Science and Sustainable Food Security

The following sections are included:

• Dedication

• Acknowledgment

• Foreword

• About Prof M.S. Swaminathan

• Contents

The following sections are included:

• Combining Yield and Quality in Rice
  • Economics of Pusa Basmati 4 cultivation
  • Area under Pusa 1121 cultivation during Kharif 2007
  • Release of Pusa 1121 in Punjab
  • State of Indian Agriculture Today and the Way Ahead
  • Defending the Gains
  • Overcoming the Technology Fatigue
  • Training
  • Techno-infrastructure
  • Trade

• References

Dr Paul Crutzen, one of the world's leading climate experts has recently stated “In order to be safe we would have to reduce our carbon emissions by 70% by 2015. Instead of achieving any reduction, we are currently adding 3% more each year”. The consequences of such a situation will be multi-dimensional. First, most of the Himalayan glaciers will melt with adverse repercussions for many of the major rivers in the region. Second, both Bangladesh and South India will suffer from a rise in sea level. It has been predicted that Western Antartica's ice sheets will not survive beyond this century, leading to a sea level rise of atleast 1 to 2 meters. Third, the Global Mean temperature is likely to go up by 4 degree centigrade before the end of the century. Some experts believe that such a disaster may occur even sooner, say by 2050. The major economic powers of the world have agreed to get the rise in average mean temperature pegged at 2°C. Even such a rise will reduce wheat and rice production and thereby post a serious threat to sustainable food security.

Over 20 years ago, my colleague the late Prof S K Sinha and I studied the impact of a one degree rise in mean temperature on wheat yield in North India. We found that such a rise in temperature will lead to a reduction in the duration of the wheat crop and thereby result in a drop in yield. Therefore, global warming and its consequent adverse impact on temperature, precipitation and sea level will cause unprecedented hardship and loss of livelihoods. Food security will be threatened and people will try to migrate towards Northern latitudes. Also such migration may not be politically feasible.

We should therefore initiate anticipatory action to meet the challenges arising from climate change. In 1973, in my Sardar Patel Memorial Lectures over the All India Radio, I suggested that we should develop Drought, Flood and Good weather codes in order to help local communities to minimize the adverse impact of aberrant weather and to maximize the benefits of a good monsoon. Unfortunately we are yet to develop well planned anticipatory steps to meet such challenges. Only recently, a National Plan of Action has been developed for climate management. I hope that this plan will become operational soon.

The papers in this section deal with different aspects of management of food security including the adverse impact of global warming such as adverse changes in precipitation and temperature and sea level rise.

On behalf of the Board of Trustees and staff of the International Rice Research Institute may I express our sincere gratitude to the Third World Foundation for Social and Economic Studies. You have recognized the role of agricultural science as a catalyst for agrarian prosperity through the selection of IRRI for the 1982 Third World Prize. We accept the Third World Award on behalf of the global family of farm scientists…

The following sections are included:

• Food Security Challenges Today

• Technology and Food and Ecological Security

• Response to the Challenges Ahead

• Biotechnology: Opportunities

• Biotechnology and Third World Concerns

• Biodiversity and Biofuture

• Food and Jobs

• Research for Tomorrow

The following sections are included:

• GROWING DISPARITIES

• NUTRITION PROFILE AMONG A FEW NATIONS IN ASIA: ROLE OF NON-NUTRITIONAL FACTORS

• CHALLENGES AHEAD

• MEETING THE CHALLENGES

• BUILDlNG A SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY NUTRITION SECURITY SYSTEM
  • Adopt a whole life-cycle approach to nutrition security
  • Adopt a Holistic Action Plan to achieve sustainable nutrition security at the level of each individual
  • Community Food Bank as an instrument of sustainable food and nutrition security
  • Resource centres for CFBs

• AGENDA 2007: A HUNGER-FREE INDIA

• REFERENCES

Africa is rich in both natural and human resources. Yet nearly 200 million of its people are undernourished because of insufficient food supplies. Strategies must be adopted across the continent to harness the power of science and technology in ways that boost agricultural productivity profitability, and sustainability - ultimately ensuring that all Africans have access to enough safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs. TWAS Founding Fellow M. S. Swaminathan, one of the co-chairs of the InterAcademy Council's (IAC) panel, that prepared the recent report, Realizing the Promise and Potential of African Agriculture, highlights the main elements of the action plan recommended to increase the productivity of African agriculture.

The following sections are included:

• Understanding Africa's food productivity crisis

• Time for a 21st century green revolution for Africa

• Contributors

• Acknowledgments

• References

The following sections are included:

• Diagnosis

• Recommendations

• Entry Points

• Resources Needed

• It Can Be Done

• References and Notes

The following sections are included:

• Technology

• Training

• Techno-Infrastructure

• Trade

• Shaping our Agricultural Future — A three pronged Strategy

• Defending the Gains

• Extending the Gains

• Making New Gains

• References

The following sections are included:

• Editors Introduction

• Introduction

• The Most Threatening Types of Climate Change
  • Climatic extremes
  • Warming in high latitudes
  • Poleward advance of monsoon rainfall
  • Reduced soil water availability

• Potential Direct Effects of Greenhouse Gases on Crops and Livestock
  • Effects of CO₂ increase on plant growth
    • C3 and C4 plants
    • The limits of knowledge about CO₂ effects

• Potential Effects of Climate Change
  • Effects on geographical limits to agriculture
    • Changes in thermal limits to agriculture
    • Shifts of moisture limits to agriculture
    • Regions affected by drought, heat stress and other extremes
    • Effects on the distribution of agricultural pests and diseases
  • Effects on crop yields
    • In humid and semi-arid low latitude regions
    • In the midlatitude grainbelts
    • In northern marginal regions
  • Effects on livestock carrying capacity

• Likely Effects on World Food Supply and Food Security

• Response Strategies
  • Changes in land use
    • Changes in farmed area
    • Changes in crop type
  • Changes in management
    • Irrigation
    • Fertilizer use
    • Control of pests and diseases
    • Soil drainage and control of erosion
    • Changes in farm infrastructure
  • Changes in crop and livestock husbandry
  • Integrating the responses

• Conclusions

• References

The following sections are included:

• Introduction

• Agriculture in the 21^st Century

• The African Challenge

• Food Production Strategies: Lessons from Indian Experience
  • Package of Technology
  • Package of Services
  • Package of Government Policies
  • Symphonic and Knowledge-Intensive Production Systems
  • Sustainable Nutrition Security

• Conclusion

• References

The following sections are included:

• Introduction

• Food Security

• Water Security
  • Physical access
  • Economic access
  • Environmental access
  • Social access

• Impact of Climate Change

• Safeguarding the Ecological Foundations of Sustainable Agriculture: Agrobiodiversity

• Towards a Century of Hope

• References

The green revolution of the nineteen sixties provided a breathing spell for achieving an adjustment between population growth and food production. For the first time, the rate of growth in food production exceeded the growth rate of population. This became possible due to the introduction of crop varieties with a plant architecture and physiological rhythm which enabled the plant to utilize effectively the available soil nutrients and irrigation water. However in recent years, there has been a stagnation in productivity in the heartland of the green revolution in India, viz., Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh. This is largely because of the ecological problems associated with intensive agriculture caused by the excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides and unsustainable exploitation of soil and ground water. It has became clear that to sustain agricultural advance and food security, there is need for mainstreaming ecological considerations in technology development and dissemination. This is why the concept of evergreen revolution involving advances in productivity in perpetuity without ecological harm was proposed and popularized. The papers in this section deal with our understanding of the genetics and cytogenetics of improving crop productivity. Information on the genetic make-up of human population is also helpful.

The following sections are included:

• INTRODUCTION

• AGRICULTURE IN THE 21^ST CENTURY

• MEETING THE CHALLENGES AHEAD
  • The Gene Revolution
  • The Ecotechnology Revolution
  • The Yield Revolution

• INTEGRATED NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

• ATTRACTING AND RETAINING YOUTH IN FARMING
  • Launching an Ever-green Revolution Movement
  • Implementation at the local level of the provisions of global conventions

• LOCAL BODIES AND A HUNGER-FREE INDIA

• REVOLUTION IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: GOALS FOR THE 60^TH ANNIVERSARY OF INDIA'S INDEPENDENCE

The following sections are included:

• INTRODUCTION

• OUR AGRICULTURAL EVOLUTION DURING THIS CENTURY

• PATHWAYS OF AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT; SUPER FARMS AND SMALL FARMS

• SUPER FARMS

• HELPING SMALL FARMERS
  • Organisation of Land Use Boards

• RURAL DEVELOPMENT

• SYSTEMS APPROACH TO RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
  • Constraints anaysis and Removal

• BASIC BUILDING BLOCKS OF THE ENHANCED HOME PRODUCTION PATHWAY

Sixty one double haploid (DH) lines were evaluated for yield components and yield and compared with the three corresponding hybrids from which they were derived through anther culture. Analysis of a 6×6 diallel experiment led to the selection of these hybrids based on their high heterosis and revealed the nature of gene action of the characters under evaluation. The DH lines along with the hybrids and parents were planted following a simple lattice design with two replications. The results show that in DH lines the values of the characters expressing predominantly additive genetic effects could reach the heterotic level of the hybrids. For characters including yield showing predominantly dominance effects, values in the DH lines were significantly lower than those of the corresponding hybrids. The promising DH lines, however, possess a higher yield potential than the better parents.

The series of twenty one monosomic lines in the wheat variety Chinese Spring, developed by Dr E.R. SEARS, has greatly helped in advancing our understanding the genetics of the hexaploid bread wheat. Utilizing the monosomics of Chinese Spring, the Canadian workers have transferred the monosomic condition to other wheat varieties (UNRAU and MCGINNIS 1958). This report deals with the production of a complete series of monosomic lines in an Indian wheat variety Pb. C591 and the isolation of several nullisomic lines in it…

The following sections are included:

• MATERIAL AND METHODS

• RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
  • Observations on consanguinity
  • Estimates of the magnitude of genetic load

• SUMMARY

• REFERENCES

IT will be 100 years in 1965 since Gregor Mendel presented his paper on “Experiments in Plant Hybridization”, in which he propounded the laws of heredity. The science of genetics was, however, born only in this century largely because of the failure of earlier workers to separate continuous from discontinuous variation in their thought and work. Progress in our understanding of the structure, function and mode of inheritance of genes has been phenomenal in recent decades. This is because of the growing knowledge, that while (to quote Kihara) “the history of the earth is written in its layers, the history of living organisms is inscribed in the chromosomes”. Chromosomes and the genetic factors they carry have been subjected to a variety of biophysical, biochemical and cytogenetical studies, as a result of which we now know the following. (1) The basic chemical substance of heredity is deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA), replaced in certain viruses by ribose nucleic acid (RNA). (2) The information needed to specify all the species and individual characteristics of every organism is recorded in its DNA in terms of a non-overlapping triplet code of bases, (3) During gene replication this information is reproduced by the unidirectional assembly of new DNA strands, each complementary in base sequence to the single strand serving as template, the end result being the formation of two daughter molecules ot DNA, identical with the parental molecule. (4) The translation of genetic information into protein structure is achieved by the transcription in the nucleus of a specific DNA code sequence into the complementary sequence of bases in single stranded RNA molecule. This messenger RNA leaves the nucleus and serves as the template for the assembly of amino-acids into a polypeptide chain, the ribosomes in the cytoplasm serving as the sites for this reaction. Each specific DNA base triplet would specify a particular amino-acid and the sequence of base triplets specifies the sequence of aminoacids in the final polypeptide product. The recent knowledge on genetic determinants (see Tatum¹ for a summary) has enabled the planning and execution of genetic experiments of great elegance and utility. While much of the most exciting work has been done in microorganisms, in which the “resolving power” of genetic analysis is exceedingly high,² significant break-throughs are also being accomplished in higner organisms. I wish to refer in this short article to a few of the possibilities opened up in the experimental manipulation of gene recombination, mutation and function…

The following sections are included:

• MATERIAL AND METHODS
  • Definition of terms

• RESULTS
  • Origin of the simple leaf plant

• DISCUSSION
  • S. acaule
  • S. longipedicellatum
  • S. andigenum
  • S. tuberosum

• SUMMARY

• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

• LITERATURE CITED

SPECIES of Solanum belonging to the section Tuberarium and occurring in Mexico have long been of interest to potato breeders, as several of them possess resistance to the late-blight caused by Phytophthora infestans de Bary. Like the tuber-bearing species of Solanum found in South America, the Mexican species also form a polyploid series comprising diploids (2n = 24), triploids (2n = 36), tetraploids (2n = 48), pentaploids (2n = 60) and hexaploids (2n = 72). These species have been classified in eight distinct taxonomic series, and our information concerning the cytogenetic affinities among them is still very fragmentary. As a preliminary towards gathering such data, a systematic survey of ability to cross among the diploid species occurring in Mexico was undertaken by me, during the sununer of 1953, at the Inter-regional Potato Introduction Station, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin…

Conger and Johnston¹ have concluded, from studies of the effects of X-radiation in a flower bud of Tradescantia paludosa containing a mixed population of diploid and haploid microspores, that chromosomal radiosensitivity or sensitivity per unit length of chromosome is identical in haploid and diploid cells. The results of different workers in which radiation sensitivity of cells of polyploid plants has been found to be equal to, greater or less than comparable diploids have been attributed by them to intrinsic differences in species sensitivity rather than to the effect of polyploidy itself. In a comparative study of the frequency of chromosome aberrations induoed by different types of radiations on diploid, tetraploid and hexaploid Triticum speoies, we observed that the results obtained varied with the type of radiation used…

IN the course of a cytogenetic study of the nature of differentiation of diploid species (2n = 24) of the section Tuberarium, genus Solanum, the mode of inheritance of three loci could be followed in a cross between S. macolae and S. simplicifolium, two species of the series Tuberosa occurring in Bolivia and Argentina. The simplicifolium parent used in the cross had simple leaves, a prominently winged stem and white corolla, in contrast to the compound leaves, rudimentary stem wing and purple corolla. possessed by the macolae parent. Except for corolla colour in macolae, the two species bred true for their characters. The macolae parent was found to be heterozygous for P, a dominant factor necessary for the formation of purple colour in the corolla.…

The following sections are included:

• Introduction

• Meeting the Challenges

• Developing technologies by climatic zone
  • Green revolution areas
  • Green, but not green revolution areas
  • Dry-land farming
  • Arid ecosystems
  • Coastal area planning
  • Wetlands
  • Wastelands

• Sustainable development systems for small farmers

• Measurement of sustainability

• Operational implications

• Support Services
  • Package of technology
  • Package of Services
  • Package of public policies
  • The role of women
  • Some immediate solutions
  • Conservation of biological diversity
  • Renewable energy management
  • Crop, animal, fish and forest management
  • Post-harvest management
  • New frontiers

• Notes

The following sections are included:

• Introduction

• Food Availability, Access, Absorption and Threats to Food Security
  • Food availability
  • Food access
  • Food Absorption
  • Threats to food security

• Technological Transformation of Productivity, Profitability and Sustainability: Rice

• Increasing Production and Productivity
  • Bridging the yield gap
  • Defending the gains already achieved
  • Extending the gains
  • Making new gains
  • Small farm management

• Vital Areas for Sustainable Advances in Rice Productivity
  • Evergreen revolution

• Research Strategies and Priorities
  • Overcoming hidden hunger caused by micronutrient deficiencies
  • Breeding for nutritional quality
  • Genetic engineering approaches for correcting micronutrient deficiencies
  • Golden rice
  • Iron deficiency

• Technological Transformation of Productivity, Profitability and Sustainability: Wheat
  • Progress in yield improvement
  • Phase I (1900–1930): Early days of Mendelian genetics
  • Phase II (1930–1960): Enlarging the base of theory and its application
  • Phase III (1960–1980): The green revolution phase
  • Phase IV (1980–2000): Transition from Mendelian to molecular breeding

• Challenges Ahead
  • Equity
  • Ecology
  • Concerns relating to genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
  • Expansion of proprietary science
  • Climate change and safeguarding genetic diversity

• Sustaining and Strengthening Agricultural Progress

• Community Nutrition and Water Security System

• Fostering Job-Led Economic Growth

• Centre

• References

Conservation and enhancement of the ecological foundations essential for sustainable agriculture are the prerequisites for achieving the goal of Food for All and Forever. There is need for concurrent attention to soil health care and improvement, and water conservation and efficient use. There is also need for the conservation of agro-biodiversity in order to meet the needs of nutrition security now, and yield security in an era of climate change in the future. We have to conserve genetic diversity in all living organisms ranging from microbes to man. For this purpose, we should develop a conservation continuum beginning with in-situ onfarm conservation in farmers' fields and ending with ex-situ preservation under permafrost conditions in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. It is a matter of satisfaction that the plea made in my Presidential Address at the International Congress of Genetics in 1983 for establishing an ex-situ genetic conservation centre under permafrost conditions has come true with the establishment by the Government of Norway of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The loss of every gene and species limits our options for the future and hence the conservation and sustainable and equitable use of agro-biodiversity must receive overriding priority.

The following sections are included:

• THE GREEN REVOLUTION

• ACRICULTURE IN THE 21ST CENTURY

• THE GENE REVOLUTION

• THE ECOTECHNOLOGY REVOLUTION

• THE YIELD REVOLUTION

• References and further reading

The following sections are included:

• The Changing Scenario

• Nature of Food Security Challenge

• Challenges Ahead

• Energy and Fuelwood

• Challenges on the Economic Scene

• Implication of Potential Changes in Climate

• Consolidating Gains and Adapting to Change

• Conclusions

• References

Extreme natural hazards, particularly the hydro-meteorological disasters, are emerging as a cause of major concern in the coastal regions of India and a few other developing countries. These have become more frequent in the recent past, and are taking a heavy toll of life and livelihoods. Low level of technology development in the rural areas together with social, economic and gender inequities enhance the vulnerability of the largely illiterate, unskilled, and resource-poor fishing, farming and landless labour communities. Their resilience to bounce back to pre-disaster level of normality is highly limited. For the planet Earth at crossroads, the imminent threat, however, is from a vicious spiral among environmental degradation, poverty and climate change-related natural disasters interacting in a mutually reinforcing manner. These, in turn, retard sustainable development, and also wipe out any small gains made thereof. To counter this unacceptable trend, the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation has developed a biovillage paradigm and rural knowledge centres for ecotechnological and knowledge empowerment of the coastal communities at risk. Frontier science and technologies blended with traditional knowledge and ecological prudence result in ecotechnologies with pro-nature, pro-poor and pro-women orientation. The rural communities are given training and helped to develop capacity to adopt ecotechnologies for market-driven eco-enterprises. The modern information and communication-based rural knowledge centres largely operated by trained semi-literate young women provide time- and locale-specific information on weather, crop and animal husbandry, market trends and prices for local communities, healthcare, transport, education, etc. to the local communities. The ecotechnologies and time- and locale-specific information content development are need-based and chosen in a ‘bottom-up’ manner. The use of recombinant DNA technology for genetic shielding of agricultural crops for coastal regions against abiotic stress (induced by the water- and weather-related natural disasters), strengthens the foundations of sustainable agriculture undertaken by the resource-poor small farm families.

Professor Mostafa Tolba has been a crusader for ensuring the ecological security of our planet. His contributions to the conservation and sustainable management of our land, water, forests and biodiversity resources are truly monumental. His untiring efforts led to several significant international protocols and conventions like the Montreal Protocol for protecting the ozone shield and the Biodiversity, Climate and Desertification Conventions.

In a Festschrift commemorating his lifelong contributions to protecting our life support systems, I have dealt briefly with the critical importance of ecological security for the food, health and livelihood security of present and future generations of humankind. I have also dealt with some ethical issues which should govern North-South relationships in sharing benefits from biological diversity, since this is an aspect on which Professor Tolba laid considerable emphasis.

The following sections are included:

• THE TWO SCENARIOS

• EVOLUTIONARY RESPONSIBILITY

• SCIENTIFIC ASPECTS OF CONSERVATION
  • Forest genetic resources
  • Microbial resources
  • Animal genetic resources

• FORWARD EDGE IN GENETIC CONSERVATION RESEARCH
  • New material for genetic conservation

• POLITICAL CON'CFRNS AND ACTION

• PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

• REFERENCES

The following sections are included:

• What Should we do Immediately?

• Enhancing the coping Capacity

• Message of the G8 Meeting in L'Aquila