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`Biotech in crop production must be user friendly'
By Our Special Correspondent
CHENNAI, JAN. 3. Biotechnology should aim at producing crops that are ``consumer friendly'' rather than ``farmer friendly'', according to Isi Siddiqui, consultant to the American Crop Protection Association.
Speaking on ``agricultural biotechnology and food security'' at the inaugural session of the four-day symposium on `Biotechnology Initiative', organised by Cornell University and Sathguru Management Consultants here today, Dr. Siddiqui said plant genome technology would play as a crucial role in ensuring food security in future marked by a population boom, as had been played by the traditional green revolution technology in the past decades.
Application of biotechnology would enable production of crops with required nutrients, or cultivable profitably in small holdings and entailing low costs, besides being disease resistant, he said.
Dr. Siddiqui, who was Trade Advisor to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and held key positions in the Clinton administration, said the WTO ministerial declaration at Doha in respect of intellectual property rights, drugs, agriculture, etc., represented ``globalisation with a human face'' and was a welcome development.
He alleged that NGOs from developed countries with abundant farm subsidies were ``dictating the agenda'' of NGOs in other parts of the world, whose tasks in respect of environment and sustainable development were ``at odds'' with those of developed countries.
Edison T. Liu of the Genome Institute of Singapore, in his address devoted by and large to the role of ``expression genomics'' in cancer, said Singapore, with a mixed ethnic population, aimed at excellence in genomics and biotechnology. Highlighting the role Indians and Chinese played in the advancement of biotechnology in the U.S., he emphasised that biotechnology projects required long-term investment and support of governments and industry consortia.
The Chief Minister, O. Panneerselvam, who inaugurated the symposium, detailing the State Government's many initiatives in different segments of biotechnology, called for investments in this sector. Success of a few ventures would spur further development of biotechnology in the State, he said.
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