In Search of Biohappiness

The following sections are included:

• Contents

• Foreword

• Introduction

The following sections are included:

• The Indian Legislation

The following sections are included:

• Kerala, A Case Study

• Suggestions for the National Action Plan of the Biodiversity Authority of India
  • Deliver as one
  • Build partnerships
  • Strengthen the role of farming and tribal communities
  • Conservation science
  • Climate-resilient farming systems
  • Land-use patterns
  • Economic value of ecosystem services
  • Biodiversity literacy
  • Climate care movement

The elucidation of the double-helix structure of the Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) molecule in 1953 by Drs. James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice William and Franklin Rosalind marked the beginning of what is now known as the new genetics. Research during the last five decades and more in the fields of molecular genetics and recombinant DNA technology has opened up new opportunities in agriculture, medicine, industry and environment protection. The ability to move genes across sexual barriers has led to heightened interest in the conservation and sustainable and equitable use of biodiversity, since biodiversity is the feedstock for plant, animal and microbial breeding enterprises…

On the eve of the UN Conference on Environment and Development held at Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, the Union of Concerned Scientists published an open letter titled World Scientists' Warning to Humanity, which stated that “human beings and the natural world are on a collision course.” The letter stated further: “if not checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know”. This warning was signed by over 1600 scientists from leading scientific academies in 70 countries. The list included 104 Nobel Laureates…

The following sections are included:

• Mangrove Genetic Resources of India
  • Conservation
  • Restoration
  • Evaluation
  • Classification
  • Education

• Where Do We Go From Here?

The free movement of germplasm across regional, national and international boundaries is a fundamentally important process in Plant Genetic Resources (PGR) utilisation. Germplasm of domesticated and semi-domesticated plant species has moved freely with human movement throughout the history of agriculture. This migration, accompanied by adaptive divergence, has produced new diversity within and among species, and enriched the global biological wealth. Thus, the overall result of these processes in crop evolution has been beneficial to the conservation of biological diversity. Apart from national quarantine regulations, there had been little restriction on the movement of germplasm across political boundaries. Plant explorers and collectors, including the celebrated N. I. Vavilov, had enjoyed free access to germplasm from both within and outside their own countries. Indeed, the bulk of the progress in modern plant breeding in developed countries was based on the unimproved but valuable landraces and other germplasm materials introduced and collected from centres of genetic diversity occurring in developing countries. In the past few decades, however, the spatial movement of plant germplasm had been subjected to quarantine regulations as a preventive measure against the introduction of new pests and diseases…

The tsunami of 26 December 2004 was a terrible calamity resulting in serious loss of lives and livelihoods in the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The response to this calamity was immediate from the Central and State governments, non-governmental organisations, bilateral and multilateral agencies, UN organisations, religious groups, and the media. In an article titled, “Beyond Tsunami: An Agenda for Action” in The Hindu of 17 January 2005, I outlined the immediate as well as the short- and long-term measures that should be taken for providing relief to the affected families, and for strengthening the coping capacity of the coastal communities in case of future tsunamis. I also indicated the steps needed to strengthen the ecological security of coastal areas, in order to ensure sustainable livelihoods for both the fishing and farm communities living along the coast. This agenda for action served as the basis for the tsunami recovery plans of many government and non-government organisations…

In India, farming is part of our culture. Seventy per cent of our population are engaged in farming. Half the world's farmers live in India or China: every fourth farmer is Indian.

Famines were recurrent in India before Independence. Between 1870 and 1900, according to British records, 30 million people died of hunger and starvation. Nearly three million people died in the great Bengal famine — in what is now Bangladesh and India — in 1943–44, just before Independence. After Independence, both Nehru and Indira Gandhi laid great emphasis on bringing more land under irrigation, in order to insulate our farming from being “a gamble on the monsoon”, as Sir Albert Howard wrote in 1916. As every farmer knows, without water you can do nothing…

The Green Revolution, a term coined by William Gaud in 1968, is a process that leads to improved agricultural productivity.

I have used the term “evergreen revolution” to highlight the pathway of increasing production and productivity in a manner such that short- and long-term goals of food production are not mutually antagonistic, and to emphasise the need to improve productivity in perpetuity without associated ecological and/or social harm…

The following sections are included:

• Adaptation to Climate Change

• Challenges Ahead

• Road Map

Food security involves physical, economic, social and environmental access to a balanced diet and clean drinking water to every child, woman and man. Physical access is a function of the availability of food in the market and is related to both in-country production and imports, when needed. Economic access is related to purchasing power and employment opportunities. Social access is conditioned by gender equity and justice. Environmental access is determined by sanitation, hygiene, primary healthcare and clean drinking water. Thus, both food and non-food factors determine food security…

In its latest election manifesto, the Congress pledged to “enact a Right to Food Law that guarantees access to sufficient food for all people, particularly the most vulnerable sectors of society”. It further pledged that “every family below the poverty line either in rural or urban areas will be entitled by law to 25 kg of rice or wheat per month at Rs. 3 per kg”. Also promised were subsidised community kitchens in all cities for homeless people and migrants with Central government support. And, “along the lines of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) we will enact a National Food Security Act”…

The following sections are included:

• Common and Differentiated Entitlements

Our performance on the economic front has been impressive in recent years with the growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rising from 8.4 per cent in 2005–06 to 9.2 per cent in 2006–07. Unfortunately, such a creditable achievement has not been accompanied by equitable growth, with the result that divides like urban-rural, gender, economic, technological, and social divides like caste, tribe, religion and region are increasing. Let me take the case of nutrition. While the prevalence of clinical forms of protein energy malnutrition has decreased significantly, the sub-clinical forms such as underweight, stunting and wasting among children below five remain significantly high. About 23 per cent of newborns in India are of low birthweight due to maternal and foetal undernutrition and malnutrition. According to National Family Health Survey No. 3, about 43 per cent of under-five children are underweight and 48 per cent are stunted. About 36 per cent of adult women and 34 per cent of adult men suffer from chronic energy deficiency. Surveys carried out by the National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau (NNMB) during 2005–06 in eight States revealed that about 49 per cent of 10–13 year-old girls and 18 per cent of 14–17 year-old adolescent girls in the rural areas are undernourished…

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has a very wide reach and nearly two million students all over the country are benefiting from this unique centre for distance education. IGNOU also adopts a dynamic approach in developing new courses and curricula. For example, I now serve as its Honorary Chair for Sustainable Development.

Sustainable Development is based on the foundation of sustainability science supported by a multi-disciplinary approach. Such an inter-disciplinary science has to be built on the following guiding principles…

In September 2010, a Summit was held in New York under the auspices of the United Nations to review the progress made during the last ten years in achieving the targets set under the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by Member Nations in 2000. The UN MDGs represent a global common minimum programme for sustainable human security and well-being. In spite of the modesty of the goals set, progress in achieving them has been inadequate in many developing countries, including India. In fact, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) points out that the number of children, women and men going to bed hungry now is over a billion, although this number was only 800 million in the year 2000. There is obviously a need to review our strategies and redouble our efforts in achieving all the UN MDGs and particularly the very first one relating to halving hunger and poverty by the year 2015…

The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities is the core of the many climate agreements arrived at so far, including the Kyoto Protocol (1997) and Bali Plan of Action (2007). The differentiated responsibilities aim to meet the special needs of developing countries for accelerated and equitable economic development. Both at L'Aquilla and Copenhagen, the industrialised countries proposed limiting the rise in mean temperature to 2°C above normal. Even this seems to be unattainable in the context of the present rate of emission of Greenhouse Gases (GHG). Hence, the principle of common but differentiated impact of a 2°C change in mean temperature is essential for prioritising climate victims. For example, small islands like Tuvalu in the Pacific Ocean, the Maldives, Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar, as well as Sunderbans in West Bengal, Kuttanad in Kerala and many locations along the coast will all face the prospect of submergence. Floods will become more serious and frequent in the Indo-Gangetic plains. Drought-induced food and water scarcity will become more acute. South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the small islands will be the worst victims. In contrast, countries in the northern latitudes will benefit due to longer growing seasons and higher yields…

Mastering the art and science of monsoon management holds the key to adaptation to adverse changes in temperature and precipitation caused by climate change leading to the more frequent occurrence of drought and floods. Media accounts of the monsoon behaviour vary from day to day, from agony to ecstasy and then again to agony. Whether or not such deviations are related to climate change, the preparedness needed to enhance our coping capacity to meet the challenge of a very variable rainfall pattern is at present limited…

A major trigger for the Green Revolution, a term coined by Dr. William Gaud of the US Department of Agriculture in 1968 to mark a significant increase in crop production through yield advance, was the enormous enthusiasm generated among farm families by the print media and All India Radio on the opportunity created by semi-dwarf varieties of wheat and rice to enhance yield and income very substantially. The revolution resulted from a symphony approach consisting of four major components: technology, which is the prime mover of change; services, which can take the technology to all farmers whether small or large; public policies relating to the price of inputs and output; and above all, farmers' enthusiasm promoted by the mass media. I recall when we started large-scale research and testing with semi-dwarf varieties of wheat obtained from Mexico through Dr. Norman Borlaug in 1963, the new plant types attracted media attention immediately. Several enthusiastic reports appeared in our newspapers as well as in foreign journals like The Economist on the new opportunities opened up by scientists for achieving a quantum jump in yield. Such reports were based on the visits of experienced correspondents to the experimental fields of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, and the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana…

Asia was for a long time known as a “sleeping giant” because of the dichotomy prevailing in most Asian countries between the prosperity of nature and the poverty of the people. Colonial powers came to Asian countries because of the abundant natural and mineral resources of the countries of this vast continent. Asian countries are also rich in their spiritual, cultural and culinary heritage. Beginning with the Industrial Revolution in Europe, the technology divide has been an important factor in the North–South economic divide. Japan has been the earliest country to master new technologies and to bring about a paradigm shift from unskilled to skilled work in its hard-working population. From 1980 onwards, China has mastered new technologies in every sphere of human endeavour, as was evident from the spectacular Olympic Games held in Beijing recently. Many Asian nations have also been making impressive progress in GDP growth in the post-colonial era. Asia is also the home of the Green Revolution in agriculture…

The following sections are included:

• Strategies for the Wanni Region

From the beginning of time, science and technology have been key elements in the growth and development of societies. Entire eras have been named for the levels of their technological sophistication: the stone age, the bronze age, the iron age, the age of sail, the age of steam, the jet age, the computer age and the age of genomics and proteomics. We are now on the threshold of the nano age. Unfortunately, the scientific revolution is taking place at a faster pace than our social evolution. As a result, demographic, digital, gender, genetic, technological and economic divides are growing. The rich-poor divide is widening and jobless economic growth — better described as joyless growth — is spreading. Although skin-colour-based apartheid has ended, technological and economic apartheids are appearing…

The following sections are included:

• Looking Back

• Looking Ahead

The following sections are included:

• Index