India, the second most populous nation in the world, which is home to about 18% of the global population has achieved amazing progress in food production. A net importer of food grains in the 1960s is now a self-sufficient nation in food production, While India’s population has tripled since achieving independence in 1947, its food grain production has increased nearly sixfold. India is now the world’s largest producer of milk, pulses and millets, and the second-largest producer of rice, wheat, sugarcane, groundnuts, vegetables, fruit, and cotton. Unfortunately, India has not yet been successful in translating its success with food production to achieving food security for all. There are still about 200 million undernourished people in India. Nearly 24 percent of all the undernourished people in the world live in India. This is a very alarming statistic, and it appears to undermine the fact that India is successful in meeting the food needs of about 1.1 billion people. It is anticipated, from past successes and current initiatives, that India will be capable of achieving food security for all the people in foreseeable future. However, one of the weak links and critical risks to achieving food security for all is the lack of a robust national biosecurity system needed to safeguard its food and agriculture sector from biosecurity risks, particularly in this era of globalisation.
Biosecurity risk exposure is generally related to the volume of importation of potential carriers of pests and diseases. Given ever-increasing trade and the number of people moving in and out of India, it is now a matter of when — not if — there will be a major pest or disease epidemic in India that would impact on its food production, storage, distribution, and food safety. The inadequate preparedness to manage and respond to biosecurity incidents and epidemics is a cause for major worry as this can jeopardise the food security mission. If a covid 19-like threat to plants devastates just one of the staple crops, it will have a disastrous impact on food security of India and may cause widespread famine.
Presently, India has some elements of the biosecurity system in place. However, they are scattered over several agencies and there is a lack of a consolidated overarching strategy, or a mechanism for ensuring proper biosecurity risk management. There is apparent lack of a strong biosecurity science capability to develop sound strategies and policies, and successfully manage the impact of biological threats. India has a shortage of biosecurity specialists to build this national capacity and capability.
Development of a robust biosecurity system is critical to safeguarding food security in India. The Government of India must prepare and implement a well-envisioned and strong biosecurity strategy with a comprehensive operational system in place to manage the biosecurity risks on an ongoing basis. A robust national biosecurity system will set an overall direction for biosecurity, identify priority areas for biosecurity programs, establish proper agreements between the federal and state governments to ensure commitment in implementation of biosecurity measures, and raise public awareness and understanding of biosecurity. The robust biosecurity system must include but should not be limited to:
The success of India’s mission of achieving food security will be underpinned by many and varied factors and, establishment of a robust biosecurity system will be one of the most important factors. Enactment of Agriculture Biosecurity Bill, which has been pending in Parliament since 2013, will be an obvious step in the right direction for establishing a robust biosecurity system. India must instil a biosecurity culture, which means it is clear to all that – biosecurity is everyone’s responsibility: governments, businesses and communities all have a role and responsibility for achieving and maintaining a robust biosecurity system in the nation.
This blog was first published in the Compendium of the International Conference on Global Perspectives in Crop Protection for Food Security (GPCP-2021), December 8-10, 2021 (LP-N5)
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Well said!
Read More#𝑺𝒚𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒏𝒆𝒘 #𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒏 #𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒃𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒅𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒑𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 #𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒏 𝒃𝒚 2024.
Read More𝐋𝐈𝐃𝐀 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞#𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 #𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, 𝐁𝐈𝐎𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐂𝐄 𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞. − 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧 #𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐦𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 #𝐛𝐢𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐮𝐥...
Read More#𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚 𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐩 #𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, #𝐀𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐚.𝐁𝐢𝐨 𝐭𝐨 #𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐞 𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐕, #𝐁𝐢𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭 #𝐒𝐞𝐞𝐝 #𝐓𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐀𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 #𝐄𝐔 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐬.
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