Editorial
Using advanced crop technology to increase food output
Need for care to make the right choice
AGAINST the backdrop of rising number of consumers and shrinking per capita acreage of land for crop production, the issue of food security has come to the fore afresh. Experts on agriculture, government representatives and journalists at an international workshop held in the Thai capital Bangkok were at one about having a rethink on the existing agricultural practice that depends for food production purely on the amount of arable land we posses.
What is of greater concern is the uncertainties in the seasonal cycles with delayed monsoons, droughts and downpours that have forced a major grain exporting country like India to become a grain importer.
These overriding factors militating against the global food security coupled with the fact that world will have to produce an additional amount of eight to 10 million metric tonnes (MT) of food grain per year to feed the extra 2. 20, 000 mouths claiming their share of food every day, it is time we had a fresh look at the solutions being provided by science in the field of crop research. Of especial interest are the genetically engineered crop seeds, which promise far greater yield per acre as well as better ability to fight and grow in extreme weather conditions.
Though Bangladesh is still on the safe side with its one million ton stock of rice, we can hardly afford complacency given its ever-swelling population coupled with insecurity arising out of vagaries of nature. Especially, the experience of recent past, when even some leading rice exporting neighbours gave us the cold shoulder, should be lesson enough for us to fend for ourselves. But with dwindling size of per head acreage of arable land, we have little option but to multiply our crop production making use of the latest advancement in crop and seed technology available.
With this end in view, our own scientists and more particularly the policymakers in the government need to draw on the experience of developing countries that are already using such advanced scientific knowledge in crop and seed production. Thailand, which has lifted its earlier imposed moratorium on large scale trials of genetically modified rice and is now allowing breeders to conduct experiments on crops with the help of biotechnology, can provide us with an example to learn from.
In the circumstances, Bangladesh, too, cannot lag behind in taking advantage of the fruits of advanced research to reduce our dependency on the whims of nature to achieve food security. Having said that we would still have to be careful and develop the knowledge and skill to make the correct choice from among the welter of seed and crop technology options to be on offer.
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