HYDERABAD: In a concerning revelation, Dr SC Dubey, assistant director general, Plant Protection and Biosafety, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), has disclosed that the genetic resources in the soil samples from the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) were being sequenced at China.
During his keynote address at the inaugural session of the four-day “International Conference on Plant Health Management- ICPHM 2023: Innovation and Sustainability” held at Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) on Wednesday, he said that in a meeting held in Delhi recently, CBI and RAW presented the data and source of funding of such research, which was happening under the aegis of a defence academy in China.
He said that in over a thousand genetic resources presented by him, some of them were being sequenced by companies in China and that such research will give our neighbouring country an insight into which organisms to modify and which ones to suppress in the genetic resources being sequenced.
In his elaborate presentation on the topic “Biosecurity and Biosafety Policy- Framework and Challenges in India,” he said that presently there were no bio-security or bio-risk management measures in the labs in our country and that there is a need to update lab inventory from time to time.
“There is a lot of unaccountable germplasm coming into the country, but we have a very weak plant quarantine infrastructure,” he said, responding to a suggestion made by another senior scientist, who stressed the need for having a special assistance programme in state universities, to train the personnel in plant quarantine.
Dubey opined that an elective course with course credits could be introduced in bachelor's and PG agricultural science programs on plant quarantine. Addressing the gathering as the chief guest, M Raghunandan Rao, APC and Secretary, Agriculture and Cooperation Department, said that the focus on innovation, sustainability and responsibility will help address issues like soil degradation, water contamination and pesticide residues in our food systems.
He said that the role of scientists, farmers, consumers, industry leaders and manufacturers was going to be crucial, with precision agriculture, bio-pesticides and conservation-led agriculture being the right solutions in that direction.
“There is a lot of information asymmetry. People are not aware of the chemicals in the products. Verifiable and transparent products with such information should be made available to consumers. We have to ensure that chemical residues don’t reach a stage where they can’t be managed by the future generations,” he observed.
Scientists from across the country were presented awards for their contribution to plant protection on the occasion. Lifetime contribution awards were presented to DV Raghava Reddy and KSRK Murthy. B Sharath Babu, Julius Diwakar, TB Gaur, Anitha and Chalapathi Rao received awards in various categories on the occasion.