In Search of Biohappiness

The following sections are included:

• Contents
• Preface
• Foreword
• Introduction

The global food security situation is entering a critical phase. International prices of wheat, rice, maize and other food crops are going up due to the gap between demand and supply. Petroleum prices are going up steeply. As a consequence, there is diversion of both farm land and grains for fuel production. The State of Iowa in USA, which used to be known as a State that feeds the world, is now proud of calling itself as the State that fuels the world. Compounding these factors is the growing threat of climate change resulting in more frequent drought, floods and pest epidemics. Further there is a danger to coastal agriculture and communities arising from sea level rise. It is in this context that the conservation and sustainable and equitable use of biodiversity assume urgency. It would therefore be useful to consider some of the major issues relating to biodiversity conservation and use…

Demographic explosion, environment pollution, habitat destruction, enlarging ecological footprint, widespread hunger and unsustainable lifestyles, and potential adverse changes in climate all threaten the future of human food, water, health and livelihood security systems. 2010 appears to mark the beginning of uncertain weather patterns and extreme climate behaviour. Events like temperature rise, drought, flood, coastal storms and rise in sea level are likely to present new challenges to the public, professionals and policy makers. Biodiversity has so far served as the feedstock for sustainable food and health security and can play a similar role in the development of climate-resilient farming and livelihood systems. Biodiversity is also the feedstock for the biotechnology industry. Unfortunately, genetic erosion and species extinction are now occurring at an accelerated pace due to habitat destruction, alien species invasion and spread of agricultural systems characterised by genetic homogeneity. Genetic homogeneity increases genetic vulnerability to biotic and abiotic stresses. To generate widespread interest in biodiversity conservation, the UN General Assembly has declared 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity…

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 coastal zone is characterised by a large variety of forms which have been shaped in the course of geological history. These are rocky coasts, beaches, river mouths, fjords, estuaries and lagoons, barrier islands, intertidal flats and wetlands. In and around them, a number of specific biological communities have developed, including intertidal and marsh communities, mangroves, sea grass beds and coral reefs. Together, coastal systems represent an almost infinite variety of riches in which creatures have abundantly developed, both in species and numbers. Man too has settled in the coastal zone for partly similar reasons such as easy accessibility, abundance of food and protection against enemies…

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 NI 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…

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…

It was in 1968 that the term Green Revolution was coined by Dr. William Gaud of USA to describe advances in agriculture arising from productivity improvement. Even in 1968, I concluded that if farm ecology and economics go wrong, nothing else will go right in agriculture. I expressed my views in the following words in my lecture at the Indian Science Congress Session held at Varanasi in January 1968: Exploitive agriculture offers great dangers if carried out with only an immediate profit or production motive. The emerging exploitive farming community in India should become aware of this. 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 will 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 1854 and the Bengal rice famine in 1942. Therefore, the initiation of exploitive 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, in the long run, into an era of agricultural disaster rather than one of agricultural prosperity. …

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”…

Pranab Mukherjee in his budget speech delivered on 26 February 2010 announced: “We are now ready with the draft Food Security Bill which will be placed in the public domain very soon”. Although no official draft has so far been placed on the website of the concerned Ministry, several leading organisations and individuals have questioned the adequacy of the steps proposed to be taken under the Bill for achieving the goal of a hunger-free India. Based on Article 21 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court of India has rightly regarded the right to food as a fundamental requirement for the right to life. Many steps have been taken since Independence to adopt Mahatma Gandhi's advice for an antyodaya approach to hunger elimination. In spite of numerous measures and social safety net programmes, the number of undernourished persons has increased from about 210 million in 1990–1992 to 252 million in 2004–2006. About half of the world's under-nourished children are in India. Also, there has been a general decline in per capita calorie consumption in recent decades. Grain mountains and hungry millions continue to co-exist…

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 2005–2006 to 9.2 per cent in 2006–2007. 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 2005–2006 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…

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 Organization (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 (GHGs). 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 semidwarf 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 killing war has ended but the struggle for economic survival is just beginning for the Tamil population of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. Peace has come but for this to last, the union of hearts is essential. Thus, the Tamil population of Sri Lanka need both peace and bread with human dignity for becoming proud citizens of this beautiful country linked spiritually to India through Buddhism. While such issues have to be settled politically, the immediate need is that of livelihood rehabilitation…

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-colourbased apartheid has ended, technological and economic apartheids are appearing…

The following sections are included:

• Looking Back
• Looking Ahead
• References

It is 61 years now in 2014 since the beginning of the new genetics based on the discovery of the double helix structure of the DNA molecule by Watson, Crick and Wilkins. It is also 31 years since the production of transgenic plants started, thanks to the work of Marc Von Montagu, Jeff Shell, Mary del Chilton and several others. The first patent for a living organism went to Dr. Anand Chakraborty who developed through recombinant DNA technology an organism for cleaning up oil spills. The science of molecular genetics has been applied with great benefit in the fields of medicine, industry, environment and agriculture. In the case of medicine, both scientists and consumers have been experiencing many beneficial fall-outs such as new vaccines, insulin and genetic medicine. The major concern in medical genetics is one of ethics, as for example, the application of recombinant DNA technology for reproductive cloning. Therapeutic cloning, on the other hand, has been welcomed. In the case of environmental biotechnology, there is great interest in bioremediation methodologies since there is growing pollution of ground and river water…

‘To a people famishing and idle, the only acceptable form in which God can dare appear is work and promise of food as wages’: These were the words of Mahatma Gandhi when he was healing the wounds arising from the Hindu–Muslim divide at Noakhali in 1946. He thus stressed the symbiotic bond among work, income and food security. Fortunately, all Indian political parties are committed to the eradication of hunger and achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals in the area of hunger and poverty elimination. Our former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, for example, said in 2001 on the occasion of the release of the Rural Food Insecurity Atlas prepared by MSSRF and the World Food Programme: ‘The sacred mission of a hunger-free India needs the cooperative efforts of the Central and State Governments, non-governmental organisations, international agencies and all our citizens. We can indeed banish hunger from our country in a short time.’ Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has reiterated this resolve, by stating in addresses such as his Independence Day Address on 15 August, 2008: ‘The problem of malnutrition is a curse that we must remove. Our efforts to provide every child with access to education, and to giving equal status to women and to improve health care services for all citizens will continue.’ How can we convert this pan-political resolve into practical accomplishment?…

Knowledge is a continuum. Present-day discoveries often have their roots in prior knowledge. Unfortunately, the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime tends to ignore the contributions of traditional knowledge in the creation of new knowledge. This has led to accusations like biopiracy, plagiarism, knowledge piracy, and so on. The World Intellectual Property Rights Organisation (WIPRO) has hence emphasised the need for recognising the role of traditional knowledge in the growth of contemporary science and technology. Fortunately, the Global Biodiversity Convention adopted at Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (2001) have both stressed the importance of recognising and rewarding traditional knowledge as well as the contributions of rural and tribal families to genetic resources conservation and enhancement through knowledge addition on their practical value. Our national legislations, Plant Variety Protection and Farmers' Rights Act (2001) and Biodiversity Act (2002), have both emphasised the importance of recognising and rewarding traditional knowledge and local agro-biodiversity, which often constitute the backbone of our food and livelihood security systems…

In 2012, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, launched the Zero Hunger Challenge Programme, designed to achieve a hunger-free world, with the following words: ‘In a world of plenty, no one — not a single person — should be hungry. I invite you all to join me in working for a future without hunger.’ At a later meeting of governments, it was decided that 2025 should be the target year for winning the Zero Hunger challenge…

Agriculture and food security have been intertwined throughout human history. Agricultural growth is critical for improving food security, most immediately by increasing food production and availability. Agriculture helps to grow crops and livestock for food and industrial raw materials and is the main source of calories for the world's population. The availability of food is a necessary but not a sufficient condition to assure food security…

The following section is included:

• Index