Bt -The final answer to world hunger

Friday, 19 March 2010 12:00
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Tags bt brinjal - world hunger

Bt -The final answer to world hunger?

Felix Francis and Pratha Sah

Eighteen percentage of the land mass in our planet is used for agriculture. Considering our population growth, it becomes imperative that our agriculture production increases many fold to feed the world. Human population will reach nine billion by 2040. The diets of consumers are increasingly shifting from plant-based proteins  to animal proteins, a movement that necessitates greater amount of crop-based feeds. Increasing the cropped area to compensate the bigger demand is not possible. 70,000 square kilometers of agricultural land (a little more than the size of Germany), are lost every year to the growth of cities and other non-agricultural uses.

But Bt brinjal, the first Bt-food crop in the world, which brought in immense controversies has had a different story. It finally ended in a moratorium period set till a further analysis is done. States like Orissa, Bihar and West Bengal that collectively comprise more than 60 per cent of the brinjal cultivation in India have officially discarded Bt-brinjal.

The recent advances in genomics and molecular biology bring forth excellent innovations, be it in disease resistance, enhancing productivity or quality improvement of crops. Advanced research will make it possible for scientists to study and engineer properties of various organisms, food and energy crops and substantially enhancing their qualities. The field of biotechnology offers great promises in bringing forth practical approaches towards the enhancement of efficiency in agriculture, forestry and food production, and at the same time reducing our dependence on detrimental chemicals, leading to a sustained environment.

Thus, arrived Bt-crops in the agricultural scenario. India, accounts for nearly 25% of the world's total cotton area and 16% of global cotton production. Seventy percent of our current cultivated cotton is the Bt variety that boasts stories of success in majority of the areas. Biotechnologists have also come up with crops containing engineered toxins. Several benefits have been proven in expressing Bt toxins in crops: 

  1. Effective level of toxin is expressed, thus delivering adequate dosage to the pest.
  2. Only those insects that attack the crop perish, as the toxin expression is limited within    the plant.
  3. Tissue-specific promoters can adjust toxin expression.
  4. The technology substitutes the use of pesticides in environment.

The seriousness of drawbacks of Bt product cannot be overlooked, especially when it is a food crop. The Bt brinjal type is reported to hold two gene markers that produces resistance to two common antibiotics, Streptomycin and Kanamycin. If our bodies are rendered immune to these antibiotics, we may be without cure for many diseases including coughs and other common ailments. Goats fed with Bt brinjal took longer time for their blood to coagulate and the bilirubin count increased, indicating liver damage. In rabbits, salt levels were modified as were the glucose and platelet count and the red blood cell percentage in the blood, an indicator of anemia. 

 New drugs are put to rigorous clinical trials, before they are commercialized. Then why should we be lenient with the food that we consume on a daily basis? The science of Genetic Engineering indeed offers great promises to the world. But any technology that is not properly scrutinized and directed to the real needs may bring forth greater evils than the benefits it is supposed to give.