Brief Summary
This YouTube video features a lecture on green innovation for food security, emphasising its importance for planetary health. The speaker discusses the impact of climate change on food systems, soil fertility, and nutrient availability, and explores conservation approaches like gene banks and botanical gardens. She also touches on biotechnological tools, genetic modification, and the contributions of Indian environmentalists. The lecture highlights the need for sustainable development, ethical responsibility in food production, and the integration of science and technology to ensure food security for future generations.
- Climate change impacts on food systems and soil fertility.
- Importance of conservation approaches and biotechnological tools.
- Ethical responsibility in food production for future generations.
- The role of genetic engineering and green innovations in agriculture.
- Contributions of Indian environmentalists to sustainability.
Introduction and Speaker Introduction
The session begins with a warm welcome to Dr. Sugandha Singh, an expert in education with extensive experience in academics and research. Dr. Singh's background includes a PhD, MSc, and BA degrees, and she has served as an ex-Dean of Science and IT at Madhyanchal Professional University in Bhopal. With over 15 years of teaching and 10 years of research experience, she has significantly contributed to biotechnology, including leading the Department of Biotechnology at Sant Haridram Girls College, Bhopal. She has also been a key member of various academic committees and associations, and her research has been recognised with awards like the Young Scientist Fellowship.
Course Overview and Expectations
Dr. Singh expresses her gratitude to the organisers for the opportunity to share her perspectives on environmental science and sustainable development. She acknowledges the importance of the refresher course and seeks input from the attendees regarding their key takeaways and concerns. Ajay shares that the course has covered new technologies for solving environmental issues, including biotechnological approaches. Dr. Singh appreciates the efforts to create a platform for meaningful dialogue and learning, emphasising the continuous learning process and mutual exchange of knowledge.
Climate Change and Food Systems
Dr. Singh outlines the topics she will cover, focusing on the impact of climate change on food systems and food security. This includes effects on soil fertility, nutrient composition, and crop survival. She plans to discuss conservation approaches such as gene banks and botanical gardens, along with conventional breeding techniques and biotechnological tools like gene editing and genetically modified crops. Additionally, she aims to highlight the contributions of Indian environmentalists working at the grassroots level to address environmental issues.
Audience Engagement and Introduction to Green Innovation
Dr. Singh engages the audience by asking what they plan to do after the session, with responses including having tea and snacks. She uses this to transition into the topic of environmental concerns related to food. With permission, she begins her talk, sharing her screen to present slides on green innovation for food security as a key to planetary health. She notes the world's progress in various fields, including artificial intelligence and teaching methodologies, but highlights the challenges in ensuring food security for all, questioning whether efforts are sufficient for future generations.
The Global Food System and Sustainability
The lecture addresses the challenges facing the global food system, including political and social pressures, and the increasing global population. With India's population at 146 crore and expected to rise to 8 billion by 2030, the effects of climate change pose a significant concern. The future of food and farming is questioned, with an emphasis on achieving global sustainability. International food prices have increased, making food less affordable and highlighting structural flaws in the food production system. Sustainable development requires access to food for everyone, necessitating ways to balance food demand and supply.
Demographics and the Importance of Plants
Annually, up to 14% of food is wasted before reaching the wholesale market, leading to health problems and costing the global economy approximately 3.5 trillion US dollars per year. Climate change is depleting resources and impacting food systems globally, affecting nutrient availability and soil fertility. Protecting crops to enhance yield and reduce malnutrition is crucial. Land use practices, biodiversity reduction, and water pollution are interconnected issues. Plants are essential for daily life, celebrations, and well-being, underscoring the importance of conserving biodiversity.
The Multifaceted Use of Plants and the Role of Science
Plants play a vital role in various aspects of life, from providing materials for homes and fuel to purifying the air. They are used for self-reflection, expressing affection, and in religious practices, where trees are often worshipped and associated with deities. This connection promotes a scientific attitude and helps conserve particular species. The lecture transitions to discussing the intervention of science, specifically biotechnology, to ensure the quality of food systems, conservation strategies, and recent environmental concerns.
Biotechnology in Agriculture
Biotechnology, combining biology and technology, is crucial in agriculture for creating robust plant systems. This involves using organisms like microbes, plant cells, or animal cells to genetically transform species and introduce desirable traits. For plants, this includes providing nutritional support, increasing vitamin content, and enhancing agricultural productivity. Genetic engineering, involving the manipulation of DNA, improves resistance to climatic factors and stresses. Molecular markers are used to conserve plant varieties. The global market size for agricultural biotechnology has increased significantly, showing excellent results in sustainable crop development and variety improvement.
Crop Resilience and Climate-Smart Agriculture
Biotechnology is reported to make the world food secure and environmentally sustainable by studying the genetics and biochemistry of crops to develop new varieties. This enhances crop resilience to environmental stresses, improves yield, and increases nutritional content. Crop resilience is a key focus in agricultural biotechnology, with scientists creating new varieties and increasing nutritional content. Climate-smart agriculture connects climate change and agriculture to solve food security problems, using remote sensing and satellites to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pesticide use.
Conservation and Strategic Planning
Conservation of plants and trees is an integral part of agriculture, involving the maintenance of diversity in plant species that are socially, economically, and environmentally valuable. Strategic planning includes assessing and ranking species, and creating conservation action plans based on their utility. The decision-making approach involves scoring threat values by stakeholders, with the species having the highest score prioritised for conservation.
Conservation Strategies: In-Situ and Ex-Situ
Conservation strategies are divided into in-situ and ex-situ methods. In-situ conservation involves protecting species in their natural habitats, such as national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, biosphere reserves, and sacred groves. Ex-situ conservation includes establishing secret plants, home gardens, gene banks, and using techniques like cryopreservation and botanical gardens. Integrated plant conservation manages both in-situ and ex-situ methods, balancing collection and restoration.
Integrated Plant Conservation and Traditional Management
Integrated plant conservation involves creating banks to store plant material for future research, utilising genetics, ecology, and reproductive biology. It also includes horticulture, propagation methods, and education through awareness programs and training. In-situ conservation is mainly used in developing nations, preserving entire ecosystems cost-effectively with less human intervention. Sacred groves, dedicated to deities, protect specific areas and species. Traditional management, under the ICCA concept, involves indigenous communities actively preserving flora and fauna, supported by the Wildlife Protection Act.
In-Situ Conservation and Biodiversity Hotspots
In-situ conservation protects species in undisturbed areas through national parks, sanctuaries, and biosphere reserves. Indian mega-diversity biodiversity hotspots include the Indo-Burman region, Western Ghats, Eastern Himalayas, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Conservation techniques in natural forests can be static, strict, or evolutionary, with genetic processes being important in both strict and evolutionary conservation. Static conservation preserves current generation sets and genotypes through seed banks.
Ex-Situ Conservation Strategies
Ex-situ conservation allows the use of genetic diversity in plant breeding, involving the identification, conservation, and checking of variations within species. Artificial maintenance of populations is done outside their natural distribution in specific locations. Seed banks store seeds, preserving historical and cultural value. Recalcitrant seeds, prone to desiccation, are stored using cold storage. Field gene banks are used for seeds that cannot survive long, involving collection, storage, and monitoring in the field.
Cryopreservation and Cold Storage
Cryopreservation involves conserving cells, DNA, or protoplasts by freezing them at ultra-low temperatures using liquid nitrogen. This preserves the material for long-term use in education or research. Various plant parts, such as meristems, embryos, and tissue cultures, can be cryopreserved. Cold storage is a slow-growth conservation method that preserves germplasm at low freezing temperatures, maintaining advantages over cryopreservation by slowing down growth rather than completely stopping it.
Tissue Culture and Genetic Engineering
Traditional plant breeding approaches are slow and less productive, necessitating modern techniques like genetic engineering. Tissue culture, or in vitro propagation, and the use of molecular markers enhance plant species and conserve them. Tissue culture is a laboratory technique for conserving endangered plants and creating multiple clones under aseptic conditions. It requires small spaces and fewer resources, allowing for rapid mass multiplication and the production of disease-free plants.
Applications of Tissue Culture and Genetic Engineering
Tissue culture has various branches, including secondary metabolite production, protoplast culture, and somatic embryogenesis. It is used for commercial drug preparation, clonal propagation, and conserving rare plant materials. Genetic engineering improves crop quality, nutritional content, and productivity by addressing disease susceptibility and environmental stresses. The lecture touches on the controversial issue of genetically modified (GM) crops and foods, opening a discussion on their acceptance and potential impacts.
GM Crops and Genetic Engineering
Genetic engineering involves introducing genes of interest, such as salt tolerance or pesticide resistance, into crops. Examples include BT cotton and BT brinjal. While some prefer GM crops for their environmental benefits, such as reduced pesticide use, concerns exist about insects developing resistance. The adoption of biotech crops has increased globally, contributing to the upliftment of millions of farmers and their families. The top countries using biotech crops include the USA, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, and India.
Genetic Editing and Future Trends
Genetic editing is a rising trend in biotechnology, expected to drive agricultural productivity. It aims to overcome limitations of genetic modification technologies and improve local and regional crop varieties. Genetic transformation, involving the delivery of genes of interest into plant cells, is carried out through various methods, including direct and indirect delivery using plant vectors like Agrobacterium rhizogenes. The lecture also mentions the One Trillion Trees Initiative, aiming to restore biodiversity and combat climate change by 2030.
Indian Environmentalists and Conservation Efforts
The lecture highlights the stories of three conservationists in India, including Yogathan, known as the Tree Man, and Arun Krishnamurthy, who established an NGO that has cleaned over 39 lakes. It also mentions various ministries and organisations in India that are carrying out research projects for conserving flora. The lecture shares several treaties, agreements, and conventions related to plant protection and biodiversity.
Environmental Crisis in India and Leading Environmentalists
The lecture addresses the environmental crisis in India, with air pollution being a major concern. It highlights leading environmentalists such as Alok Shukla, honoured with the Goldman Environmental Prize for saving forests in Chhattisgarh, and Shami Murmu, known as the Lady Tarzan of Jharkhand, who has planted over 3 million trees. It also mentions Rajendra Singh, the Waterman of India, and Sunita Narain, the Director General of the Centre for Science and Environment Research.
Bottlenecks and Conclusion
The lecture concludes by addressing the bottlenecks in addressing environmental issues, including a gap between policy and implementation, conflicts between development and conservation, and limited public engagement. Resource constraints, such as limited funds and a lack of trained human resources, also pose challenges. The lecture ends with a quote emphasising that green innovations are about fostering hope for future generations.
Questions and Answers
The session concludes with a Q&A segment. A question is raised about the economic challenges faced by farmers who have to purchase genetically modified seeds from multinational companies, increasing their production costs. The speaker acknowledges this as a major issue, especially considering the socio-economic conditions of Indian farmers. The discussion touches on the need for efforts to convince farmers to adopt these technologies and the challenges in implementing them at the grassroots level.
