NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY FOR INCREASED YIELDS-CHINESE EFFORTS

Radiation invariably evokes hostile reaction amongst common folks even 65 years after the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the Americans to bring World War II to an end. The massive destruction and suffering in these cities of Japan are still fresh in the memories of older generation of population while the younger generation have the visuals easily accessible to them through the Internet. There is a lurking suspicion that food exposed to irradiation would carry harmful radiations that will be hazardous. No matter how much proof is generated establishing the safety of irradiation process, the consumer resistance to accepting irradiated foods is still high, acting as hindrance for universal acceptance of this beautiful technology by the industry. It is against such a background one has to view the daring developments in China during the last 30 years where scientists have been experimenting with nuclear radiation for improving the genetic stock of their food grains for increasing their yield.

"China is conducting experiments to apply nuclear technology to improve the yield of agricultural produce encouraging farmers to cultivate various varieties of irradiated seeds, which involves exposing them to low doses of gamma rays. Some of the Chinese farmers have sown the seeds irradiated by Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences (HAAS) and are monitoring the growth of the crop. "I just want to try it. I hope nuclear technology can help me to raise either the output or quality of crops," Li Weiguo says a farmer in Shuqing Village near Shuangcheng City, who had sown the irradiated seeds soybean and corn this summer, expecting new varieties with higher yields. It is the first time the 33-year-old farmer in China's Heilongjiang Province has had seeds irradiated with the help of agricultural experts. The irradiation process involves exposing seeds to low doses of gamma rays from cobalt-60, a radioisotope of cobalt, which causes changes in the seed's genetic makeup, said Xu Dechun, vice director of the institute. It usually took experts about five years to screen out seeds for new varieties with stable genetic characteristics, Xu told Xinhua news agency".

"Compared with the widely used cross-breeding method, which largely depended on opportunity and usually took about eight years to get a stable variety, seed irradiation intervention was far more effective in bringing out the desired characteristics of a certain crop, he said. Xu's team has developed 28 new soybean breeds, almost 20 wheat varieties and a dozen corn varieties. More than seven million hectares of farmland in Heilongjiang have grown such crops, which raised yields by more than 50 million kilograms. China is the world's largest grain producer and consumer. The central and local governments have been supporting the application of nuclear technologies in agricultural development. Huge investments have been made in research programs across the country and almost every province has established atomic energy institutes, Liang Qu, director of the Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, said at the third Global Forum of Leaders for Agricultural Science and Technology. The FAO and IAEA had continuously promoted the application of nuclear technologies in agriculture since 1950, he said. So far, more than 3,000 new varieties have entered mass production worldwide for commercial purposes. In addition to developing new varieties, irradiation is also used to retard spoilage and increase the shelf life of food".

While changes in gene make up with in a species are not considered very risky, consumer backlash is more towards transgenic crops where external genes are introduced into the natural gene pool of a particular cultivar. Genetic changes are brought about naturally amongst each species by a natural process of evolution but probably it may take long time. Green revolution was achieved through cross breeding using high performance strains which expedited the genetic change to achieve several desired traits. While leadership role of China has to be conceded which was possible because of the nature of government in charge there, the positive results reported by them should persuade others like India to give more priority to application of nuclear technology to agriculture.

V.H.POTTY

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THE SHOCK "THERAPY" AND MUSHROOM PRODUCTION

Mushroom is a valued food material with high nutritional value and food connoisseurs consider them very tasty with typical delicate flavor. While many wild mushrooms are consumed in different parts of the world, commercial production needs specialized expertise and infrastructure. The productivity being low under commercial cultivation conditions, mushrooms fetch high returns to the growers. The white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus, the most favored species for commercial cultivation and other varieties like Shiitake, Maitake, Oyster, Crimini, Portobello, Morel and Enoki also have found acceptance in the western world. Since mushroom is an important part of cuisines in the West, China and Japan efforts to increase productivity have led to the new finding that electric shock can boost the growth of mushroom.

"The results could lead to new harvesting methods that would significantly increase food production. That's good news for a Japanese food industry where mushrooms are a popular staple, and where around 50,000 tons of mushrooms must be imported a year, mainly from China and South Korea, just to meet the high demand. The study reached its conclusions after four years of bombarding mushrooms with artificially induced lightning, reports National Geographic. Ten varieties of mushroom were tested, and eight of those species responded by growing at an increased rate when electrified. The fungi reacted best when exposed to between 50,000 and 100,000 volts for one ten-millionth of a second. Researchers were able to get the shiitake crop to yield double the amount usually harvested, but the best performing species were nameko mushrooms, which produced a whopping 80 percent more mushrooms".

The scientific basis for the above phenomenon is still not clear but the ability to multiply when exposed to lightning could be a knee-jerk reaction to a hostile environment for ensuring survival. Such increased reproductive capacity helps production of more mushrooms, preventing total destruction. There appears to be some damage due to the electrical bursts but the loss is more than compensated by accelerated rate of protein synthesis and activity of some vital enzymes. The present market size for mushroom is estimated at $ 50 billion and some of the leading consumers include Japanese (14 kg/year per capita), Chinese (10 kg/year per capita) and the US (2kg/year per capita). New technology as and when commercialized is expected to provide adequate production to meet the ever increasing demand for mushroom.

V.H.POTTY
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http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

CORN ETHANOL-BETTERING THE YIELD

A new strain of bacteria isolated from compost dumps has been reported to be efficient in increasing ethanol yield from corn when used to process the spent residue to recover another 15-20% alcohol. Touted as a plug-in technology for the existing corn ethanol plants, the developers claim that there is lot of energy economy as no drying or disposal steps for the spent material is necessary besides increasing the profitability significantly. Investment cost for installing additional processing system will have to be considered before coming to a conclusion regarding the viability of the new technology.

"Biofuels are currently made mainly from food crops such as grains, vegetable oils and sugar cane, which has led to debate about whether they might help to drive up food prices. They are seen as a way to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases believed to contribute to climate change but environmental groups have questioned the green credentials of some processes, including U.S. corn-derived ethanol".

Present practice of diverting corn for ethanol production under the fossil fuel reduction strategy in some developed countries like the US is already being frowned upon by the global community in the face of massive food shortages in many parts of Africa, Asia and South America. If there is an international commitment on preventing diversion of food crops to non-food use, most of the ethanol plants may have to be closed making the new plug-in technology redundant. Probably the strain of bacteria may still be useful for converting cellulosic materials into ethanol.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com