Biotechnology is the subject of many debates in India. Government and business leaders present it as an industry of the future, in which India can be a world leader. Others argue that biotech products, such as genetically-modified (GM) crops, can help to solve India’s food and agricultural problems. However, not everyone accepts these views.

India is a leading nation in many aspects of science and technology. Information technology (IT), for example, is a global success story. Biotechnology is the new priority for several states: in Karnataka, one GM crop (insect-resistant cotton) is already being grown and many others are being researched or tested for safety and suitability.

But can biotechnology really help to solve the problems of agricultural production and food insecurity in India? Who benefits from attempts to promote biotechnology as a new growth industry? Research from the Institute of Development Studies, UK, suggests that debates about biotechnology and GM crops in India (and Karnataka in particular) are an excellent way to understand political contradictions in a large and unequal country.

Biotechnology cannot always provide easy solutions to the challenges of agricultural and poverty reduction. The research finds that:

• Policymaking processes in India are changing. Globalisation has created new elites in the private sector, often outside the government and linked to Indian communities overseas.
• Politicians see biotechnology as appealing to the middle classes, providing niche opportunities and jobs in a global economy in a similar way to IT.
• Non-governmental organisations and others question whether the scientists and companies producing GM technologies are really trying to address the problems of poor rural people, such as production difficulties facing poor farmers.
• There are problems with the models and processes being used to assess the safety of GM crops. For example, a two-year crop trial cannot be conclusive about impacts over twenty or thirty years.

Nevertheless, GM crops could be ‘pro-poor’ in India if they meet certain conditions. The most important issue is that decision-making processes should include farmers and the public, as well as scientists and officials. Other policy challenges include:

• Large corporations increasingly control agriculture and food production and biotechnology could reinforce this. Policies need to support poor farmers who cannot afford expensive new technologies.
• Agricultural science has changed, with private sector research now often leading the way. Businesses need incentives to produce technologies for poor farmers, even if there is little money to be made.
• Public sector science is important, but biotechnology is more expensive than conventional plant breeding (laboratory equipment is particularly costly, and some processes are also very complicated). Partnerships are needed to tackle this cost.

Source(s):
‘Science, Agriculture and the Politics of Policy: the Case of Biotechnology in India’, Orient Longman: New Delhi, by Ian Scoones, 2005 Full document.

Funded by: UK Department for International Development, Rockefeller Foundation

id21 Research Highlight: 10 July 2006

Further Information:
Ian Scoones
Institute of Development Studies
University of Sussex
Falmer, BN1 9RE
UK

Tel: +44 (0)1273 606261
Fax: +44 (0)1273 621202
Contact the contributor: i.scoones@ids.ac.uk

Institute of Development Studies, UK

Other related links:
id21 insights #52 'Debating GM crops'

Read more about IDS projects on 'Agricultural Biotechnology and Policy Processes in Developing Countries'

'Gene revolution reaches the poorest farmers in India'

'Making international biotechnology agreements work in India and China'

See id21's links on Agriculture