Biotechnology, with its knowledge-intensive nature and tremendous economic potential,has emerged as one of the rapidly-growing sectors of the Indian knowledge economy today. Focusing on the practical use of biological systems to produce goods and services, biotechnology has made significant achievements in the growth and its application in the areas of agriculture, healthcare, environment, etc through R & D projects and infrastructure creation.
Today products like biofertilizer and biopesticides using the biotechnology techniques have proved that biological control is widely regarded as a desirable technique for controlling insects and pests, due to its minimal environmental impact and its avoidance of problems of resistance in the vectors and agricultural pests. The biopesticide market makes 5% of the total insecticide market, amounting to one billion US dollarsthus accounting an overall growth rate of about 10% per annum but in India biopesticides represent only 2.89% (as on 2005) of the overall pesticide market in India and is expected to exhibit an annual growth rate of about 2.3% in the coming years .Although the biopesticide market accounts for only about $1 billion of the global pesticide market of $33 billion it is expected to continue to grow rapidly and a huge biodiversity of sources remains untapped.
In the same way vermicomposting is compatible process with sound environmental principles that value conservation of resources and sustainable practices and vermicompost is known to bethe world's best organic fertilizer. The practice of organic farming is said to the best known alternative to the conventional method.While trends of rising consumer demand for organics are becoming discernible, sustainability in production of crops has become the prime concern in agriculture development.
The Industrial enzyme market is growing steadily as most of the enzymes are produced by microorganisms in submerged cultures going by the biotechnology technique. Also integrated Biogas Systems have a significant role to play in the development of agro ecological farming systems as these systems can provide a valuable and diverse product slate from existing biowaste resources available in the form of manure to most traditional rural households.