Updated on 22 April 2013
Nepal - Trying to make inroads in agri-biotechnology
The physio-geographical location of Nepal has always favored agriculture as its main business. The country is highly dependent on the agriculture for sustainability of its economy and employment. However, the commercialization of agriculture hasn't paced up as expected, due to hesitation regarding application of modern technology in agriculture. Hence, its has become very important for Nepal to use biotechnological tools for the development of the crop varieties and the country is also looking to adapt robust crop varieties.
The Nepalese agriculture sector has been significantly influenced by India due to its socio-economic similarities, open borders and cultural ties. Hybrid and open pollinated seeds on vegetable crops, maize and rice are some of the popular imports from Indian seed companies. While Nepal's agricultural sector has tremendous scope for the development using modern biotechnology, in reality very few applications of such technology exist in the hill country.
Few initial screening of crop germplasm using molecular markers have been started in some food crops, especially in rice, wheat, maize, barley, millets and other underutilized crops recently. Infact there have been many steps in the direction, including the initiation of the molecular marker assisted breeding or selection (MAB or MAS) for some major crops. The use of the tissue culture for development of disease free vegetables and fruit crops like potato and banana is already established in private and public sector. Similarly, mushroom seed production is another profitable business in Nepal.
Like India, Nepal too has its share of controversy, when it comes to genetically modified (GM) crops. There is no official release or registration of GM crops in Nepal. The release of GMOs in India put the pressure for the adoption of GMOs in Nepal too. Being the signatory to Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), Nepal has to develop rules, regulations and technical capability before adopting GMOs.
As per National Seed Policy-Nepal (1999), Nepal needs a regulatory and monitoring system for conducting research, varietal development and commercial cultivation of GMOs within country. The provision of this system was established on National Biosafety Framework (2007). However, implementation of this framework to develop act, rules and regulations is still in waiting. Similarly, Nepal still can't develop its technical capability to meet the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety for adoption and research on GMOs. Therefore, Nepal doesn't have any chances of adopting genetically modified crops anytime soon. However, most of the private companies in Nepal have been focused on micro-propagation of vegetable, fruit and ornamental plants such as potato, banana, orchid and strawberry. Few have also started to work on antibodies and molecular technology for food crops (indigenous fruit-Lapsi and cardamom).