Usha Barwale Zehr

1. Public- Private Partnership to Advance the
goals of BGRI
Usha Barwale Zehr
August 20, 2013

2. Last Visit in 2005

3. Then and Now
• Appox 400 million
population
• Hunger and starvation
• No food reserves -
Imports
• Productivity challenges
• Serious commitment of
the politicians to change
this
• Private sector just
beginning
• Approx. 1.12 b
population
• Significant prevalence of
poverty and malnutrition
• Bumper production in
the last few years
• Grainaries over flowing
with grain
• Distribution challenges
• 100s of companies
operating across the
country

4. BGRI
• systematically reducing the world’s vulnerability
to stem, yellow, and leaf rusts of wheat
• advocating/facilitating the evolution of a
sustainable international system to contain the
threat of wheat rusts
• continue the enhancements in productivity
required to withstand future global threats to
wheat

5. Cereal Price Indices for India, Three Year Averages
100
110
120
130
140
150
160

6. “Take it to the farmer”
• What does the farmer want;
– Higher yields
• Disease resistance
• Germplasm/Genetics
• Traits
– Higher market price
• Grain quality
– Lowers costs
• Fertilizer
• Pesticide
• Irrigation

7. “Take it to the farmer”
• What do we have
– Better germplasm, modern breeding tools
– Hybrids
– GM
• Our challenges
– Climate change
– Water
– Inputs in general

8. “Take it to the farmer”
• What does the processing industry want
– Price
– Quality
– Market

9. Seed cycle
Germplasm
Breeding
Product
(HYV, F1, GM)Production
QA
Processing
Market/Farmer

10. A more recent partnership example
Bt brinjal

11. • Most popular vegetable in India after potato
• Meaty texture, nutritious, staple in vegetarian diets
• 25 calories per serving, with no fat!
Brinjal or eggplant
Common Vegetable

12. Major concern for brinjal cultivation:
damage caused by insect pests
Shoot damage Fruit
damage

13. IIVR
Varanasi
IIVR
Varanasi

14. Current status
• Cleared all the studies
• Approved for safety
• Awaiting commercial clearance from Ministry

15. Wheat
• Research related
– Rust resistance breeding (conventional and
biotech), also surveillance
– High throughput molecular breeding platforms
– GM traits (NUE, PUE, Water use, herbicide
tolerance……)
– Quality
• Process or market related
– Production
– QA
– Marketing and extension

16. Before
Roundup
Spray
10
Days
A9er
Spray
Before
&
A1er
Roundup
Spray
5
Days
A9er
Spray
15
Days
A9er
Spray

17. NUE Null NUE NUE
NUE Rice GH Efficacy K-12

18. Null NUE NUENUE
Ø Null plants have less tillers
Compared to NUE plants
Ø Border effect is apparent showing
more tillers in border rows

19. Seed requirement for the current
seed replacement rate
States
Acreage
(m ha)
existing SRR
(Qty. m t)
Uttar Pradesh 9.52 0.32
Madhya Pradesh 3.79 0.07
Punjab 3.53 0.10
Haryana 2.46 0.07
Rajasthan 2.29 0.08
Bihar 2.16 0.05
Gujarat 1.09 0.03
All India 27.75 0.77
One truck = 9 to 15 tons

20. Key ingredients for successful
partnership
• Desire to bring about a paradigm shift in
annual growth rates
• Common goal, research is only the beginning!!
• Adoption of resistant varieties
• Total support at the highest levels
• Comparative advantages leveraged rather than
competition
• Ownership of intellectual property
• Alignment of policies to allow transfer of
knowledge, materials and value

21. Partnership is essential

22. Thank You