New crop 'a boon' to India's stagnating agriculture, says Tamil Nadu university official

India's manufacturing and service sectors are experiencing very high growth rates, but agriculture is stagnating in the world's largest democracy, said C. Ramasamy, vice chancellor of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) in South India, while visiting Cornell on Sept. 13.

Developments in agricultural biotechnology, such as the new Bt eggplant, he said, is one of many steps toward improving India's agricultural future. TNAU is a project partner with Cornell in developing the pest-resistant eggplant.

Cornell researchers helped facilitate the transfer of the gene that expresses the natural bacterial insecticide, called Bt, in eggplant; TNAU inserted the gene into four popular Indian eggplant varieties and has overseen field safety trials.

"Soon our population growth will exceed 1.6 percent per annum," said Ramasamy. India's current population is 1.08 billion and is expected to overtake China as the world's most populous country by 2050, if not sooner. "We have to still ensure food supplies to this growing population with the same amount of water, same soil, same land," he noted.

Using Bt varieties to improve eggplant yields will have far-reaching benefits, as eggplant is an important crop for rural and low-income households, said Ramasamy. Also, close to 60 percent of India's population works in agriculture.

"This eggplant is really a boon," he said, noting that in addition to being friendlier to the environment and boosting farmers' income, "large production of eggplant will also require marketing, and marketing provides employment for small retailers."

Ramasamy said linking farmers to agribusiness, where farmers become aware of food items that carry the highest market demand, will help those farmers grow higher value crops. Nanotechnologies such as nano-pesticides and nano-fertilizers may also help solve future agricultural problems, he added.

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