The Hindu Business Line : `Contingency plan needed for disaster management'

THE tsunami last December and recent floods in Tamil Nadu have exposed the weakness in modern food security systems — dependence on a narrow range of food crops, according to Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, Chairman, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation.

In the disasters, salinity or water logging has destroyed crops. There are native varieties that can weather such conditions, but have been displaced in the modern cultivation systems. If a wide range of crops were under cultivation, the destruction would not have been wholesale, he said addressing a national symposium on biodiversity, agriculture and nutritional security sponsored by the foundation and the National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad.

There was a need for a contingency plan that provided for such a situation. A wide range of crops that were native to the region and conservation of local ecosystems, such as mangroves, was key to survival, he said.

A national grid of grain banks stocking local grains should be put in place.

Just seven or eight decades ago, there were more than 100 plant crops that contributed to nutrition and health.

But the modern public distribution system handled just wheat and rice.

A survey following the tsunami showed that salinity-resistant rice varieties survived and mangroves protected the coastal regions from the devastation. Local biodiversity - the wide range of flora and fauna - was of immense importance, said Prof Swaminathan.

Tamil Nadu has been subject to alternating floods and droughts. So, a wide range of crops needs to be cultivated and contingency plans along with raw material such as seeds need to be available.

If farmers have lost the current paddy season, alternatives such as oilseeds could be cultivated, Prof Swaminathan said.

It was in this context that conservation of biodiversity and recognition and reward of local communities, particularly women, who play a vital role in conserving native plant varieties, gained importance.

For modern biotechnology and survival, ground level conservation was important, he said.

India has enacted both the Biological Diversity Act and the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act and these need to be implemented effectively, he said.

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