status of pulses in India is
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Production: 18-19 mt (39% being chickpea)
Consumption: 22-23 mn tonnes.
Imports: 3.5-4.0 mn tonnes
Import value : 2.3 Bn US$
• Potential exists for improving yields significantly by introducing
WUE as lack of irrigation is the major constraint on
productivity
• Pod borer resistance another major potential contributor for
yield protection
Sugarcane: constraints and
potential solutions
• High water requirement crop: 250 tonnes of water needed to
produce one tonne of sugarcane.
• Critical stages affected severely due to water stress:
germination, tillering, ripening
• 30 per cent and more loss in productivity for every two
degree centigrade increase in temperature
• Weeds have been estimated to cause 12 to 72 % reduction in
cane yield
• An average crop of sugarcane yielding 100 t/ha removes 208
kg of N, 53 kg of P, 280 kg of K
• Insect damage reduces yields by an estimated 20%
Key technologies that can be applied: WUE, heat tolerance,
herbicide tolerance, NUE, IR
Fertilizer use in India
 Consumption in India is 168 lakh tonnes of nitrogen fertilizer out of a
total of 255 lakh tonnes (2012-13)
 To meet the food needs of the country by 2025 – 240 mn t of cereals
and 200+ mn tonnes of veg/fruits – India may have to increase its plant
nutrient supply to over 400-450 lakh tonnes. (IIM-A, NAAS)
 Subsidy for 2015-16 budgeted Rs 72,969 cr, soil health impacted due to
skewed NPK ratio
 Application of NUE technology is conservatively estimated to achieve
10-20% yield gain at existing levels of N fertilizer
 Looking at 2025, this translates to significant savings on N fertilizer
Source: DCI&S, DAC
Nitrogen use efficient plants
• Gene technology is available which allows cells to utilise N
efficiently in various cellular processes such as amino acid
synthesis
• This allows for increased biomass of the plant using the
same amount of input N with 15-20% gain seen in the
greenhouse
• Greenhouse trials in rice and cotton have been completed,
and potential commercial lines identified.
• Permission for field trials has been sought for K-2015 with
potential commercialization in 2018-19.
An enabling environment
• Long development cycles require a predictable regulatory
process
• Process is robust but lack of movement on field trials is a
major hindrance to evaluation of new technologies outside
the greenhouse
• This has made industry rethink on investments
• Science-based decisions on new technologies a must
• Aligned policy environment between Centre and States
• Harmonise regulatory environment: Seed Bill, BRAI, BDA
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