|
prime concern food security |
|
|
last word Sunita Williams
|
prime concern food security
Monsanto’s
Chesterfield village research centre in Boone, Iowa, is conducting phase four tests to produce “drought-guard corn IV”, which will ensure healthy yields even in the time of drought in the US. Even as Monsanto is moving ahead with more innovations, including precision planting to get the most out of each seed, its policy makers feel India is taking too long to clear its trademark Bt maize seed. Monsanto claims genetically modified (GM) maize has revolutionised agriculture in North America as well as countries like Brazil and Argentina, and could do the same in India. At Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, Monsanto India Limited (MIL) conducted regulatory field trials for biotech-enhanced corn seeds last season that yielded good results. In June, the PAU again planted GM maize for testing. Last season, farmers in Punjab tested hybrid maize varieties developed by the PAU as well as Monsanto’s India partner, Mahyco, across 200 demonstration plots across the state. The Punjab State Farmers Commission (PSFC) says the results were “very encouraging” and that maize could well replace paddy as the crop of choice for Punjab farmers, albeit with some support from both the Centre and the state.
The way forward
Maize is the crop of the future in both Punjab and Haryana which are looking at ways to diversify from paddy. Both states have little choice in the matter. While they need to move fast to correct the depleting ground water, they know the golden age of paddy is over. Paddy cultivation has picked up in other states, including Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, and the Centre no longer needs to pick up the major chunk of its paddy from Punjab as earlier. There is overwhelming support for the introduction of GM maize in Punjab and Haryana from policy makers, research scientists and farmers, even though NGOs, particularly the Kheti Virasat Mission, has led a spirited fight against its introduction. Recently, a wing of the BKU threatened to destroy fields testing GM crops in Haryana. Dr KS Khokhar, Vice-Chancellor of Choudhary Charan Singh Agriculture University, Hisar, says tests are being conducted with the permission of the state government and there is no danger in testing crops that are being grown in some parts of the world for nearly 30 years. In Punjab, hybrid maize is already being tested as the state is keen to develop a crop to diversify from paddy. A State Farmers Commission consultant, Dr PS Rangi, says the tests have been encouraging. Maize could emerge as an alternative to paddy if the state gives Rs 6,000 per hectare being spent on free power subsidy to paddy farmers as a direct bonus to encourage maize cultivation, he says. The PAU Director, Research, Dr SS Gosal, says the university wants to develop maize varieties which can be sown in the kharif season as an alternative to paddy. Sowing maize in the kharif season is a challenge as the plant is very sensitive to drought, flooding, insects and diseases. “We are developing hybrid varieties that can handle these challenges,” he says. GM seeds were also being tested for the past two years. “We are testing seeds resistant to stem borer and herbicide separately and also single seeds that have two genes resistant to both stem borer and herbicide,” he says.
Improved yields
Dr Gosal feels GM seeds are the need of the hour, with tests not only giving good results from the bio-safety angle, but also resulting in improved yields. The PAU needs to evaluate four years of data, including adaptive trials at fields, before coming out with any recommendation. However, the seeds can make an entry only if cleared by the central regulatory authority, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC). Dr Rashmi Nair, director of emerging markets regulatory policy and scientific affairs, Monsanto, feels politics has delayed the entry of maize into India. She claims the controversy over Bt brinjal affected maize trials, with the Bihar government destroying the trials in the state. She says Punjab is very positive about GM maize and even farmers had asked her why they could not get the seeds immediately. There should be a nationwide approval for testing and the testing period should be reduced, she says. Dr Devinder Sharma, an agriculture expert, says GM maize would be even more dangerous than other crops for India because it is a cross-pollinated crop. The outflow of genes is huge and the native varieties could get contaminated. GM maize is being propagated for the dairy and poultry industry as feed, he says, maintaining it would not be advisable to allow GM crops into the country without testing their effect on cattle, poultry and even humans.
Not upbeat
As far as the success story of Bt cotton in Punjab is concerned, he feels farmers are only looking at the immediate result. The seeds would be exposed in case of mealy bug attacks, as had happened in other parts of the country. Dr Sharma questions why scientists in Punjab and Haryana are so eager to promote GM crops when 10 states have banned their entry. He claims it is to do with grants, saying money today is available only for research in transgenic crops.
Fears unfounded
Dr Robb Fraley, chief technology officer at Monsanto, says native seeds will not get contaminated by the release of GM seeds in any particular country. “We are breeding seeds around the world and feel the advantage of the biotech trait is that it actually enhances the native germ plasm. You can use genetics and you can introduce some of the traits for weed or insect management to broaden the germ plasm availability,” he maintains. Fraley also says GM technology is important to meet the demands of a growing world. “We know there have been changes in the regulatory process and a lot of politics is involved. However, in the end we believe India is a place where science will prevail as food production and food security are more critical here than anywhere else in the world,” he says.
|
last word Sunita Williams
At
home they celebrated Diwali and Christmas with equal enthusiasm, in space Sunita Williams, astronaut extraordinaire and commander of the International Space Station (ISS), celebrated India’s Independence Day. With pride, she displayed the Tricolour onboard the ISS and wished Indians. “I wish India a very happy Independence Day. India is a wonderful country and I am very proud to be a part of it,” she said in her message. “I am half Indian. My father is from Gujarat. I am familiar with the culture and customs of India. I am so proud to be a part of this celebration,” she said. The space station will be the home and workplace of this space lady till November. Sunita was launched into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 14. This is her second trip. Earlier, she was in space from December 2006 to June 2007 as a member of the Expedition 14 crew, in which she served as a flight engineer. The achiever took over the command of the Expedition 33 crew aboard ISS on September 24. She is the second woman to take charge of the space outpost, which is orbiting the Earth about 386 km overhead. Sunita is pretty comfortable about setting and breaking records. As soon as she sets a record, she’s ready to break it, even if it is her own. When she returned from space in April 2007 after 195 days, she broke the record for women in space set by Shannon Lucid. She also set the world record for women with four spacewalks, totalling 29 hours and 17 minutes of extravehicular activity (EVA). The record was broken by astronaut Peggy Whitson in 2008 with her five spacewalks. On her return to space in July this year, Sunita broke Whitson’s record. While fixing a power unit on September 6 (her sixth spacewalk that lasted an incredible six-and-a-half hours0, she clocked an unprecedented 44 hours and two minutes of EVA. Sunita now holds three records for women astronauts — longest spaceflight (195 days), number of spacewalks (six) and total time spent on spacewalks (44 hours and 2 minutes). Early days
The world is full of pilots and scientists, but only about 100 American astronauts. Sunita wanted to become an astronaut and be one of those “space” people. “In my mind, I used to think everybody wants to be an astronaut. I’ve sort of found out now that maybe that’s not so true,” she says. She was about five years old when she saw Neil Armstrong walk on the moon and she thought: “Wow! That’s cool”. She decided then that she wanted to do the same. She would watch TV shows about space travel with fascination. Sunita graduated from Needham High School, Massachusetts, in 1983, excelling in maths and science. Still, she says, she was “not absolutely number one. I was just OK”. Her brother, Jay Pandya, went to the US Naval Academy and that’s how she got even more interested in it. She joined the Naval Academy and became a pilot. “At that time women weren’t flying combat airplanes, so there were only a couple of billets for women. I didn’t get my first choice. I got my second choice — helicopters,” she says. Sunita completed her BS in physical science from the academy in 1987 and became a helicopter pilot. She went to a test pilot school, earning her master’s degree in engineering management. She has been deployed as a pilot to the Mediterranean, Red Sea and Persian Gulf. On those missions, it was her job to transport goods from ship to ship. “Everything from eggs to bombs,” she says. NASA dream
In 1998, she was selected by NASA for astronaut candidate training and since then she has been working on the space station project. To qualify for NASA, she earned a master’s degree in engineering management from the Florida Institute of Technology. She was one of the 30 selected from a
pool of 2,500 candidates for the training. She became a member of the Expedition 12 team, which would visit the ISS. She spent half her time in Russia learning about their space station and receiving training on their spacecraft. In 2002, Sunita was named as a backup crew member for Expedition 10 to the space station. That meant she would train with the astronaut crew. However, in February 2003, after the Columbia shuttle disaster in which seven astronauts, including the India-born Kalpana Chawla were killed, NASA postponed the astronaut training for six months. Sunita had lost her friends and her career suffered a setback, but she hung on. Dog lover and sportswoman
The 46-year-old Sunita was born on September 19, 1965, in Ohio. But she likes to think of Needham as her hometown. Growing up in Needham influenced her tremendously. “I think I am a smart aleck because I grew up close enough to Boston and most people from Massachusetts talk fast,” she says. She is married to Michael J Williams. They have no children and she adores dogs. When she returned from her space trip in April 2007, she was asked who she would like to see as soon as she landed, and she replied it would be Gorby, her dog. Sunita is a sportswoman and her interests include running, swimming, biking, triathlons, windsurfing, snowboarding and bow hunting. She completed the first triathlon in space, running, biking and “swimming” along with athletes in the Nautica Malibu Triathlon held in Southern California in September. “I’m happy to be done,” she said from the ISS after she crossed the orbital finish line on September 16. “It wasn’t easy and I’m sure everybody in California is very happy to be done, too!” Sunita is also committed to charity. She had given her hair to Locks of Love in order to raise some money. Indian at heart
Her father Dr Deepak Pandya and mother Bonnie live in Massachusetts. Her father is a neuro-anatomist and hails from Gujarat while her mother was born in Slovenia. They try to maintain Indian culture at home. Sunita (her parents call her Suni) had carried the Gita with her the last time she went into space. She also took along a Ganesha idol and some samosas. On her return, she visited India, where she received a grand welcome. |
|
HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |