NEW DELHI: "The U.S is really committed to developing and improving relations with India and one of the areas where cooperation can progress is science and technology," visiting Senator Kit Bond told reporters here Tuesday. He said the first memorandum of understanding on collaboration in plant biotechnology, bio-informatics, crystallography, biochemistry and other related fields is slated to be signed soon. Expressing confidence in the capability of Indian scientists after interactions at several leading institutes in Bangalore, Delhi and Hyderabad, Bond said great opportunities existed for collaborations in the field of biotechnology in particular. "There are things being developed here that are truly exciting," said Bond. While agreeing there are still a lot of reservations about genetically modified products, Bond stressed the need for "linking science to the regulatory process to handle the products of new technology" so there was a scientific base for stopping farmers from utilising the latest technology to raise yields. "The regulatory scheme should be scientific based, transparent and timely. The challenge is to ensure that the regulatory scheme keeps up with scientific developments," said Bond. "We are keen on driving forward collaborations so they drive forward science for India to the next level of application in the sector of agriculture biotechnology," said Roger N. Beachy, a leading global plant scientist known for his work on virus resistant plants. The first project for collaboration is likely to be on tobacco streak disease that affects sunflower, chickpeas and groundnut crops with periodic frequency whenever weather conditions favour the spread of the virus, said Beachy, who is the president of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Centre in St. Louis, Missouri. "One of the greatest advantages plant biotechnology will bring is to minimise the use of agro-chemicals to check the spread of plant viruses. The technology for tackling tobacco streak virus disease is ready to be adopted," said Beachy. According to Beachy, every major crop and plant in India is vulnerable to plant disease, which does not impact on edible quality but can affect the life and nutrition quality of the produce. "Technology developed over the years has enabled bio-scientist develop ways of tackling almost all plant diseases. It would be an opportunity lost to not to use these technologies to check disease and enhance production and nutrition value of agricultural produce," Beachy maintained. Some of the other virus disease that has been identified for collaboration are leaf curl disease that affects tomato and cotton plants. Under the collaboration programme, Indian scientists will identify the programme for joint work, and based on the work programme approach multilateral funding agencies for financial assistance. In addition, Indian scientists would survey and produce diagnostic kits to enable farmers to identify diseases afflicting their crop while the U.S scientists would collaborate with other leading global biotechnology and agriculture bodies to find the right technology. "We are not relying on any single source, but would be looking at both transgenic and non-transgenic plant varieties to help farmers find solutions to combat diseases while increasing their yield," said Beachy.
Source: IANS