Celebrating India’s Miracle Crops: 过去, 现在和未来

半个世纪的时间很长, but that’s how long I’ve been thinking seriously about India’s struggle with food security—and how technology can help to solve it.

我对食品安全的最早记忆可以追溯到 1960 年代, when I was a student in my village’s primary school. 所有的孩子都会排成一条蛇形的队列, 拿着金属板，等待轮到他们接受一勺 upma, a porridge-like food that’s popular in the southern part of my country.

这道菜的主要成分是作为援助计划的一部分从美国进口的小麦. 虽然印度有很多农田, 我们过着船到嘴的生活. 我们依靠外国人的慷慨帮助我们养活自己. 没有这种帮助, 我们中的许多人会饿死.

危机如此严重以至于我们的总理, 拉尔·巴哈杜尔·沙斯特里, 敦促印度人每周放弃一顿饭. 他带头在自己家里开始修炼. 我的父母以他为榜样, 没收周一的主餐.

Then came the Green Revolution—and it changed everything.

在我们的食物紧急情况中, 印度小麦收成创历史新高. 信用属于 Norman Borlaug, 彻底改变作物科学并因其努力获得诺贝尔和平奖的美国生物学家, 加上印度遗传学家 M.S. 斯瓦米纳坦和农业部长 C. 苏布拉马尼扬. 一起, 他们向我国引进了新的小麦品种. 因为他们, 我们有更多的食物.

小麦之国在北方. I live in the south—and our introduction to the Green Revolution came through improved forms of rice, which is a staple food for at least half of India’s people.

绿色革命之前, my father’s rice yield seldom rose above 1.5 每公顷吨. This was a typical result for traditional farmers—and despite their best efforts, it just wasn’t enough to feed the people of India.

然后是奇迹大米, 也称为 IR8. American crop breeders Peter Jennings and Hank Beachell developed it—and then everything changed. 突然, 我们的大米长得更壮了, 成熟得更快, 并且发芽的圆锥花序比叶子多.

最好的, our farms produced more food—a tenfold increase in yield.

我父亲是最早种植 IR8 的农民之一. 在生长季节 1967-68, 来自各地的农民纷纷惊叹于这种新作物. 当他们到达时, 我父亲欢迎他们并向他们展示他在做什么. He always said that these visitors couldn’t believe their eyes. 大米的旧形式和新形式之间的差异好得令人难以置信. His brother—my uncle—was awarded a shield by the Minister of Agriculture for achieving the highest yield.

When the wife of a rice farmer in Thiruvannamalai gave birth on harvest day—a double boon of a child and a big yield of IR8 rice—they named their son Iryettu, 这是 IR8 的泰米尔语名称. That’s how popular IR8 was at the time of its introduction.

感谢绿色革命, we don’t skip meals on Monday anymore. 然而印度还没有解决粮食安全的挑战. 我们的人口继续增长，营养不良是一个主要问题, 导致婴儿死亡率. 幸存下来的儿童往往会遭受终生的健康问题, 比如维生素A缺乏症, 导致眼疾甚至失明.

A new kind of rice—Golden Rice—would confront the problem of vitamin-A deficiency and possibly even solve it. 正如 20 世纪的绿色革命改变了印度等发展中国家的农业, 我们这个时代的基因革命拥有令人难以置信的希望.

基因改造将提供其他理想的特征, 例如农作物抵御洪水的能力. 在 2015, 东北季风给我的农场带来了不断的降雨, 淹没我的大米一个多星期. 他们完全在水下. 我很幸运, 然而, because I had planted submergence-tolerant Swarna-Sub1—and a stress factor that hurt many other farmers had no effect on my yield.

我们还有其他需求. 沿海农民将受益于耐盐水稻. 世界各地的人们都会从其他种类的大米中获益: 富含铁的大米, 释放少量甲烷的大米, 和像我这样的糖尿病患者的低血糖米. 名单是无止境的.

在太多地方, 然而, we’re denying ourselves a new wave of miracle crops for reasons that have nothing to do with science and everything to do with politics.

我们对绿色革命说“是”, but we’re saying no to the Gene Revolution—not because of legitimate safety concerns, 但出于无知和意识形态.

We must overcome these fears—and make sure the next 50 years enjoy as much progress as the half century that I’ve just lived through.

本专栏是获奖论文的一个版本 50 IR8年 比赛.