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Thursday, 04 February 2010 16:16 |
The Hindu Business Line
January 27, 2010
The Hindu Business Line
K.G. Kumar
January 27, 2010
www.blonnet.com
Last week, the State's Agriculture Minister called on Kerala's citizens to join the nation-wide protest against Bt Brinjal, one among the several genetically modified (GM) crops that will soon dot the Indian agricultural landscape. In a letter to the Union Minister for Environment and Forests, Mr Jairam Ramesh, the Kerala Minister for Agriculture, Mr Mullakara Ratnakaran, urged a public consultation before the release of GM crops.
Consultations covering South India were scheduled to be held only in Hyderabad and Bangalore. But,
in many places in Kerala, farmers have organised protests against the introduction of GM Bt Brinjal. The State Biodiversity Board has also demanded the banning of Bt Brinjal in Kerala, considering the State's rich biodiversity.
Bt Brinjal is a transgenic (containing artificially inserted genetic material from another species) form of brinjal created by inserting a gene from the soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (hence, the appellation Bt). The insertion of the gene imparts to the brinjal a special resistance that allows it to withstand attack by insects and pests such as the brinjal fruit and shoot borer. On ingestion of the Bt toxin, the insect's digestive processes get disrupted, ultimately killing it.
Monsanto Holdings Pvt Ltd, an American multinational agri-corporation whose Indian subsidiary, Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech, a joint venture between Monsanto and Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company (Mahyco), is at the heart of the controversy. Monsanto, which claims to be “a global leader in agricultural solutions”, began its operations in India over 50 years ago, soon after independence, offering “leading-edge” weed control solutions.
Monsanto claims that through its “field operations, knowledge of agricultural production and constant search for new agricultural solutions and technologies”, Indian farmers can expect sustainable solutions for their agricultural operations. Monsanto argues that its technological solutions have helped Indian farmers overcome production constraints, resulting in improved productivity and profitability for the 8.5 million farmers who have adopted the company's technology.
Now, the Monsanto-Mahyco combine has sought the approval of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), a statutorily constituted biotechnology regulatory authority, to take up large-scale field trials for the cultivation of Bt Brinjal, which will be India's first genetically modified food crop. Environmentalists and green activists, including groups such as Greenpeace, say that the GEAC's recent decision to allow cultivation of Bt Brinjal in the country lacked transparency, and there has not been adequate consultation and dialogue with stakeholders, including farmers, activists and scientists.
Last October, the GEAC ruled that Bt Brinjal was safe for commercial cultivation, based on the findings of a GEAC sub-committee, constituted on a directive from the Supreme Court, which analysed scientific data from two year-long trials in farmers' fields.
Also, newspapers have recently reported a difference of opinion between two Union Ministers – the Food and Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, and the Environment Minister, Mr Jairam Ramesh – over who and which department has the authority to clear the nationwide cultivation of Bt Brinjal.
Clearly, there are plenty of controversial issues that surround the cultivation of BT Brinjal and other GM food and crops, like Bt Cotton. These range from health and safety to pricing and environmental hazards, including potential resistance and decline in soil productivity from monoculture of BT Brinjal. According to a briefing paper on BT Brinjal prepared by the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Hyderabad, “no GM brinjal has been released for an advanced stage of field trials in open conditions anywhere in the world and this is the first time that GEAC could be giving permission for large-scale open trials for a food crop in India – in a country which has repeatedly proven itself incapable of regulating GM technology and has allowed contamination as a routine affair.”
India is the “centre of origin” for brinjal or eggplant, which has been cultivated in India for the past 4,000 years or so.
Critics of Bt Brinjal point to the mechanical and non-chemical alternatives for cultivation of brinjal, which ought to be promoted and spread. Evidently, unless there is a thorough risk assessment and stakeholder consultation prior to the spread of GM crops, they are unlikely to win favour with the country's farmers or consumers.
The writer can be contacted at kgkumar@gmail.com
http://www.blonnet.com/2010/01/27/stories/2010012751091100.htm
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