Transgenic cotton is the one GM crop which has been authorized and is at the moment being cultivated in farmer’s fields in India. File
| Photo Credit: Ok. Ananthan
Three states, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana, have rebuffed a proposal, authorized by the Centre’s Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), to test a brand new sort of transgenic cotton seed.
The seed in query was developed by Hyderabad-based Bioseed Research India and incorporates a gene, cry2Ai, that purportedly makes cotton resistant to pink bollworm, a significant pest. The seed has handed preliminary, confined trials and was beneficial by the GEAC to be examined in farmer’s fields at Janwada, Telangana; Jalna, Maharashtra; Akola, Maharashtra; Junagadh, Gujarat; and Barwala-Hisar, Haryana.
Under the present guidelines, transgenic seeds have to be examined in open fields earlier than they will hope to be cleared by the GEAC for business improvement. Agriculture being a State topic signifies that, usually, firms keen on testing their seeds want approvals from the States for conducting such exams. Of the 4 States that Bioseed utilized to, solely Haryana gave permission for such exams.
Only Haryana approves
This was after the GEAC in October 2022 despatched letters to all States to “communicate their views/comments” inside two months on the proposal. Apart from Haryana’s approval in November, solely Telangana responded to the GEAC’s missive inside that interval, requesting a 45-day extension to take into account the proposal. On May 16, Telangana responded that it might not permit trials to be carried out within the present 2023-24 cropping season. Gujarat later responded, saying that the proposal was “unacceptable” to them, however didn’t furnish causes.
Following a GEAC assembly on May 17 – the minutes of which had been solely made public final week and have been considered by The Hindu – the regulator wrote to Telangana, searching for its causes for not taking on the trial within the present season; to Gujarat, asking why the proposal was deemed unacceptable; and to Maharashtra, searching for its response inside 30 days. “In case no response is received from them within the stipulated time, the GEAC will make appropriate recommendation in this matter,” the information of the assembly present.
Educating the States
The GEAC has additionally requested the Department of Biotechnology and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research to “…jointly organise capacity-building activities with regard to GM crops for apprising the State/UT Government(s) about the technology involved and the regulatory framework in place for evaluation of these GM crops.”
The GEAC is comprised of agriculture and plant-genetics consultants and is headed by a senior official of the Ministry of Environment and Forests and co-chaired by a senior scientist of the Department of Biotechnology. Activist teams have objected to the GEAC asking States to furnish causes for disapproval.
‘Biased lobbying’
“When State governments like Telangana and Gujarat have declined to provide NOCs, GEAC is forcing them to provide reasons or break their silence. Why should a statutory regulator be pressurising State governments in this manner? It has also been recorded that some activities will be taken up with State governments “to enable informed decision-making by State governments”. This is a biased lobbying method {that a} supposedly-neutral regulatory physique is taking on,” Kavitha Kuruganti, a member of the Coalition for a GM-free India, mentioned in an announcement.
Transgenic cotton is the one GM crop which has been authorized and is at the moment being cultivated in farmer’s fields in India. Transgenic mustard was authorized by the GEAC, however further exams have been prescribed earlier than it’s absolutely authorized for widespread cultivation.
