Sunday, November 23, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
Biotechnology Education: Future in India
Comment
By
S.K.T. Nasar
Vice-President, Maromi Human Resource Development Society, Kolkata
On
‘Are biotechnology degree courses relevant?’
(S.C. Lakhotia 2008 Current Science, Vol. 94, No. 10, 25 May 2008, 1244-1245)
This well-written, bold and timely opinion (1) invites all concerned with policy, implementation, education, R&D and future of biotechnology in India for a vigorous rethink. The opinari is largely acceptable but for its pessimism. The concluding suggestion that “It is high time that all school and undergraduate stand-alone teaching programmes in biotechnology/bioinformatics, etc. are stopped --” needs amendment.
Biotechnology, to use the simile of Swanson (2), can be likened to a river that “-- has its obscure and unpretentious beginning; its quiet stretches as well as its rapids; its period of drought as well as of fulness. It gathers momentum with the work of many investigators and as it is fed by other streams of thought; it is deepened and broadened by the concepts and generalizations that are gradually evolved. Along its course it may be tapped by other disciplines, and its waters made to irrigate large areas of experiment and practice. Eventually it ceases to become narrowly restricted in a channelized course, and its substance becomes part of a larger and more comprehensive body of thought –.”
Biotechnology concept originated noiselessly and remained unattended for the purposes of education, social development and business but got an unprecedented boost after the construction of plasmid pSC101 (3, 4). Businesses were attracted to biotechnology in the early eighties on the conclusion of Asilomar Conference (5) debates on recombinant DNA (rDNA) biosafety and after settlement of Diamond versus Chakrabarty suit (6). rDNA-based biotechnology took deeper roots at about this time. Unfettered developments in New Biology enormously expanded the scope of biotechnology. OECD (7), while biotechnology degree programmes began mushrooming, considered four main subfields of biotechnology - green biotechnology to do with agriculture, blue biotechnology concerned with aquatic uses, white biotechnology, also called grey biotechnology used in industry, and red biotechnology for medical purposes.
Kảroly (Karl) Ereky (8) coined the term “biotechnologie” (biotechnology) in 1919 which, to him, is an important engine for economic growth and social development through innovations in agriculture for higher food production.
Definition of biotechnology varies extensively. Many consider that biotechnology originated with the beginnings of domestication of life forms and organised agriculture while others trace the origins back to the advent of fermentation technology and the use of living organisms for extraction of medicines etc. Modern biochemists-turned-biotechnologists tend to restrict the definition based exclusively on rDNA, referred commonly by the media as ‘genetic engineering’. Nasar (9), in agreement with OECD (7), divides biotechnology into two broad categories: the "first generation non-rDNA" biotechnology and the "second generation rDNA" biotechnology. Over time, both non-rDNA and rDNA biotechnologies have enormously widened in knowledge, scope and application so much so that, at times, the distinction between the two categories is obliterated.
Biotechnology is a combination of biology and technology and, thereby, encompasses various societal needs. In view of neo-globalisation, biotechnology takes the centrestage in respects of research, education, intercontinental-to-domestic trade and business, community participation and national and global laws. The demand for biotechnologists is growing.
The last three decades have witnessed new discoveries in areas such as eDNA, biofilms, epigenetics, HGT, submolecular-to-supramolecular biology, subcellular-to-organ biology, production of designer cell, organ and organism, bioassay, bioaugmentation, biochip, biosensing, biodegrdation, bioremediation, synthetic biology, forensic science etc. that have revolutionised man’s world view. These discoveries, and much more to come in conjunction with revolutions in computer technology, automation, engineering, medicine, surgery, nanotechnology, astrobiology etc have altered the concept, scope and application of both non-rDNA and rDNA biotechnologies.
Newer paradigms in biotechnologies have opened innovative vistas in research, education, and production-value addition-consumption systems. Global trade and business are intricately linked with different forms of IPR regime, international protocols and instruments, and laws applicable to biologicals, environment and biotechnology.
Novel and worldwide job opportunities are becoming available in biotechnologies. The future will throw up new universal opportunities and challenges to the gen-next. India must cater to the world as it is and for the world as it will be. Both research and education should serve today’s needs and fulfill tomorrow’s obligations. India cannot afford to wait and watch.
It is in this context that research, teaching and application of biotechnology in the broadening sense are an imperative. The private sector took the lead in biotechnology business, investments, research and education. The public sector took off reluctantly but soon burst into activity to compete with the private sector enterprise. Curiously, most universities in the public sector took pride in their biotechnology endeavours in research and teaching for profit in the garb of ‘self financing’ the adventure. Here lay the downside of biotechnology development in India.
Public sector degree-awarding research-teaching institutions with the traditional departments such as of botany, zoology, and microbiology were loath to changing times. The faculty did not want to come out of their cozy niche and address new challenges. Curiously again, these departments introduced biotechnology in their syllabi at the cost of the new advances in their own subjects. The private sector had a wide-open field to operate. These institutions coordinated with biotechnology business ventures, reoriented their syllabi accordingly and, with the help of really effective placement cells, were able to find jobs for alumni. The public sector institutions lagged behind. As a consequence, the students of the public sector institutions put up a poker face and deservedly attracted the pessimism by Lakhotia (1).
Biotechnology failed aspirations in India for three major reasons; first, biotechnology is still considered by the academia as confined exclusively to rDNA biotechnology to the exclusion of new emerging areas such as mentioned above, second, lack of indispensable efforts to make available trained faculty for different facets of both rDNA and non-rDNA biotechnologies and, third, feeble investments in the infrastructure development. Biotechnology has a wide variety of career opportunities ranging from sales and marketing, to research and development, to manufacturing and quality control and assurance and more.
Nasar (9) holds that rDNA biotechnologies are the greatest gifts of the twentieth century to the humankind, but for the intellectual property rights restrictions on use by poor economies. The non-rDNA biotechnology is principally in the public domain and is, therefore, accessible to all. On the other hand, the rDNA biotechnology is basically and mostly in the IPR domain and, thereby, allows constricted accessibility to poor end-users in the developing and underdeveloped countries. Nasar (9) suggested a combination of both first and second-generation biotechnologies with emphasis on the former for research and development (R&D) and end use by developing and undeveloped economies.
The good news is that biotechnology laboratories have ‘mushroomed’ all around. Some may like, dislike, or even distaste the fact the beginning has been made. The task is to reorganise these institutions into skilled, forward looking and globally competitive organisations. India now has public-private sector institutions. Superior students are good in theory and need more practical training. Filling in this gap will raise standards. Each institution may be encouraged to undertake specialised approach to selected facet of biotechnology. Law colleges may provide specialised courses in areas pertaining to national and international laws, protocols and instruments concerning biology, biotechnology, biodiversity and the like. Universities may be cajoled to undertake studies in biotechnology management, business and futurology. Newer areas of biotechnologies will keep popping up at an ever-increasing faster rate. The National Policy on Biotechnology should continuously take into account such emerging areas and suggest strategic actions.
India can and should become a leader in biotechnology. That is a distinct possibility.
References
1. Lakhotia S.C. Current Science, Vol. 94, No. 10, 25 May 2008, 1244-1245.
2. Swanson C.P. In Cytology and Cytogenetics, Prentice Hall Inc., 1957, p.1.
3. Cohen, S.N., A.C.Y. Chang, H.W. Boyer and R.B. Helling, Construction of biologically functional bacterial plasmids in vitro. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., (USA), 70(11): 1973, 3240-3244.
4. Cohen SN and Chang AC. Revised interpretation of the origin of the pSC101 plasmid. J Bacteriol 1977 Nov; 132(2), 1977, 734-737.
5. Berg, P., Baltimore, D., Brenner, S., Roblin, R.O. III, Singer, M.F., "Summary statement of the Asilomar Conference on recombinant DNA molecules," Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 72, 1975, pp. 1981-1984, also Science 188, 1975, p. 991.
6. United States Supreme Court June 16, DIAMOND v. CHAKRABARTY, 447 U.S. 303, 1980.
7. OECD, Recombinant DNA Safety Considerations. National Experts on Biotechnology. Paris, 1986. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/45/54/1943773.pdf (Accessed on 28 August 2008)
8. Ereky, K. Biotechnologie der Fleisch-, Fett- und Milcherzeugung im landwirtschaftlichen Grosbetriebe. Verlag Paul Parey, Berlin. 1919, 84p;
9. Nasar S.K.T 2007 FAO Forum Conf 14 (Water) - 5 March 2007 www.fao.org/Biotech/logs/C14/050307.htm (Accessed on 28 August 2008)
By
S.K.T. Nasar
Vice-President, Maromi Human Resource Development Society, Kolkata
On
‘Are biotechnology degree courses relevant?’
(S.C. Lakhotia 2008 Current Science, Vol. 94, No. 10, 25 May 2008, 1244-1245)
This well-written, bold and timely opinion (1) invites all concerned with policy, implementation, education, R&D and future of biotechnology in India for a vigorous rethink. The opinari is largely acceptable but for its pessimism. The concluding suggestion that “It is high time that all school and undergraduate stand-alone teaching programmes in biotechnology/bioinformatics, etc. are stopped --” needs amendment.
Biotechnology, to use the simile of Swanson (2), can be likened to a river that “-- has its obscure and unpretentious beginning; its quiet stretches as well as its rapids; its period of drought as well as of fulness. It gathers momentum with the work of many investigators and as it is fed by other streams of thought; it is deepened and broadened by the concepts and generalizations that are gradually evolved. Along its course it may be tapped by other disciplines, and its waters made to irrigate large areas of experiment and practice. Eventually it ceases to become narrowly restricted in a channelized course, and its substance becomes part of a larger and more comprehensive body of thought –.”
Biotechnology concept originated noiselessly and remained unattended for the purposes of education, social development and business but got an unprecedented boost after the construction of plasmid pSC101 (3, 4). Businesses were attracted to biotechnology in the early eighties on the conclusion of Asilomar Conference (5) debates on recombinant DNA (rDNA) biosafety and after settlement of Diamond versus Chakrabarty suit (6). rDNA-based biotechnology took deeper roots at about this time. Unfettered developments in New Biology enormously expanded the scope of biotechnology. OECD (7), while biotechnology degree programmes began mushrooming, considered four main subfields of biotechnology - green biotechnology to do with agriculture, blue biotechnology concerned with aquatic uses, white biotechnology, also called grey biotechnology used in industry, and red biotechnology for medical purposes.
Kảroly (Karl) Ereky (8) coined the term “biotechnologie” (biotechnology) in 1919 which, to him, is an important engine for economic growth and social development through innovations in agriculture for higher food production.
Definition of biotechnology varies extensively. Many consider that biotechnology originated with the beginnings of domestication of life forms and organised agriculture while others trace the origins back to the advent of fermentation technology and the use of living organisms for extraction of medicines etc. Modern biochemists-turned-biotechnologists tend to restrict the definition based exclusively on rDNA, referred commonly by the media as ‘genetic engineering’. Nasar (9), in agreement with OECD (7), divides biotechnology into two broad categories: the "first generation non-rDNA" biotechnology and the "second generation rDNA" biotechnology. Over time, both non-rDNA and rDNA biotechnologies have enormously widened in knowledge, scope and application so much so that, at times, the distinction between the two categories is obliterated.
Biotechnology is a combination of biology and technology and, thereby, encompasses various societal needs. In view of neo-globalisation, biotechnology takes the centrestage in respects of research, education, intercontinental-to-domestic trade and business, community participation and national and global laws. The demand for biotechnologists is growing.
The last three decades have witnessed new discoveries in areas such as eDNA, biofilms, epigenetics, HGT, submolecular-to-supramolecular biology, subcellular-to-organ biology, production of designer cell, organ and organism, bioassay, bioaugmentation, biochip, biosensing, biodegrdation, bioremediation, synthetic biology, forensic science etc. that have revolutionised man’s world view. These discoveries, and much more to come in conjunction with revolutions in computer technology, automation, engineering, medicine, surgery, nanotechnology, astrobiology etc have altered the concept, scope and application of both non-rDNA and rDNA biotechnologies.
Newer paradigms in biotechnologies have opened innovative vistas in research, education, and production-value addition-consumption systems. Global trade and business are intricately linked with different forms of IPR regime, international protocols and instruments, and laws applicable to biologicals, environment and biotechnology.
Novel and worldwide job opportunities are becoming available in biotechnologies. The future will throw up new universal opportunities and challenges to the gen-next. India must cater to the world as it is and for the world as it will be. Both research and education should serve today’s needs and fulfill tomorrow’s obligations. India cannot afford to wait and watch.
It is in this context that research, teaching and application of biotechnology in the broadening sense are an imperative. The private sector took the lead in biotechnology business, investments, research and education. The public sector took off reluctantly but soon burst into activity to compete with the private sector enterprise. Curiously, most universities in the public sector took pride in their biotechnology endeavours in research and teaching for profit in the garb of ‘self financing’ the adventure. Here lay the downside of biotechnology development in India.
Public sector degree-awarding research-teaching institutions with the traditional departments such as of botany, zoology, and microbiology were loath to changing times. The faculty did not want to come out of their cozy niche and address new challenges. Curiously again, these departments introduced biotechnology in their syllabi at the cost of the new advances in their own subjects. The private sector had a wide-open field to operate. These institutions coordinated with biotechnology business ventures, reoriented their syllabi accordingly and, with the help of really effective placement cells, were able to find jobs for alumni. The public sector institutions lagged behind. As a consequence, the students of the public sector institutions put up a poker face and deservedly attracted the pessimism by Lakhotia (1).
Biotechnology failed aspirations in India for three major reasons; first, biotechnology is still considered by the academia as confined exclusively to rDNA biotechnology to the exclusion of new emerging areas such as mentioned above, second, lack of indispensable efforts to make available trained faculty for different facets of both rDNA and non-rDNA biotechnologies and, third, feeble investments in the infrastructure development. Biotechnology has a wide variety of career opportunities ranging from sales and marketing, to research and development, to manufacturing and quality control and assurance and more.
Nasar (9) holds that rDNA biotechnologies are the greatest gifts of the twentieth century to the humankind, but for the intellectual property rights restrictions on use by poor economies. The non-rDNA biotechnology is principally in the public domain and is, therefore, accessible to all. On the other hand, the rDNA biotechnology is basically and mostly in the IPR domain and, thereby, allows constricted accessibility to poor end-users in the developing and underdeveloped countries. Nasar (9) suggested a combination of both first and second-generation biotechnologies with emphasis on the former for research and development (R&D) and end use by developing and undeveloped economies.
The good news is that biotechnology laboratories have ‘mushroomed’ all around. Some may like, dislike, or even distaste the fact the beginning has been made. The task is to reorganise these institutions into skilled, forward looking and globally competitive organisations. India now has public-private sector institutions. Superior students are good in theory and need more practical training. Filling in this gap will raise standards. Each institution may be encouraged to undertake specialised approach to selected facet of biotechnology. Law colleges may provide specialised courses in areas pertaining to national and international laws, protocols and instruments concerning biology, biotechnology, biodiversity and the like. Universities may be cajoled to undertake studies in biotechnology management, business and futurology. Newer areas of biotechnologies will keep popping up at an ever-increasing faster rate. The National Policy on Biotechnology should continuously take into account such emerging areas and suggest strategic actions.
India can and should become a leader in biotechnology. That is a distinct possibility.
References
1. Lakhotia S.C. Current Science, Vol. 94, No. 10, 25 May 2008, 1244-1245.
2. Swanson C.P. In Cytology and Cytogenetics, Prentice Hall Inc., 1957, p.1.
3. Cohen, S.N., A.C.Y. Chang, H.W. Boyer and R.B. Helling, Construction of biologically functional bacterial plasmids in vitro. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., (USA), 70(11): 1973, 3240-3244.
4. Cohen SN and Chang AC. Revised interpretation of the origin of the pSC101 plasmid. J Bacteriol 1977 Nov; 132(2), 1977, 734-737.
5. Berg, P., Baltimore, D., Brenner, S., Roblin, R.O. III, Singer, M.F., "Summary statement of the Asilomar Conference on recombinant DNA molecules," Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 72, 1975, pp. 1981-1984, also Science 188, 1975, p. 991.
6. United States Supreme Court June 16, DIAMOND v. CHAKRABARTY, 447 U.S. 303, 1980.
7. OECD, Recombinant DNA Safety Considerations. National Experts on Biotechnology. Paris, 1986. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/45/54/1943773.pdf (Accessed on 28 August 2008)
8. Ereky, K. Biotechnologie der Fleisch-, Fett- und Milcherzeugung im landwirtschaftlichen Grosbetriebe. Verlag Paul Parey, Berlin. 1919, 84p;
9. Nasar S.K.T 2007 FAO Forum Conf 14 (Water) - 5 March 2007 www.fao.org/Biotech/logs/C14/050307.htm (Accessed on 28 August 2008)
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Arsenic contamination in agriculture
S.K.T. Nasar
[Please see http://www.fao.org/biotech/logs/C14/020407.htm;
FAO Forum Conference (Water) – 2 April 2007]
Sanyal and Nasar (2002, 2003 and 2005) showed that arsenic contamination in agriculture is a water-related disaster jointly with droughts, floods or other unwanted conditions. Nasar et al. (2003) indicated how arsenic-contaminated hazardous agricultural products lose marketability under Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures. (References to these articles are given below). Developing countries oblivious of the consequences focus chiefly on additional rather than on clean food in the face of the globalised open market economy and their rising populations. We firmly believe that both the quantity and quality of irrigation water-to-food continuum warrant equal importance.
The widespread arsenic (mainly As III) contamination of groundwater-irrigation water-soil-crop-animal-human continuum is a global concern. Soil is an effective sink and absorbs arsenic thereby reducing its entry into the food web. A number of weedy flowering and nonflowering plant species, crop varieties, bacteria and cyanobacteria that absorb high amounts of As III are recorded. Published work and our experience propose that arsenic contamination of soil is reduced by hyperaccumulator species of plants. Pteris vittata, a fern, is a well-known example. Developing countries can and should identify location-specific hyperaccumulators as we are doing in West Bengal, India, for use in phytoremediation options for contaminated soils.
We recommend the use of green water for irrigation purposes. Where there is no alternative to using As-contaminated ground water for irrigation, it is recommended that this blue water should first be ponded for 24-72 hours before use in irrigation. Arsenic sinks to the benthos during ponding. The mechanism is unclear. Empirical evidence indicates that suspended soil particles, organic matter, phytoplankton and zooplankton hyperaccumulate arsenic from the ponded water thereby leaving it with substantially reduced contaminant load. Suspended particles and dead plankton settle to the bottom taking along the absorbed or adsorbed arsenic compounds. [The term 'benthos' refers to the organisms that live on or in the bottom of a body of water...Moderator].
There are, however, pitfalls in such non-rDNA (recombinant DNA) technologies. The toxic arsenite species is very slowly, if at all, converted into the less toxic arsenate compounds or to the least toxic volatile arsine forms. Most developing countries lack adequate resources of infrastructure and expertise for large scale monitoring of arsenic species in ecosystem components. Dumping of the after-use hyperaccumulating organisms or the filtrates where arsenic filters have been used is another predicament. Toxic arsenic is thrown back to the ecosystem if not dumped properly. Dumping by deep burial of after-use hyperaccumulating organisms in steel capsules is too costly for developing countries. Other protocols are required.
Large-scale affordable rDNA technology application for remediation of arsenic contamination is not available. Genes and genetic systems vis-a-vis arsenic resistance and conversion in bacterial species are well documented. Sporadic reports on higher plants and humans are appearing with a rising frequency. It is now noticeably possible that large-scale application protocols of gene construct, transformant and transgenic plant for conversion of toxic arsenic compounds will soon become globally available. At present, developing countries should opt for collection, identification and large scale use of organisms that hyperaccumulate and convert arsenic species. More efficient microbes should be selected and put back together into arsenic-contaminated ecosystems for horizontal gene transfers (HGT; equivalent to naturally occurring rDNA processes) to work. A gene hunt for desirable genomes of reharvested microbes from time to time will yield gene reconstructs that will be location specific and in the public domain. It is well documented that different bacterial species contain genes for resistance to arsenic while some are also known to convert arsenic species, say from As 3 to As 5. I believe that if these (species) genomes are placed together in high-arsenic environments, HGT will naturally create over time new genomes harboring both resistance and conversion genes together. This may not appear to be much of a science but has been happening in nature throughout evolutionary history of organisms. HGT happens among bacterial species in just hundred to thousand generations. Dhankher et al. 2002-reported rDNA engineered Arabidopsis thalliana for arsenic phytoremediation (http://www.genetics.uga.edu/rbmlab/pubs.html). This opens up the possibility of producing plant species for a similar purpose. However, in the present context, I recommend current non-rDNA options for developing countries and that they should simultaneously create infrastructure and expertise in rDNA technology options.
Selenium contamination together with arsenic contamination in groundwater is reported. Multiple contaminations are fast appearing as the rule rather than the exception. This creates complexity for rDNA technology application in this context. Reduced quantity of irrigation water, selection of varieties containing lesser amounts of embedded water and the combined use of traditional and rDNA biotechnologies form the current option for developing countries. We believe that similar strategies are applicable for different contaminants and locations.
Prof. S.K.T. Nasar,
Visiting Professor (Genetics),
Department of Environmental Science,
University of Burdwan
West Bengal
India
skt.nasar @ gmail.com
References:
S.K. Sanyal and S.K.T. Nasar. 2002. Arsenic contamination of groundwater in West Bengal (India): Build-up in soil-crop systems. Paper presented to the International Conference on Water Related Disasters held in Kolkata on 5-6 December 2002.
S.K. Sanyal and S.K.T. Nasar. 2002. Arsenic contamination of groundwater in West Bengal (India): Build-up in soil-crop systems. In Analysis and Practice in Water Resource Engineering for Disaster Mitigation, New Age (P) Publishers, New Delhi, pp. 216-222.
S.K. Sanyal and S.K.T. Nasar. 2002. Arsenic contamination of groundwater in West Bengal (India): build-up in soil-crop systems. Jalvigyan Sameeksha (Hydrology Review), Volume 17, Number 1-2, pp. 49-63.
Nasar, S.K.T., Sanyal, S.K. and Bagchi, B. 2003. Negation of marketable quality and rice by arsenic contamination: mitigation options for Bengal-Delta Basin; Paper presented: International Symposium on Emerging Strategies for Reliability; December 12-14, 2003; Organised by Indian Association for Productivity, Quality and Reliability, Kolkata, India
S.K. Sanyal and S.K.T. Nasar. 2005. Arsenic Contamination in Groundwater of the Bengal Delta Basin: Implications in Agricultural Systems. In arsenic pollution in west Bengal; 5-6 August 2005, Organised by Srikrishna College Bagula. Nadia
[Please see http://www.fao.org/biotech/logs/C14/020407.htm;
FAO Forum Conference (Water) – 2 April 2007]
Sanyal and Nasar (2002, 2003 and 2005) showed that arsenic contamination in agriculture is a water-related disaster jointly with droughts, floods or other unwanted conditions. Nasar et al. (2003) indicated how arsenic-contaminated hazardous agricultural products lose marketability under Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures. (References to these articles are given below). Developing countries oblivious of the consequences focus chiefly on additional rather than on clean food in the face of the globalised open market economy and their rising populations. We firmly believe that both the quantity and quality of irrigation water-to-food continuum warrant equal importance.
The widespread arsenic (mainly As III) contamination of groundwater-irrigation water-soil-crop-animal-human continuum is a global concern. Soil is an effective sink and absorbs arsenic thereby reducing its entry into the food web. A number of weedy flowering and nonflowering plant species, crop varieties, bacteria and cyanobacteria that absorb high amounts of As III are recorded. Published work and our experience propose that arsenic contamination of soil is reduced by hyperaccumulator species of plants. Pteris vittata, a fern, is a well-known example. Developing countries can and should identify location-specific hyperaccumulators as we are doing in West Bengal, India, for use in phytoremediation options for contaminated soils.
We recommend the use of green water for irrigation purposes. Where there is no alternative to using As-contaminated ground water for irrigation, it is recommended that this blue water should first be ponded for 24-72 hours before use in irrigation. Arsenic sinks to the benthos during ponding. The mechanism is unclear. Empirical evidence indicates that suspended soil particles, organic matter, phytoplankton and zooplankton hyperaccumulate arsenic from the ponded water thereby leaving it with substantially reduced contaminant load. Suspended particles and dead plankton settle to the bottom taking along the absorbed or adsorbed arsenic compounds. [The term 'benthos' refers to the organisms that live on or in the bottom of a body of water...Moderator].
There are, however, pitfalls in such non-rDNA (recombinant DNA) technologies. The toxic arsenite species is very slowly, if at all, converted into the less toxic arsenate compounds or to the least toxic volatile arsine forms. Most developing countries lack adequate resources of infrastructure and expertise for large scale monitoring of arsenic species in ecosystem components. Dumping of the after-use hyperaccumulating organisms or the filtrates where arsenic filters have been used is another predicament. Toxic arsenic is thrown back to the ecosystem if not dumped properly. Dumping by deep burial of after-use hyperaccumulating organisms in steel capsules is too costly for developing countries. Other protocols are required.
Large-scale affordable rDNA technology application for remediation of arsenic contamination is not available. Genes and genetic systems vis-a-vis arsenic resistance and conversion in bacterial species are well documented. Sporadic reports on higher plants and humans are appearing with a rising frequency. It is now noticeably possible that large-scale application protocols of gene construct, transformant and transgenic plant for conversion of toxic arsenic compounds will soon become globally available. At present, developing countries should opt for collection, identification and large scale use of organisms that hyperaccumulate and convert arsenic species. More efficient microbes should be selected and put back together into arsenic-contaminated ecosystems for horizontal gene transfers (HGT; equivalent to naturally occurring rDNA processes) to work. A gene hunt for desirable genomes of reharvested microbes from time to time will yield gene reconstructs that will be location specific and in the public domain. It is well documented that different bacterial species contain genes for resistance to arsenic while some are also known to convert arsenic species, say from As 3 to As 5. I believe that if these (species) genomes are placed together in high-arsenic environments, HGT will naturally create over time new genomes harboring both resistance and conversion genes together. This may not appear to be much of a science but has been happening in nature throughout evolutionary history of organisms. HGT happens among bacterial species in just hundred to thousand generations. Dhankher et al. 2002-reported rDNA engineered Arabidopsis thalliana for arsenic phytoremediation (http://www.genetics.uga.edu/rbmlab/pubs.html). This opens up the possibility of producing plant species for a similar purpose. However, in the present context, I recommend current non-rDNA options for developing countries and that they should simultaneously create infrastructure and expertise in rDNA technology options.
Selenium contamination together with arsenic contamination in groundwater is reported. Multiple contaminations are fast appearing as the rule rather than the exception. This creates complexity for rDNA technology application in this context. Reduced quantity of irrigation water, selection of varieties containing lesser amounts of embedded water and the combined use of traditional and rDNA biotechnologies form the current option for developing countries. We believe that similar strategies are applicable for different contaminants and locations.
Prof. S.K.T. Nasar,
Visiting Professor (Genetics),
Department of Environmental Science,
University of Burdwan
West Bengal
India
skt.nasar @ gmail.com
References:
S.K. Sanyal and S.K.T. Nasar. 2002. Arsenic contamination of groundwater in West Bengal (India): Build-up in soil-crop systems. Paper presented to the International Conference on Water Related Disasters held in Kolkata on 5-6 December 2002.
S.K. Sanyal and S.K.T. Nasar. 2002. Arsenic contamination of groundwater in West Bengal (India): Build-up in soil-crop systems. In Analysis and Practice in Water Resource Engineering for Disaster Mitigation, New Age (P) Publishers, New Delhi, pp. 216-222.
S.K. Sanyal and S.K.T. Nasar. 2002. Arsenic contamination of groundwater in West Bengal (India): build-up in soil-crop systems. Jalvigyan Sameeksha (Hydrology Review), Volume 17, Number 1-2, pp. 49-63.
Nasar, S.K.T., Sanyal, S.K. and Bagchi, B. 2003. Negation of marketable quality and rice by arsenic contamination: mitigation options for Bengal-Delta Basin; Paper presented: International Symposium on Emerging Strategies for Reliability; December 12-14, 2003; Organised by Indian Association for Productivity, Quality and Reliability, Kolkata, India
S.K. Sanyal and S.K.T. Nasar. 2005. Arsenic Contamination in Groundwater of the Bengal Delta Basin: Implications in Agricultural Systems. In arsenic pollution in west Bengal; 5-6 August 2005, Organised by Srikrishna College Bagula. Nadia
Monday, May 19, 2008
GLOBAL WARMING vis-à-vis AGRICULTURE: A SWIFT BROWSE
GLOBAL WARMING vis-à-vis AGRICULTURE: A SWIFT BROWSE
S.K.T. Nasar*, B. Bagchi* and Reshma Nasar **
*Formerly of Directorate of Research, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Kalyani
*** Directorate of Fisheries, Government of West Bengal, Balurghat
Unsettled debates about the prospect of global warming continue, yet it is generally agreed that prediction of the long-term future of mankind in a shifting scenario with certainty is exceedingly difficult. Biological, technological, socioeconomic and intergovernmental survival strategy and the unprecedented reaction of global warming to alterations at any level of organisation from subatomic particles to biome to the universe make the situation quite complex for quantification.
The challenge is to profitably manage the interface between all aspects of global warming, climate change, international trade, dynamics of multinational socioeconomics vis-à-vis agricultural systems. Considerations about increasing tropospheric CO2 and CH4 concentrations, depleting O3 shield, loss of biodiversity, eutrophication, and varying water, soil and air physico-biochemical properties are also included. Aspects such as imminent land-use change, transformation of agrobiodiversity, ocean warming, carbon sequestration, recycling of polluting chemicals, global clean-food & nutrition security, and global-to-local equity, accessibility and sustainability are as important.
IPCC (2007) 1 has identified the risk to world agriculture as the most important among potential damages from global warming. Other concerns include sea level rise, species loss, loss of water supply, hurricane damage, and impact on human health and loss of life, forest loss, and increased electricity requirements. Three major issues - carbon fertilization, irrigation and feedback from international trade have been highlighted.
IPCC 1 has found that global warming has raised worldwide temperatures in decadal averages causing unprecedented climate change. Erratic behaviour of climate has reached serious proportions. Analysis of climate change in India 2 for 1901-2005 suggests an increase of annual mean temperature to 0.51 oC being consistently above normal since 1993. Over parts of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Bihar decreasing trends are observed. Season-wise, maximum rise in mean temperature was observed during the post-monsoon season (0.7 oC) followed by winter season (0.67 oC), pre-monsoon season (0.5 oC) and monsoon season (0.3 oC). An informal analysis of the Ganga-Brahmaputra basin (Khan, SA, unpublished) found a span-reduction of winter cold and an unprecedented pattern of erratic and concentrated precipitation. This is largely similar to all India figures. Climatic warming necessitates short duration and drought tolerant or resistant crops. Traditional rabi crops may need to be carefully replaced by new varieties to perform well under shorter periods of and erratic winter cold. Adverse effects of warming and unpredictable climate conditions on water bodies and aqua-agriculture are already showing. The temperature of entire water column is not directly affected but evaporation loss and drawl for irrigation purposes reduce the volume thereby altering bio-physicochemical, faunal and vegetational structure of the water body. Eutrophication ensues quickly in shallow waters.
Linear trend (1891-2004) 2 over the north Indian Ocean as a whole, the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea for different seasons, generally, shows a significant decreasing trend of tropical cyclones with a distinct decadal variability. An increasing trend in the frequency of tropical cyclones over Bay of Bengal in May and November, the principal cyclone months, is observed.
Warming beyond optimal temperatures reduce yields since crops speed through their development 3. Cline 3 notes further that evapotranspiration accelerates when temperatures rise. He emphasises carbon emission that can also help agriculture by enhancing photosynthesis in many important C3 crops such as wheat, rice, soybean etc. This phenomenon does not much help C4 crops, sugar cane, maize etc. Elevated atmospheric CO2 lower protein concentrations of major food crops 4 like barley, rice, wheat, soybean and potato.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) 3 is the capture of CO2 from large point sources such as fossil fuel power plants and storing it instead of releasing it into the atmosphere. Commercially viable systems are not available. CO2 in - and by agrosystems gain importance for two reasons- one, Soil organic C (SOC) pools can add to global warming, and two, CO2 injection into the atmosphere can be reversed by agricultural best management practices (BMP) acting as a CCS system. Different components of SOC pools [total organic C, oxidizable organic C, and its four fractions of very labile (Cfrac1), labile (Cfrac2), less labile (Cfrac3), and nonlabile C (Cfrac4); microbial biomass C, and mineralisable C] were, for the first time, duly considered in an elaborate long-term fertility experiment 5. A major finding for public utility is that rational management of agrosystems can effectively sequester C and that balanced organic fertilisation with FYM is suitable for sustaining crop productivity of the rice–wheat system. Recommendations that organic C fertilisation of agrosystems can sustain agriculture through adversity of global warming should be transformed into mass action. Globally, a reduction in agricultural productivity without C fertilization is projected to be more than the reduction with C fertilization. Scanty and unreliable data are available on aquatic system.
Water availability for irrigation is in crisis. Water tables are lowering and surface waters are evaporating unproductively. Narrow-span precipitations cause soil erosion and this green water is lost to agriculture. Rain water harvesting, water shed protection and micro-damming have been recommended on the basis of successful experiments. New less water-requiring and soil-moisture retaining agronomic practices are desired.
Current climate models mostly ignore the specific role that soil microbes play in the release of carbon dioxide 6 despite possibility of a positive feedback loop - where increased warming causes more carbon dioxide to be released from the soil which causes even more warming. Sufficient information is also unavailable on the trends of reaction to global warming and climate change in respect of lower- and microorganisms and on extracellular DNA in marine biofilms and in soils 7.
An imminent change in agrobiodiversity in response to the global warming is the development of new dynamics of weed flora because of strong genetic diversity of weed species in general 8. A range of C3 and C4 weeds are available in and around agronomic systems. NEWSS 9 has considered many aspects of the effect of climate change on weeds but vital considerations on aquatic and swamp weeds are missing. Weeds play a range of roles such as moisture conservation, altering the dynamics of soil microflora and microfauna; some selected weed species can be used for new purposes like feed and fodder, recycling of pollutants etc.
Globalised trading systems are shifting fast with rising fossil fuel prices and spiraling energy demand. International need for food-on-demand and bio-energy will also help change the face of existing agroecosystems around the world.
Agricultural researches require reprioritising in due consideration of technical, social and economic aspects keeping in view global market forces and long-term sustainability. Appropriate agricultural knowledge, science and technology (AKST) to match the twin challenge of global warming and international trade in agriculture are required.
References
1. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC 2007).
2. IMD, Pune 2008; http://www.imdpune.gov.in/research/ncc/climatereserch/climateresearch.html
3. Cline, William R. 2008 Global Warming and Agriculture, Finance and Development (A quarterly magazine of the IMF March 2008), Volume 45, Number 1
4. Daniel R. Taub, Brian Miller, Holly Allen 2008 Effects of elevated CO2 on the protein concentration of food crops: a meta-analysis; Global Change Biology 14 (3), 565–575
5. Majumder Bidisha, Mandal Biswapati, Bandyopadhyay P. K., Gangopadhyay A., Mani P. K., Kundu, A. L. and Mazumdar D. 2008 Organic Amendments Influence Soil Organic Carbon Pools and Crop Productivity in Nineteen-Year-Old Rice–Wheat Agroecosystem; SSSAJ: Volume 72: Number 3 • May–June 2008
6. Nicole Miller 2007 Researcher seeks ‘missing piece’ in climate change models; In Univ. Wisconsin-Madison News, Feb. 13, 2007
7. Ascher J., Ceccherini M.T., Nannipieri P., Pietramellara G. 2005 Extracellular DNA rise up in soil by water capillarity, Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 7, 07946, 2005
8. Ziska, Lewis H. 2004 Climate Change Impacts on Weeds In Climate Change and Agriculture: Promoting Practical and Profitable Responses
9. See 62nd Annual NEWSS Meeting 2008
Presentation at CWSS biennial Conference and two-day training programme “ BMP on Agricultural Inputs”May 21& 22, 2008 at FTC (Lake Hall), BCKV, Kalyani, West Bengal, India
S.K.T. Nasar*, B. Bagchi* and Reshma Nasar **
*Formerly of Directorate of Research, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Kalyani
*** Directorate of Fisheries, Government of West Bengal, Balurghat
(Pages XXIII-XXIV: In Souvenir on the occasion of 5th Annual Conference of Crop and Weed Science Society [CWSS] National Symposium on "Agriculture in the Paradigm of Intergenerational Equity" at FTC [Lake Hall] of Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Kalyani, West Bengal, India on 22-23 May 2009)
SummaryUnsettled debates about the prospect of global warming continue, yet it is generally agreed that prediction of the long-term future of mankind in a shifting scenario with certainty is exceedingly difficult. Biological, technological, socioeconomic and intergovernmental survival strategy and the unprecedented reaction of global warming to alterations at any level of organisation from subatomic particles to biome to the universe make the situation quite complex for quantification.
The challenge is to profitably manage the interface between all aspects of global warming, climate change, international trade, dynamics of multinational socioeconomics vis-à-vis agricultural systems. Considerations about increasing tropospheric CO2 and CH4 concentrations, depleting O3 shield, loss of biodiversity, eutrophication, and varying water, soil and air physico-biochemical properties are also included. Aspects such as imminent land-use change, transformation of agrobiodiversity, ocean warming, carbon sequestration, recycling of polluting chemicals, global clean-food & nutrition security, and global-to-local equity, accessibility and sustainability are as important.
IPCC (2007) 1 has identified the risk to world agriculture as the most important among potential damages from global warming. Other concerns include sea level rise, species loss, loss of water supply, hurricane damage, and impact on human health and loss of life, forest loss, and increased electricity requirements. Three major issues - carbon fertilization, irrigation and feedback from international trade have been highlighted.
IPCC 1 has found that global warming has raised worldwide temperatures in decadal averages causing unprecedented climate change. Erratic behaviour of climate has reached serious proportions. Analysis of climate change in India 2 for 1901-2005 suggests an increase of annual mean temperature to 0.51 oC being consistently above normal since 1993. Over parts of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Bihar decreasing trends are observed. Season-wise, maximum rise in mean temperature was observed during the post-monsoon season (0.7 oC) followed by winter season (0.67 oC), pre-monsoon season (0.5 oC) and monsoon season (0.3 oC). An informal analysis of the Ganga-Brahmaputra basin (Khan, SA, unpublished) found a span-reduction of winter cold and an unprecedented pattern of erratic and concentrated precipitation. This is largely similar to all India figures. Climatic warming necessitates short duration and drought tolerant or resistant crops. Traditional rabi crops may need to be carefully replaced by new varieties to perform well under shorter periods of and erratic winter cold. Adverse effects of warming and unpredictable climate conditions on water bodies and aqua-agriculture are already showing. The temperature of entire water column is not directly affected but evaporation loss and drawl for irrigation purposes reduce the volume thereby altering bio-physicochemical, faunal and vegetational structure of the water body. Eutrophication ensues quickly in shallow waters.
Linear trend (1891-2004) 2 over the north Indian Ocean as a whole, the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea for different seasons, generally, shows a significant decreasing trend of tropical cyclones with a distinct decadal variability. An increasing trend in the frequency of tropical cyclones over Bay of Bengal in May and November, the principal cyclone months, is observed.
Warming beyond optimal temperatures reduce yields since crops speed through their development 3. Cline 3 notes further that evapotranspiration accelerates when temperatures rise. He emphasises carbon emission that can also help agriculture by enhancing photosynthesis in many important C3 crops such as wheat, rice, soybean etc. This phenomenon does not much help C4 crops, sugar cane, maize etc. Elevated atmospheric CO2 lower protein concentrations of major food crops 4 like barley, rice, wheat, soybean and potato.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) 3 is the capture of CO2 from large point sources such as fossil fuel power plants and storing it instead of releasing it into the atmosphere. Commercially viable systems are not available. CO2 in - and by agrosystems gain importance for two reasons- one, Soil organic C (SOC) pools can add to global warming, and two, CO2 injection into the atmosphere can be reversed by agricultural best management practices (BMP) acting as a CCS system. Different components of SOC pools [total organic C, oxidizable organic C, and its four fractions of very labile (Cfrac1), labile (Cfrac2), less labile (Cfrac3), and nonlabile C (Cfrac4); microbial biomass C, and mineralisable C] were, for the first time, duly considered in an elaborate long-term fertility experiment 5. A major finding for public utility is that rational management of agrosystems can effectively sequester C and that balanced organic fertilisation with FYM is suitable for sustaining crop productivity of the rice–wheat system. Recommendations that organic C fertilisation of agrosystems can sustain agriculture through adversity of global warming should be transformed into mass action. Globally, a reduction in agricultural productivity without C fertilization is projected to be more than the reduction with C fertilization. Scanty and unreliable data are available on aquatic system.
Water availability for irrigation is in crisis. Water tables are lowering and surface waters are evaporating unproductively. Narrow-span precipitations cause soil erosion and this green water is lost to agriculture. Rain water harvesting, water shed protection and micro-damming have been recommended on the basis of successful experiments. New less water-requiring and soil-moisture retaining agronomic practices are desired.
Current climate models mostly ignore the specific role that soil microbes play in the release of carbon dioxide 6 despite possibility of a positive feedback loop - where increased warming causes more carbon dioxide to be released from the soil which causes even more warming. Sufficient information is also unavailable on the trends of reaction to global warming and climate change in respect of lower- and microorganisms and on extracellular DNA in marine biofilms and in soils 7.
An imminent change in agrobiodiversity in response to the global warming is the development of new dynamics of weed flora because of strong genetic diversity of weed species in general 8. A range of C3 and C4 weeds are available in and around agronomic systems. NEWSS 9 has considered many aspects of the effect of climate change on weeds but vital considerations on aquatic and swamp weeds are missing. Weeds play a range of roles such as moisture conservation, altering the dynamics of soil microflora and microfauna; some selected weed species can be used for new purposes like feed and fodder, recycling of pollutants etc.
Globalised trading systems are shifting fast with rising fossil fuel prices and spiraling energy demand. International need for food-on-demand and bio-energy will also help change the face of existing agroecosystems around the world.
Agricultural researches require reprioritising in due consideration of technical, social and economic aspects keeping in view global market forces and long-term sustainability. Appropriate agricultural knowledge, science and technology (AKST) to match the twin challenge of global warming and international trade in agriculture are required.
References
1. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC 2007).
2. IMD, Pune 2008; http://www.imdpune.gov.in/research/ncc/climatereserch/climateresearch.html
3. Cline, William R. 2008 Global Warming and Agriculture, Finance and Development (A quarterly magazine of the IMF March 2008), Volume 45, Number 1
4. Daniel R. Taub, Brian Miller, Holly Allen 2008 Effects of elevated CO2 on the protein concentration of food crops: a meta-analysis; Global Change Biology 14 (3), 565–575
5. Majumder Bidisha, Mandal Biswapati, Bandyopadhyay P. K., Gangopadhyay A., Mani P. K., Kundu, A. L. and Mazumdar D. 2008 Organic Amendments Influence Soil Organic Carbon Pools and Crop Productivity in Nineteen-Year-Old Rice–Wheat Agroecosystem; SSSAJ: Volume 72: Number 3 • May–June 2008
6. Nicole Miller 2007 Researcher seeks ‘missing piece’ in climate change models; In Univ. Wisconsin-Madison News, Feb. 13, 2007
7. Ascher J., Ceccherini M.T., Nannipieri P., Pietramellara G. 2005 Extracellular DNA rise up in soil by water capillarity, Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 7, 07946, 2005
8. Ziska, Lewis H. 2004 Climate Change Impacts on Weeds In Climate Change and Agriculture: Promoting Practical and Profitable Responses
9. See 62nd Annual NEWSS Meeting 2008
Presentation at CWSS biennial Conference and two-day training programme “ BMP on Agricultural Inputs”May 21& 22, 2008 at FTC (Lake Hall), BCKV, Kalyani, West Bengal, India
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