BT_Brinjal Debate & How INDIA Should Utilize the Biodiversity?

India’s future now lies at the pen-stroke of ONE Man … Minister Jairam Ramesh! He could become either the greatest proponent of Modern Genetic Transmutation of Indian society or the founder-destroyer of India’s biodiversity … by February 10, 2010 (12 30 noon, at the appointed hour)

Be that as it may, let us consider the potential based on normal organic farming practices.

BRINJAL

The brinjal yield could range from a low of 15 tons per ha to 45 tons per ha. We shall consider an average value of 25 T per ha. It may, however, be noted that approximately 40% are “attacked’ by worms/ parasites. Thus, the “real yield” would be 15 T (10 T being “lost”). If we look at a total brinjal cultivation area of 100000 ha, the following would be noted:

• Total “unspoilt” yield ………………………………… 1, 500, 000 T
• “Spoilt” volume ………………………………………. 1, 000, 000 T

NOTE: There would be an average of 20 T (green weight) vegetation matter (The plants) per ha that do not have any commercial value. The total volume in 100000 ha = 2, 000, 000 T (green weight)

Let us now look at what we may do with the “spoilt” material and the “wasted” plants (a total of 3, 000, 000 T). In practice, the “wastes” could be “mechanically” split into the following (in 100000 ha area):

• Total Organic matter (solids, with 207, 000 T Fibers) … 690, 000 T
• Recoverable water (762, 300 cu.m water “lost”) ………. 1, 547, 700 cu.m

The following are the commercial potential, based on certain “bench-level” works done by this writer:

COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL OF BRINJAL FARM WASTES (100000 HA)

• Methane gas generation … 184,000 T (Heat + Electricity = 250 MW Power)
• Biofertilizer (solids) ……………………………… 161, 000 T
• Engineered Composites (Wood substitutes) … 328, 570 T

BENEFITS:

1. Power generation would offset the use of not less than 400, 000 T of Petroleum materials (reducing Carbon Dioxide = 1, 200, 000 T)
2. Farmers would get value for all the materials (both the ‘spoilt” brinjal and the plant wastes), to an extent of Rs.3, 000, 000, 000 (Rs.300 Cr)
3. The recycling of 161, 000 T of Biofertilizer would help offset chemical fertilizer usage, thereby reducing environmental pollution and reducing carbon Footprint to an equivalent weight value
4. Manufacture of Wood Substitute Composites (= 328, 570 T) would offset timber usage to an extent of not less than 750, 000 Cu M of wood; and this, in turn, helps in forest conservation
5. The above benefits are over and above the normal produce, the brinjals
   

This writer is prepared to Offer FREE VOLUNTARY SERVICE to the Government of India, so that the wrong policies of our Government is corrected

While it is appreciated that Minister Jairam Ramesh is not a scientist/ or farmer, and hence, he may not be able to appreciate the matter presented, this writer is perturbed because the following Great men of Indian Science/ Vision do not seem to recognize such potentials in India, and also come forward to STOP the idea of BT_Brinjal:

1. Bharath Ratna, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam
2. Nobel laureate Dr. RK Pachauri
3. Eminent Agriculture scientist Dr. MS Swaminathan

Are these GREAT men of Imagination/ Vision listening?

This writer is reminded of Scientist Dr. PM Bhargawa’s observations:

“If a power from outside India wishes to control this country’s destiny today, it is not going to drop a nuclear bomb: it only has to control Indian agriculture. And to do that, it needs to control just seed and agro-chemicals production. The Indian government is not cognizant of this: otherwise, more than 30 per cent of the country’s seed business today would not have been under the control of multinational seed companies. Indeed, a moratorium on genetically modified (GM) crops would have been declared until preparations were made to test them adequately.

“… If the present Indian policies with regard to agriculture, education and health security continue to be pursued, there could well be a civil war in the next 10 to 15 years. ”

Let us not be carried away by the Western Intellectual Traditions (WIT), which should be recognized as having developed on the basis of temperate zone climatic situations. We are in the Tropics, where we have greater resources (over 70%) and it would be a tragedy if India blindly falls a prey to WIT … the other 135 + tropical nations look toward India to show the way. But this is no way indeed!