Conventional approaches to germplasm enhancement and crop breeding have had dramatic impacts on food productivity, particularly in systems with high inputs of fertilizer, water and pesticides. However, these approaches not been able to fully control pests, diseases and weeds, which according to two surveys done in 1967 and 1994 accounted for 40% worldwide losses in crop yields (Cramer 1967, Oerke et al. 1994). New biotechnology methods will prove more effective and provide high levels of resistance to these and other stresses. Biotechnologies that are focused on smallholders problems, undertaken in an integrated manner and along with traditional research aimed at improving agronomic practices can help poor farmers increase productivity (Pinstrup- Andersen et al. 1999). Thus, while only part of a total solution that involves better markets, policies, and access to production resources, biotechnology can contribute to addressing poverty issues in developing countries. Modern tools of biotechnology will provide some of the impetus needed to achieve major breakthroughs in agriculture in future(Sharma et al. 2001).
These advances will come through the use of modern techniques in:
• Wide hybridization to access pest resistance and quality traits from the wild relatives of crops
• Marker assisted selection to accelerate the introgression of desired genes into high yielding locally adapted cultivars
• Introgression of exotic genes from unrelated organisms to increase resistance to pests, drought, quality traits, nitrogen fixation, etc.
At ICRISAT several candidate genes are being evaluated for imparting resistance to the target insects and diseases, improve adaptation to different abiotic stress factors, and nutritional quality of the produce (Table 2). Such an effort will play a major role in minimizing the insect associated losses and increase crop production, and thus improving the quality of life for the rural poor.
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