Underlining the importance of biotechnology in his inaugural address at the two-day seminar on ``Biotechnology applications: relevance to the Indian farmer,'' Pawar, the former chief minister of Maharashtra who had keen interests in promoting agriculture, said ``my vision is to use biotechnology to raise farm income, increase agricultural production without depleting the soil, improve soil nutrition, provide microbial inoculation, reduce soil erosion, create integrated pest management system and bio fertilisers which are environment friendly and locally manufactured.

Stating that biotechnology is the resource available for tackling the problems that India would face in the next millennium, Pawar said ``myexperience has made me more determined that the benefit of biotechnology must reach each and every farmer in this country'' it should be extended to all areas of farming-growing food or cash crops, animal husbandry, livestock, vaccines, storing, processing of agricultural produce.

Pawar sees biotechnology as a very major thrust area for India as this is the first technological revolution which is not capital-intensive. It needs large amount of labour, which is an ideal situation for a country like India which, though short of capital, has enviable resources of skilled manpower.

Secondly, the raw material of biotechnology are biological resources and India is a home to hundreds of varieties of food and cash crops, medicinal plants and thousands of types of plants, animal and insects, Pawar said.

Unlike in other developing countries, India, Pawar said, has a reasonably high level of indigenous technology in this field. No cutting edge perhaps, but enough to enable India to convert its rich raw materialto biotechnology products.

India today finds itself in a position where it has raw material, technology and the labour to emerge as a global player in the field of biotechnology, he said. He urged the scientists to remove the mystique and apprehensions surrounding biotechnology.

He said there is a lot of resistance to biotechnology in some sectors and also some said it is an alien technology because MNC's are using it. But biotechnology is only a technology and the agenda of what we use it for is to be determined by use by the scientists and farmers of this country who know their interests and who need an instrument to serve their interest. He listed food security, nutritional security, and employment opportunities to guarantee India a global economic presence .