you do you sometimes think about where
your food comes from sometimes maybe not
always but sometimes but I want to take
you on a journey today as a
five-year-old girl growing up in rural
Maharashtra when many men would gather
at our home for lunch
my sisters and I would serve them dal
and roti I did not understand the
significance of this act but these were
the days when India had severe food
shortage food just was not available for
many in the room I am sure you cannot
imagine this situation especially if you
are under 40 years of age communities
often came together to support each
other to think that for some men who
came to our home for lunch this was the
only meal of the day still gives me
goosebumps we have made progress and
moved on where we have a significant
surplus now but my first memory is of
the ease of ease of seeds relating to
seeds of tomatoes
my sisters and I sitting in a line
cleaning tomato seeds my older sisters
would cut the tomatoes and I would put
them through a sieve to separate the
seed from the pulp
these were seeds that my father was
working on to see if the tomatoes that
he was growing would be there will be
more fruits on the plant or if the
plants would be diseased
disease-resistant this is how the seed
revolution really started in India I did
not understand at the time for me it was
just something to do for a few days when
tomato season was in full season and
pack it after packet of tomatoes would
arrive at our home for harvesting seeds
this same act repeated around the
country is how India would address its
everywhere we go today we see a food
surplus in the Mundy’s in the
supermarkets everywhere
we cannot relate to a time when there
was no food and to think that a time
existed in my lifetime when food was not
available it’s really quite a scary
thought and while my children sometimes
will say I’m quite old really I’m not
that old so when we think about our food
needs and are comforted with the fact
that we have food surpluses we cannot
forget that our needs are growing and
our agriculture must work to ensure that
we never go back to the situation that I
described so because of the what
happened during the what happened which
made us go from food shortage to food
surplus in short seeds seeds made it
happen
seed policy made it happen the Norman
Borlaug’s seed came to the rescue
many of you may know Green Revolution
but some of you probably don’t but high
yielding varieties in the Green
Revolution increased yields on the farms
dramatically hybrids developed during
this time also increase the livelihoods
of the farmer we went from a food
shortage nation to a food surplus nation
when we think about what was unique
about these varieties or hybrids that
were grown these plants were shorter
they stood upright didn’t fall over
they resisted disease and yielded more
the farmers lives were transformed with
the simple adoption of these hybrids and
varieties we went from producing 750
kilograms of wheat to 1600 kilograms of
wheat in the same area almost in one
season this is no small feat if we think
about it what did it do for the farmers
the farmers of course had more money if
we think about the varieties and we also
think about the hybrids which were
adopted by the farmers these hybrids
were straighter the law he was
straighter so it could be transported
more easily the chilies had more intense
red color so the color could be
extracted and used as food coloring if
all of these things led to prosperity
for the farmer when farmer had money the
farmer spent more money on education had
more money for health care for their
children and of course instead of coming
on a bicycle the farmer started riding
into town on a motorcycle looking at
this transformation growing up I decided
to study agriculture these were really
exciting times exciting times because
science was progressing rapidly and for
the first time at least in my for me I
could say I believed that I could change
agriculture like never before
I worked on a tissue culture project the
tissue culture project allowed me to
produce an entire soybean plant from a
leaf never heard of before but this
tissue culture method combined with
other tools which were available allowed
us to move DNA into plants which we were
not able to do before anytime we have
innovation we think something must be
troubling about this or I don’t
understand it it’s not natural so
let me talk about a few myths that we
have about any innovation and talk about
innovation from the standpoint of the
still culture and the DNA that we were
able to move into it did you know that
everything we eat has DNA in it whether
it is the papaya or the tomato but
everything that we eat has to has DNA in
it the plant breeding process that
developed the varieties on the hybrids
actually is a natural process natural
process by which you do trial and error
and select materials which are better
suited for the environment and similarly
when you think about a banana and you
think you have nothing in common with
the banana but in reality 50% of our
genetic makeup is identical to that of
banana and 98% of it is similar to the
chimpanzee so evolution has been always
at work and this is why scientific
interventions were so critical for
agricultural improvements so when we
look ahead and think about what it is
that we need to do science and
innovation has to be critical for the
want to share one example of a product
BT brinjal actually has a protein and
it’s like a vaccination vaccination to a
plant so the protein is produced in the
plant and if the insect bites the bites
the fruit the insect actually dies so
why is it that we needed to develop a BT
brinjal a farming family in West Bengal
actually produce a sprays pesticide 74
times in one
to protect this insect protect against
this insect 74 times that means every
other day the crop is standing in the
ground and so what fruits you get in the
market actually have a lot of pesticides
on them and why do they do it
they do it because they don’t want the
fruits to be damaged because as soon as
you see of damaged fruit in the market
when you go to shop you put that aside
you never touch it that means the market
value for that has gone to zero so the
farmer will do everything at the risk of
personal exposure and environmental
impact to make sure that there is no
fruit insect damage in these fruits and
that is why the farmers praise 74 times
now while these products are being
developed we have strict government
oversight to ensure that these products
are safe this product that I described
has already been cleared by the apex
body in India for bio safety in terms of
safety for humans for environment for
microbes and so on Bangladesh has
decided to go ahead and use this product
and for the last four seasons the
Bangladeshi farmer has been planting
this the consumers and the farmers are
benefiting from growing this BT baingan
so in the market you have Tories coming
with brinjal fruit with a label on it
saying it’s it’s pesticide free baingan
so what is it done for the farmer in
Bangladesh the farmer went from spraying
80 times pesticides in the brinjal field
to zero you may be saying no no it’s
wrong but it is zero zero pesticide
applications required for for growing
this crop so the question that you must
ask is why is the Indian farmer not
growing it a made in India innovation
ready for planting
proved by the regulatory body for
biosafety because that of course is
something that we want to be sure is the
case and this is what we want to make
sure that Indian farmer has access an
ability to grow this
so while plant breeding has been able to
achieve a lot of a lot of things we have
to think always about the farmer and
what is it that we want to do for the
farmer the farmer of the future how do
we elevate the farmer to the next level
how do we make him prosper and the
farmer does what we need so the farmer
has to feed us and our demands we are a
demanding society and so the farmer is
changing what he or she plants to make
sure that they deliver what it is that
we need so at no time can we think that
the farmer doesn’t need the best in
technology the best knowledge and tools
which are available so in the age of big
data and digitization agriculture is
really not that far behind
agriculture is using the information
historical data on whether for instance
to tell our farmers at what time we
should plant the crop which crop would
be more suitable because of the weather
this year compared to how it was the
last year similarly if we look at a look
at a field today and I like to say that
I can fly a drone but really not very
well but some other people in my team
can and so if we if we fly a drone over
a field today I can get the whole image
of the field in the old days it used to
take me days to walk the field many
people walking the fields before we
would understand what was the crop cover
was there some plant which was using
water more efficiently was there some
deficiency in fertilizer and so
on so this is how agriculture is
changing this is how the seeds would
have to change and having technology and
tools available to the farmer will keep
the young farmers on the field and not
have looking have them looking for
opportunities in the cities we talk
about nutritious food we are all
conscious of our health you go to the
doctor and the doctor says maybe you
should stop eating eggs you come back
and say oh but I still like my omelet or
I like to make my cake or whatever plant
products are now available which have
same properties as what the eggs have
but without the Associated health risks
so as we think about the future
innovation is key we need to think about
how we bring the latest tools to our
farmer availability and affordability of
food should matter to all of us do you
think about the thali
that you will have in the future would
it have dal in it dal prices have been
fluctuating up and down so if we think
about it
the once affordable source of protein is
no longer available to a large
population of the country so how do we
ensure that technology is available to
the farmer to grow produce more and
reduce food prices at the same time the
young farmer is who we have to keep on
the farm producing better improving
their livelihoods what you and I eat
comes in different forms comes in less
or more packaging but the common thing
is it is all grown by this farmer and
what the farmer plants in the field it
all begins with a seed thank you [Applause]