First Meeting of CII National Committee on Biotechnology : 2014-15

Ashwin Shroff

6th June 2014

New Delhi

Preamble

Last year we focused on biotechnology in agriculture (covering GM crop issues, as also other versatile applications)

This year, I suggest we look at 1. Agriculture (In context of Food security, inflation,

stagnant productivity, climate change…)

2. Waste Management solutions

3. Green chemistry through Biotechnology

4. Biotech Parks ….?

Conference Bangaluru December 2013

A Recap

Various Sessions and Speakers

Session I: Past, Present & Future of AgriBiotechnologySession II: Agriculture – Problems and Solutions

through biotechnologySession III: Climate Change and Agriculture-Role of

BiotechnologySession IV: Emerging and Future Technologies in Agri

Biotechnology SectorSession-V: Regulatory & Policy IssuesSession-VI: Communicating Crop Biotechnology, Public

Awareness and EducationSpeakers

Mr. Ashwin Shroff Mr Rajesh Panchanathan Dr Jagat Singh

Dr. A.G Shankar Dr. Alok Adholeya Dr Sharan Angadi

Dr. N Barathi Dr. A.R.V Kumar Dr Kirit Shelat

Dr. M.A. Shankar Dr. Deepak Pental Dr. K K Narayanan

Dr. Ramanjini Gowda Dr. Pranjal Yadava Dr. Jitendra Kumar

Dr S R Rao Mr. Ashok John Koshy Dr Devraj Arya

Dr Shyamsunder Singh M Prof. C. Kameshwar Rao Dr. Arvind Kapur

Depleting Soil Organic Matter(Soil Health & Productivity)

Food Quality Issues – Nutritional, Residues – Qty. vs. Quality

Emerging Multi-Nutrient Deficiencies of Secondary & Micronutrients

Water – Groundwater Availability, Quality, Energy to pump out

Energy – On Farm, Transportation, Cold Storage, …

Stagnation / Slow Growth in Agricultural Productivity

Climate Change & uncertainty of Weather

Very High Subsidy Burden – Foreign Currency Dependant

Challenges Facing Indian Agriculture

Next Green RevolutionWill need to be Green Revolution

What should we do to make it Sustainable !!Both Economical as well as EnvironmentalHelpful & Profitable to Farmers across

whole IndiaAcceptable & Affordable to Consumers…. Possible approachesReduce heavy dependency on externally

supplied Agri-inputs (Water, Nutrition, Crop Protection, Energy)

Using and recycling farm based resources & others eg. City Waste

Cover rainfed areas (Approx. 60% of Agriculture in India) with Crop Diversity

Use New Science & Technology like Biotechnology along with Known Tools judiciously i.e. IPM, INM…. type of concepts

+

VERSATILITY OFAGRI

BIOTECHNOLOGY

Hybrids

SoilHealth

GMSeeds

BioPesticides(Botanicals,

Microbial)

BioFertilizer

FarmEnergy

Water

Diagnostics

Organic

Manure

NUTRITION

WeatherForecast

PEST & DISEASEMANAGEMENT

TissueCulture

PLANTINGMATERIALS

Bio Fuel

NATURALRESOURCES

Water

Bio Agri – Current SnapshotThough GM seeds is a key product, Bio Agri offerings span across all key agriculture inputs making it central to sustainable agriculture

Key Agriculture Inputs

High Yielding Seeds

Bio FertilizersWaste Water Utilization

Salinity Tolerant

Drought Tolerant

Bio Agri Landscape

Bio Pesticides

Key A

gri

Bio

tech

Off

eri

ng

s

Disease Resistant

Insect Resistant

Nitrogen Fixing

Solubilizing

Mobilizing

Micro Nutrients

Botanical

Viral

Fungal

Plant Growth

Regulation

Grey Water

Sewage Water

Source: Leading Indian Academician –Department of Genetics

Source: CII Agribiotech Subcommittee Notes, Accenture Analysis, Primary Interviews

Waste Management Solutions

Dealing with huge quantity of waste – both solid and liquid -, as also industrial waste….

Again Biotechnology has lot of solutions.1. Solid Waste

2. Liquid Waste

3. Industrial Waste

4. Urban Farming

Organic Waste Converter (OWC)

Mobile van for organic waste composting

Solid Waste Management

Vegetable Market Waste Processing

Bioneer

Urban Farming

Urban Farming – White chilly Cultivation: Growth after 3 month.

Urban Farming – Tomato Cultivation: Growth after 3 month.

Waste Water Treatment - Biofilter

Use of Biotechnology for Green Chemistry

The Chemical Industry has come under increasing pressure to make production more eco-friendly.

This calls for a shift from hydrocarbon economy to carbohydrate economy.

Production based on renewable raw material and enzyme based reactions provides for more eco-friendly operations. The reactions are more energy efficient and less polluting.

We have to evolve processes which do not use fossil fuels or solvents & less toxic and polluting by introducing biotechnology based chemical reactions.

Tools in Biotechnology for Chemical Industry

Biocatalysts : Using microbes or enzymes derived from microbial culture instead of synthetic chemicals

Protein Engineering : Natural enzyme activity is optimized to be used in solvents or reactants

Metabolic Engineering : Metabolic pathway of the enzyme is changed to make it suitable for chemical reactions

Others

Succinic Acid produced from either Glycerin or Glucose has increased from 3000 MT in the year 2011 to 50000 MT in the year 2013.

Lanza Tech using waste carbon monoxide from Steel mills and micro organisms produces 2,3 Butanediol.

Lanxess produces 10,000 MT of Bio-based Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer using about 50-70% Ethylene derived from Sugarcane.

Mitsubishi Rayon produces Acrylamide with the help of immobilized bacterial enzyme. This process results in reduction of CO2 production from 1.5 kg per kg of Acrylamide to 0.3 kg per kg. of Acrylamide and energy requirement from 1.9 MJ to 0.4 MJ.

Industrial Biotechnology : Chemicals from Renewable Resources – Some Examples

Biotechnology Parks

The idea of having a separate area reserved for biotechnology related activities for R&D and Production is catching on at different states level in India & world wide basis.

Creating common infrastructure facilities will be beneficial to SME units.

These parks can be developed in PPP model

common training, marketing pool can be created

Special schemes can be formulated by government and financial institutes to encourage and upgrade facilities.

Larger corporates and MNCs can provide technology & know how to SMEs in the park to outsource their activities.

Synergistic, interdependent consortia can be created.

Thanks