BioAsia while recognising the role of modern technologies in addressing some of the key challenges related to food security and climate change will organise AgBioAsia. The stand alone agri track of the annual international event organised by the Federation of Asian Biotech Associations (FABA), the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the Government of Andhra Pradesh will be held in conjunction to BioAsia 2013 from January 28-30, 2013 at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC).
The first agri-summit of its kind, AgBioAsia 2013 will be based on the theme ‘trends and technological advancements in agriculture: a special focus on biotechnological interventions.’ The event is a platform created solely to bring together the powers of research and industry to leverage agriculture and move towards sustainable level of global food security.
Commenting on the event, Shakthi Nagappan, Chief Executive Officer, BioAsia said, “We at BioAsia always had the agri biotechnology as a part of the conference which delivered significant value to the participants. With the increasing global focus on issues pertaining to food security, we decided to scale up the agri focus and convert it into a full fledged event. We are hopeful that this three-day event will bring together the stakeholders and enable meaningful discussions around the challenges and possible solutions.”
Dr Kiran Sharma, Principal Scientist, ICRISAT and Chairman, AgBioAsia 2013 said, “We believe that agricultural biotechnology has the potential to cope with the agricultural challenges besides promising to revitalise the agricultural sector and increasing the profitability of farming. We strongly believe that public sector has a significant role to play. At AgBioAsia we will aim to enhance such public–private partnerships which will drive the future growth in this area.”
Commenting further, Dr William Dar, Director General, ICRISAT said, “We have a great challenge and indeed a greater responsibility ahead of us in terms of feeding the mushrooming global population. Scientific solutions to improve crop productivity, where biotechnology can play an important role, can empower the rural sector by boosting food production, enhancing income for the small farmer, and improving the nutritional security. We strongly believe that biotechnology forms an important and inevitable component of a Package of approaches that has to be employed for addressing the food security challenges and I am sure BioAsia 2013 would an ideal platform for discussing the development and deployment of scientific advancements ”
With AgBioAsia 2013, ICRISAT and FABA aim to emphasise the increasing need for a stringent, scientifically driven and globally harmonised regulatory systems approach to evaluate and ensure safe use of modern technologies. The private sector is leading in new sciences like food processing sectors and agricultural biotechnology and AgBioAsia will bring some of these industry leaders and scientific experts on one platform. The forum will particularly facilitate key thought leaders in agri-biotechnology to discuss debate and conclude possibilities in crop biotechnology, food biotechnology and food processing.
EP News Bureau – Mumbai
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