National Science Day was celebrated at Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) on 24th September, 2013. A lecture was organized at GNDU by the Department of Botanical and Environmental Sciences of the university.
A lecture on “Food Security and Genetically Modified Organisms” was delivered by the Scientist MA Singara Charya from the Department of Microbiology, Kakatiya University, Warangal, Andhra Pradesh.
Professor Charya in his lecture emphasized the need of food security to meet up nutritional food demands of the increasing population. He also referred to the reports published by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) which stated that over 850 million people are suffering from chronic hunger due to extreme poverty and 2 billion people lack food. He also talked about the reports published by the UN which stated that more than 900 million people are undernourished and the situation may further worsen by 2050.
He also spoke on the dire consequences of green revolution, which has been attained due to use of chemicals and pesticides. Green revolution may have transformed the country into food surplus country but there are severe social, economical and political impacts of green revolution in the state.
Prof Charya also discussed about biodiversity, bio-productivity and biotechnology with reference to genetically modified (GM) crops. He further stated that if GM crops had benefits they can be harmful at the same time.
About GNDU
Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) was established at Amritsar on November 24th. 1969. It is both a residential and affiliating university. The University offers courses in various streams such as Applied Sciences, Arts, Social Science, Economics, Engineering and Technology.
