Swaminathan suggests appointing Biosecurity Managers at GP

Bangalore, Nov 24 (UNI) Renowned agricultural scientist Prof M S Swaminathan today suggested appointing Biosecurity Managers at each Gram Panchayat for effective implementation of biosecurity in the country.

Stressing the need for introdoucing biosecurity at the grassroots level, he said a woman and a man could be appointed as Managers to create awareness about the benefits and need for biosecurity. There were 1.2 million women and two million male members in gram panchayats and their active involvement would lead to more awareness among the farmers, the backbone of Indian agriculture.

The expert was speaking at a 'Discussion Meeting on Setting Up A National Agenda Towards Biosecurity', organised jointly by the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) and M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, here.

Prof Swaminathan said lack of communication might have led to lack of awareness about the need for biosecurity. ''Biosecurity is a must as new diseases are cropping up may be due to non-transfer of technology developed in the laboratory or lack of awareness about the research findings...Biosecurity is important even for trade security, especially in fisheries and food articles as quality maintenance is very important both for local market and export.'' He said the National Agriculture Mission, in its report, had suggested creation of a National Agriculture Biosecurity Fund with a corpus of Rs 1,000 crore. Though the Bio-Diversity Act had been introduced, there was no knowledge about its existence in the rural areas. ''Legal literacy and genetic literacy are necessary to prevent bio-piracy,'' he added.

Prof Swaminathan also suggested introduction of Training Models in Gram Sabhas and introduction of a literacy drive by the Pest Control Mission of the Department of Bio-Technology under Union Agriculture Ministry, besides demonstrations. ''Lack of literacy in rural areas was affecting transformation of research findings and policies,'' he added.

Stating that education, regulation and social mobilisation were the pillars of effective implementation of any policy, he said policy and regulatory framework should be drawn before introducing any policy. Risk analysis and management as a framework was a must for ensuring biosecurity to the farmers.

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