Biotech Updates

Van Montagu Is India’s Genome Valley Awardee

February 6, 2009

The Chief Minister of India’s Andhra Pradesh, Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy conferred the prestigious Genome Valley Award 2009 to Prof. Marc Van Montagu, Founder and Chairman of the Institute of Plant Biotechnology for Developing Countries (IPBO), Ghent University, Belgium during the inaugural ceremony of BioAsia 2009 held at Hyderabad on Feb 1-4, 2009. Prof. Van Montagu co-discovered with the late Prof. Jeff Schell the Ti-plasmid and gene transfer mechanism between Agrobacterium tumefaciens and plants. His discoveries opened a new dimension in the research and development of crop varieties and opened up the field of plant molecular genetics as a tool for sustainable agriculture production. He was the first to pioneer the development of transgenic/biotech crops including tobacco, rapeseed and corn resistant to insect-pests and tolerant to herbicides.

In his acceptance speech at the Hyderabad International Convention Center, he emphasized the importance of agriculture in India that despite only accounting for 17% of its GDP it directly underlies the livelihood of 600 million people. The science of biotech offers new possibilities in improving the lives of these people most of them  resource-poor farmers and land-less laborers. Bt brinjal also known as eggplant or aubergine, is a hope not only for 1.4 million farmers in India but also for the millions of farmers around the world, he said. Tremendous progress has been made in the area of biotechnology and it has enormous potential to contribute to healthier food, good quality medicines, and better environmental sustainability.

Prof. Van Montagu’s discoveries enable researchers around the world to develop new biotech crops that are helping farmers to halve insecticide usage, double yield and reduce ploughing to help conserve soil and water – the most important element of sustainable crop production systems and conservation.

Details about the awarding ceremony at http://www.vib.be/NR/rdonlyres/E8FB2BC8-3D32-4D76-BFC1-9609FA07C689/2820/20090202_ENG_MarcVanMontagu_GenomeValleyAward.pdf For more information about biotech developmentsin India contact: b.choudhary@cgiar.org and k.gaur@cgiar.org