Attitude of people about agricultural biotechnology in Jharkhand

Agricultural biotechnology deals with genetically modified (GM) crops, tissue culture, micropropagation, marker assisted selection, etc. GM crops have potential to meet food requirement of burgeoning population and cope up adverse impact of rising temperature and climate change. The Government has allowed cultivation of one GM crop in India i.e. Bt Cotton. People are having different opinion about cultivation of GM crops. There is apprehension from few people that GM crops may adversely affect human beings as well as animals. But few people are in favour of adoption of GM crops for enhancing productivity and human welfare. Knowledge about agricultural biotechnology especially GM crops is crucial for providing feedback regarding acceptance or rejection of the technology. The present study was contemplated to find out opinion of people about agricultural biotechnology especially GM crops. Data was collected from 50 farmers and 50 scientists of relevant disciplines in Jharkhand. Majority of farmers (48%) had neutral attitude about agricultural biotechnology, followed by favourable (18%) and unfavourable (8%). However, majority of scientists (68%) had favourable attitude, followed by neutral (10%) and unfavourable (6%) attitude respectively. The majority of scientists (50%) and farmers (46%) are in favour that Government should allow cultivation of GM crops at farmers” field for increasing production and productivity of respective crops. The outcome of study will be helpful in policy formulation about adoption of agricultural Biotechnology.