New Delhi, India
February 7, 2008
Source:
Business Standard
via
Checkbiotech.org
By Dilip Kumar Jha
Backed by the government, the
industry logs Rs 926 cr sales in 2006-07. The agri-biotech
sector in India is growing at 30 per cent for the last five
years, and it is likely to maintain the growth in the future as
well, says a Rabobank
report titled “Indian agri-biotech sector: Emerging scenario,
issues and challenges”.
The country made its entry into agri-biotech in early 2002 with
the government giving its nod for commercial cultivation of Bt
cotton. Since then, agri-biotech continues to be the fastest
growing industry among all the biotech industries in the
country.
In 2006-07, the industry made Rs 926 crore in sales, accounting
for 10.84 per cent of the country’s biotech market. In 2005-06,
it registered a growth of over 81 per cent with a value of Rs
598 crore compared to Rs 330 crore in 2004-05.
Within six years, the Bt cotton acreage in the country has grown
manifold accounting for about 70 per cent of the total area
under cotton cultivation in 2007-08.
The report says that the industry was backed by the government
through streamlined regulatory framework, policies and fiscal
benefits that resulted in a functional genomics project with an
investment of $8 million.
The government has already initiated a project to conduct
genome-wide research on a range of agronomically important
crops.
Also, the recent infrastructure developments have provided an
impetus to the agribiotech sector in the country, says the
report.
Private sector efforts to introduce agri-biotech in India began
in 1995. However, most research and development (R&D) works have
been conducted in the public sector.
A large number of specialist national laboratories, and research
institutes and centres, and a limited number of universities and
institutes of technology are also involved in R&D activities.
The research finds that agricultural biotech in India has good
development potential. The country can become a major grower of
transgenic rice and several genetically engineered vegetables by
2010. It is emerging as an important destination for both
biomarkers and validation services.
There is an increasing use of molecular markers in crop breeding
and a growing realisation that some of these new technologies
will lead to future growth in the productivity and quality of
crops such as rice, wheat, eggplant (brinjal), tomato and okra.
The agri-biotech sector is also reliant on a strong partnering
model. Indian and US/European companies can derive synergies in
combining their research and commercialisation expertise.
However, this would not be possible without active support from
alliances among seed companies, the report says.
Alliances are becoming increasingly important in seed industry
to bridge the gap between the field experience and emerging
technologies.
This is because larger seed companies need to increase research
productivity and biotech companies represent one of the major
sources of this cutting-edge research.
It is this symbiotic relationship that fuels an increasing
number of opportunities. It also brings opportunities to operate
collaborative R&D programmes in biotech, especially, in
genetically modified field trials.
As farmers face a limited choice of new seed traits, seed
companies are looking forward to developing projects that are
required to supplement their product pipelines. Biotech
leadership of the country will certainly play a vital role to
bridge the gap.
In recent developments in the sector, Indian food companies have
started acquiring agri-biotech companies as part of a strategy
to strengthen their food businesses.
Recently, ITC acquired Australian agri-biotech company
Technico, which has
operations in Canada, China, India and West Asia through its
subsidiaries. Technico bought Technituber seed technology that
has seed manufacturing facilities in China, Canada, and Manpura
in Himachal Pradesh.
(see
ITC subsidiary
acquires Technico Pty Limited)
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