Title : Plant biotechnology: A touchstone for transforming global agriculture
Abstract:
Transforming Agriculture is the major concerned area to be taken care of which is possible through reshaping food production, supply chains, and sustainability practices as only these will help to suffice the need of food supply to the growing population and to mitigate the climatic change. Therefore, there is urgent need to create sustainable and tech-driven farming models which will not only be able to feed the growing global population but also will reduce the environmental impact caused due to climatic changes. Plant Biotechnology has emerged as an important tool for transforming global agriculture resulting in enhancement of crop productivity, developing disease free plants, raising abiotic and biotic resistant plant species. Plant biotechnology has potential to address the challenges such as food security, climate change, and sustainability. It also fulfils some of the thrust areas of the SDGs goals which will cadre to food supply, clean environment, employment generation, healthy lifestyle etc Plant Tissue culture, Genetic engineering, CRISPR and gene editing, Synthetic biology in plants, RNA interference technology is some of the important tools used to enhance desirable plant traits. Agriculture has taken a new turn integrating biotechnology along with the available technologies to optimize farming such as precision agriculture, vertical farming, hydroponics, smart irrigation system, AI and Robotics in agriculture etc. It’s also important to understand the consumer’s preferences as it has now seen that there is drastic changes in their choice which they are targeting for healthy diet and for healthy life style. There is huge demand of plant-based diets, plant-based nutraceuticals, Phyto- medicines and natural cosmetics products too. Thus, the only solution is to incorporate biotech innovations with sustainable farming practices which ensures food security and have capabilities to meet global food demands while protecting the environment, mitigating climatic changes and fulfilling industrial demands. The key note speech will highlight the major interventions that has been implemented to transform agriculture in order to mitigate global food and plant based raw material supply chain.
