What is agro terrorism, how dangerous it is and how will it change future wars? Is India at risk?
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Agro-terrorism: Terrorism is often called the scourge of the modern world which has metamorphosed into more lethal and deadlier forms, even as countries have developed security mechanisms to deal with terror threats. While terrorism based on religion, politics, and ideology, is commonplace, a new kind of terrorism has reportedly been uncovered in the United States, and has been dubbed as 'Agro-terrorism' by American law enforcement agencies. Agro-terrorism case uncovered in US
According to reports, a rare case of Agro terrorism was uncovered in the US by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), leading to the arrest of two Chinese nationals. The federal investigating agency said a lethal strain of Fusarium graminearum– a fungus pathogen known to cause fusarium head blight, a destructive disease on wheat and barley– from the two Chinese citizens.
The FBI believes the fungal pathogen was smuggled to the US from China, and was meant to be used as a weapon in what they call 'agricultural terrorism'. Notably, Fusarium graminearum is known to cause crop losses worth billion of dollars globally each year. What is Agro-terrorism?
Agro-terrorism is a very rare and sophisticated form of terrorism in which terrorists, usually state-sponsored non-state actors, target the agriculture of a rival state by using pathogens like fungi, viruses, etc to destroy crops. These biological weapons are released into the fields in a clandestine manner, and over time cause large-scale damage to crops, even destroying entire yields.
Fusarium graminearum, is one of the most lethal fungal pathogens known to man, and can cause crop failures of cereal crops like wheat, barley, maize. How Agro-terrorism could shape future wars?
While rare, Agro terrorism is not unheard of during modern times. For examples, in 1943, Nazi Germany released waves of beetles of over agricultural land in Britain, causing large-scale damage to potato crops, with entire yields being lost in several cases. As per experts, Agro terrorism is designed to hurt the economy of an enemy nation, and trigger internal discord by engineering artificial food insecurity due to crop failures. Is India at risk?
Even though India has emerged as a manufacturing powerhouse in recent decades, the countries largely remains an agrarian economy with nearly 43 percent of its 1.4 billion population still dependent on agriculture, according to a 2022-23 survey. Thus, Agro terrorism poses a major risk to India, as terrorists, backed by the Pakistani-state, could use this deadly method to engineer an artificial food crisis and hurt the Indian economy.
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