GUEST COLUMN
Vir Singh
A new revolution in global agriculture is in evolution. The ‘embryo’ of this revolution is developing in the ‘womb’ of a French startup company. Called Thalya, this French agritech start-up company has already entered into a memorandum of understanding with big US farmers. The innovative technology is now being tested in experimental fields. The Green Revolution that took place in the 1960s was based on genetic principles. The productivity of so-called “high-yielding varieties (HVYs)” was made possible through the use of nitrogen fertilisers. The upcoming revolution is based on biotechnological methods to enhance crop plants’ nitrogen use efficiency.
Among the major challenges related to agricultural production, nitrogen is undoubtedly one of the most significant. Nitrogen is the basic constituent in protein structure. Plants absorb nitrogen in the form of nitrates, which are used for protein synthesis. We know that proteins are the structural biomolecules of life, and, therefore, crucial for plant growth and the productivity of crops. For farmers, nitrogen is often the most expensive component in farming costs. Its prices fluctuate greatly, and its availability in the market is not always guaranteed. There are also many cases of counterfeit nitrogen fertilisers being sold to farmers. Moreover, nitrogen fertilisers can cause environmental pollution, severely impact public health and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, thereby accelerating climate change.
How can plants’ nitrogen-utilisation efficiency be enhanced to promote their growth and increase their productivity? How can nitrogen be more effectively incorporated into plants’ edible parts, such as seeds, grains, pods, fruits, etc.? The answers to these questions will serve as the foundation for a new agricultural revolution on a global scale. The agricultural revolution currently evolving under lab conditions will enable higher yields of food resources on limited land, while maintaining the soil’s fertility. It will also help restore balance in the agroecosystems and slow down the pace of climate change. Moreover, it will provide solutions to the socio-economic problems faced by farmers in agrarian countries like India.
RNA (ribonucleic acid) is a biotechnological tool that enhances the plants’ ability to utilise nitrogen, thereby increasing crop productivity. Nitrogen deficiency in plants isn’t a new problem at all. By applying urea, using precise fertilisers, implementing precision agriculture, addressing microbial issues, and even using robots, nitrogen can be directly delivered to plants. Then why use RNAi (RNA interference) sprays? All existing methods of nitrogen supply have worked by targeting the plants themselves. In contrast, RNA works within the plant itself, allowing for temporary changes in the plant’s response to nitrogen, without altering its DNA. We can increase the plant’s nitrogen uptake during a certain growth stage when the demand for nitrogen is highest. Then, the plant’s growth returns to normal. This reversibility is one of the aspects that we can influence most effectively.
RNA-based agriculture represents the future of farming. The French agritech startup Thalya is the world’s first company to develop a specific biological application called “RNAi” spray. This company was founded in 2024. Its CEO, Thio Hoenen, and CTO, Hayat Sehki, believe that RNA-based farming will be both useful and environmentally friendly, while also being acceptable to people. Sehki, an expert in CRISPR and biotechnology, explains that interference with RNA is a natural process that occurs in plants, animals and humans alike. Depending on the environment, this interference can change the way instructions are interpreted. RNA-based agriculture technology takes advantage of this biological process. Thalya has designed an RNA molecule that can temporarily silence other RNAs in plants, thereby preventing them from producing certain proteins that limit a plant’s nitrogen use efficiency.
The RNAi spray targets those proteins in plants that limit the plant’s ability to utilise nitrogen. In nature, these proteins are very useful in situations where crops suffer from a lack of nutrients, and plants have to compete with each other for survival. However, when fertilisers are applied regularly, these proteins can limit the plant’s ability to utilise nitrogen, thereby reducing crop productivity. Sehki explains, “Our spray can temporarily shut down those factors during periods of high nitrogen demand. Then, it allows them to resume normal functioning naturally. This plant performs better when it needs more of these factors, and there are no permanent changes in its genetics as a result.”
Currently, around half of the nitrogen used by farmers around the world in crop cultivation is not absorbed by the crops themselves. This means that farmers are spending money on fertilisers that actually do not contribute to improving their crops’ yields. In addition, the wasted nitrogen pollutes the environment, spreads diseases and accelerates the process of climate change. In other words, the money spent by farmers on nitrogen is actually punishing the entire planet. Although the immediate consequences may not be obvious, the long-term effects will be extremely harmful.
Some part of the nitrogen that gets dispersed in the environment seeps into waterways, some of which reaches underground water, while some nitrous oxide gas enters the atmosphere and works like a greenhouse gas. Drinking nitrate-polluted water impairs the ability of blood to absorb oxygen by hemoglobin, known as methemoglobinemia and causes a fatal disease called blue baby syndrome in children. Nitrous oxide emitted into the atmosphere is 273 times more potent than carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, which is why the use of nitrogen fertilisers in the world agricultural sector contributes 4 per cent of the total greenhouse gases. This pollution is only due to the 50 percent of nitrogen used in crops that is not absorbed by plants. This does not include emissions of nitrous oxide produced during the period of production and transportation of fertilisers. Therefore, the expected improvement in nitrogen efficiency is not only about cost-effectiveness, but it is also necessary to prevent environmental pollution and diseases caused by it and slow down the climate change process. In RNA-based farming, the amount of nitrogen fertilisers to be applied will be reduced by 38 percent, resulting in the reduction of pollution and the slowing down of the climate change process, and farmers’ expenses will also be reduced. Together, this technology will increase production by eight per cent, further empowering humanity on the food security front with increased economic income for farmers.
The Green Revolution based on HYVs created many social, cultural, agricultural and environmental distortions. After that came some genetically modified organisms (GMOs), the Bt crops, which were banned by many countries and also dismissed by farmers. Only a system of agriculture that guarantees environmental protection and climate control, with the expected income of farmers and the food security of humanity, will be sustainable. How well RNA-based agriculture performs, we shall come to know only when it comes down to Earth, in the farmers’ domain.
(The author is formerly professor emeritus, Department of Environmental Science, GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology; views expressed are personal)
