FAO Forum Conf 14 (Water)

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-----Original Message-----
From: Biotech-Mod2
Sent: 15 March 2007 09:01
To: 'biotech-room2@mailserv.fao.org'
Subject: 31: Suggestions for this ongoing debate on biotechnology

I am H.S. Sharma from India. I have B.Sc., B.Tech.(Hon's, IIT Bombay), M.S,(U.K.), Mem. ASME(USA), M.InstP.(London) qualifications. I have been involved with tribal protection and wild life protection under an FAO Project in India. I have been in charge of Bhittar Kanuika Wild Life sanctuary in Orissa. I am known for exposing ground realities in many circles like Solution Exchange/UNAIDS/WHO of which I am a member on Gnet work from India.

Every year many people are killed in many cities of india for collecting a pitcher of water for daily use when the water tanker arrives for delivery. The reality of water shortage is more harsher than realised on computer discussions.

I have following suggestions to offer for this ongoing debate on biotechnology:

- During draught in Rajasthan area of India, there is Sevan grass which goes into hibernation in extreme weather conditions and can survive for over 7 years. After rainfall, it again starts blooming. I have a hunch as a keen observer that this hibernation of the seven grass must be due to a gene, whether it is single or multiple can be answered if more competent people take up the challange, and hence a gene which makes it survive can be used for other crops.

- Due to global warming, the areas which used to grow rice have turned saltish and can no longer do so. For example, due to melting of ice in the Arctic and Antartic areas, the sea level has gone up resulting in inundation of large area of coastal regions in Bangladesh. Due to the entry of salt, the rice crop is not feasibile and it has been replaced by rearing of prawns. The population has migrated and the social fabric has been changed. The cheapest way to counter salt in water is to develop salt tolerant varieties as done in Israel for many fruits and vegetables. Let us re-orient our research as future human habitat would be desert rather than irrigated areas.

- At IIT Delhi, we have developed a coconut fibre based biotechnology product for retention of water in arid conditions which can retain 1500% of its own of water in its capillaries introduced by us. This would be a boon to the arid areas of the world. It has been developed so that saplings can be transplanted without additional supply of water. It is of great use in organic farming in cotton which can be grown in severe water shortage districts of india. The main contaminant come with water.

H.S. Sharma,
m/s Shure Cure Herbals of India
(Largest supplier of Nutra Diab Plus and Stevia to Japan)
1921/4,Urban estate,Gurgaon-122001
India
M-9873020599/Tel/0124-2326-886/fax.0124-2305-841/
e-mail: sharmann (at) vsnl.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Biotech-Mod2
Sent: 15 March 2007 15:11
To: 'biotech-room2@mailserv.fao.org'
Subject: 32: The ground realities of water in India

This is from H.S. Sharma, again. I have been Scientific adviser to the state government of Haryana in India which is the size of Germany, in population and area.

Our problems on the water front are very serious, and people continue to suffer for them due to no fault of their own, maybe some solution can emerge through e.g. biotechnologies.

Where I live at the moment, huge area have brackish water which is not easily made to drinking quality water within reasonable expenditure. The result is that people suffer from kidney damage as they are forced to drink it in the absence of any alternative. They cannot afford expensive reverse osmosis systems. [As discussed in Section 3a) of the Background Document, desalination can be carried out by distillation of saline water or using membrane technologies, such as electro-dialysis and reverse osmosis...Moderator].

1. In West Bengal, water has huge amounts of arsenic - 300 times more than World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations in water. People suffer from twisted bone and darkening of skin.

2. In Punjab, the bread basket of india, there is high amounts of urea in drinking water due to monoculture agriculture of rice/wheat, and there are many cases of stomach ulcers.

3. Usage/wastage of water in water-starved states of India. There is acute shortage of water in the Maharashtra/Gujarat states of India, still under political patronage sugarcane is grown in Maharashtra. The huge water sports complex are planned and existing in Gujarat. Huge water is wasted for political reasons.

-----Original Message-----
From: Biotech-Mod2
Sent: 15 March 2007 16:44
To: 'biotech-room2@mailserv.fao.org'
Subject: 33: Biotechnology and bioremediation

This is from H.S. Sharma, with a consideration of specific issues where biotechnology can really help in different fields.

1. Biotechnology in dryland cultivation

A cereal is grown in dryland without much efforts in terms of water or fertiliser. It is grown in waste land and gives good yield. It is however toxic for consumption. The local people first boil it to remove the toxicity than dry it before consumption. The gene responsible for toxicity can be identified and the cereal can be grown in large area and consumed without any toxic effect.

2. Salt tolerance

The salt tolerance gene can be identified and incorporated in vegetables especially tomato to make use of huge fallow land running into millions of hectares now lying unused. It is slowly being recovered by applying Dolomite or growing a plant called daincha. [Dolomite is a mineral fertiliser which raises pH of the soil. Daincha (Sesbania spp.) is a green manure crop...Moderator].

3. Iron Removal

The land and soil in Chhattisgarh state of India is the centre of iron steel industry of India, as such the iron content of soil is very high. The tomatoes grown there contains high amount of iron. The tomato sauce made from them gets blackened due to conversion of ferrous to ferric ions, as such large number of plants have closed because the customer desires red colour sauce. By use of biotechnology gene giving higher lycopene, red colour can be incorporated in tomato plant or the manufacturing method can be altered by incorporating additional additives so that the sauce remains red.

[The use of biotechnology for bioremediation of water, rather than soil, is one of the issues of interest for this conference. For example, one of the questions for discussion in the conference is "What role do biotechnologies have for the removal of heavy metals, such as arsenic, from irrigation water in developing countries?"...Moderator].

-----Original Message-----
From: Biotech-Mod2
Sent: 15 March 2007 17:47
To: 'biotech-room2@mailserv.fao.org'
Subject: 34: Drought tolerance and breeding strategies

P. Sathish Kumar (Messages 18 and 23) reports on his research in terminal drought tolerance in pearl millet. I think it is important to observe that he makes a distinction in the timing of the drought. You could roughly divide droughts and its specific effects on the plant physiology in three stages: pre-flowering, flowering and terminal drought each with different effects on yield components.

A 1996 study by Boonjung and Fukai on upland rice showed that pre-flowering drought (at the tillering stage) reduced the number of panicles per unit area by 30%. Drought at the panicle formation stage delayed anthesis and led to less spikelets per panicle and a reduction in the number of filled grains. Terminal drought (at the grain filling stage the number of filled grains was reduced by 60% and the grain weight by 20%.

The divison of drought according to the timing and its effects on yield components shows again the complexity of breeding for drought resistance as basically three different strategies need to be employed. If, for instance, for a particular crop in a particular region it is known that drought stress is most prevalent during a particular stage of crop development, attention can be focused on quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping for drought-related physiological traits at that stage of plant development.

Reference: Boonjung, H. and S. Fukai, 1996. Effects of soil water deficit at different growth stages on rice growth and yield under upland conditions. 2. Phenology, biomass production and yield. Field Crops Research 48, 47-55.

Edo Lin
309 rue de Bombon
77720 Breau
France
lin.edo (at) free.fr

[Abstract of the article is reproduced below; the development stages of rice are described at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBCH-scale_%28rice%29:
"Phenological development, shoot dry matter production, grain yield and yield components of rice were examined in relation to drought occurring at various stages of growth. Rice was sown three or four times at three-week intervals in the field in each of two years, and performance in three stress trials was compared with that in corresponding irrigation trials, with the aim of quantifying the response of the crop to water stress of 23-34 days' duration developing at different growth stages. When drought occurred during vegetative stages, it had only a small effect on subsequent development and grain yield. The reduction in yield of up to 30% was due to reduced panicle number per unit area in one trial, and reduced number of spikelets per panicle in another. The effect of water stress on yield was most severe when drought occurred during panicle development. Anthesis was delayed, the number of spikelets per panicle was reduced to 60% of the irrigated control and the percentage of filled grains decreased in one crop to zero. This decrease in grain yield to less than 20% of the control was associated with low dry matter production during the drought period as well as during the recovery period following the drought. When drought occurred during grain filling, the percentage of filled grains decreased to 40% and individual grain mass decreased by 20%. The effect of stress was also related to its severity during grain filling. Stress at this stage hastened maturity. The results suggest that variation in yield components due to water availability is related to the variation in dry matter production at particular growth stages. Results of a supplementary shading experiment show that the relationship between spikelet number per panicle or single grain mass and crop growth rate was the same, whether growth rate was varied by availability of soil water or solar radiation. Filled-grain percentage, however, was more sensitive to drought stress than shading when comparison was made at a similar crop growth rate" - from http://www.elsevier.com/locate/fcr ...Moderator].

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