Green signal to genetic food

India has become the first country in the world to allow large-scale field trials of genetically modified food crops with certain restrictions, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Aug 18, 2007, 02:15:21 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

India has become the first country in the world to allow large-scale field trials of genetically modified food crops with certain restrictions.

Four hybrid varieties of Bt brinjal, promising better yield with less use of pesticides, will be tested across 11 locations in the country till April next year. “The large-scale field trials of a GM crop have been allowed for the first time,” an environment and forest ministry official said.

The ministry has, however, imposed restrictions. No trial can take place in fields owned by farmers. The trials will be conducted in Indian Council for Agricultural Research farms under the direct supervision of the Indian Institute of Vegetable Research (IIVR). This comes in the wake of farmer protests in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh over field trials of Bt rice.

For the first time, the socio-economic impact of Bt brinjal and any change in its taste and nutritional value will also be done. The ministry has decided that specific skin sensitisation tests on guinea pigs and the impact of the plant on soil will be conducted as part of bio-safety studies.

The government also wants a minimum isolation distance of 300 metres to be maintained to check any contamination from transgenic food crop. This follows the Supreme Court’s direction to maintain a minimum isolation distance of 200 metres. The government has also accepted the suggestion of the Deepak Pental Committee, constituted to examine Bt brinjal, that independent studies on the toxicity of the crop should be conducted.

Unlike Bt cotton, the GM food crops are for human consumption and even a slight toxicity can cause medical problems. So far, data generated by Bt brinjal companies shows no toxicity. The Bt brinjal development is significant because its success would open doors for large-scale tests on genetically modified tomato and okra, the other two food crops for which the ministry has allowed bio-safety studies last week.

However, the decision has stirred a hornet’s nest among groups opposed to GM crops. The Hyderabad-based Centre for Sustainable Agriculture said the trials should not have been allowed till complete bio-safety data is generated on Bt brinjal. “Some of the prescribed tests like foliar feeding studies (which have been mandated after reports of animal mortality and morbidity after open grazing on Bt cotton fields) have not been completed on Bt brinjal,” said its director Dr G.V. Ramanjaneyulu.

India's tryst with GM crops started in 2002 when commercial cultivation of Bt Cotton was permitted. It was followed by large-scale protests but cotton traders said the technology made India the second largest cotton producer after China.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Follow India news real-time updates and the latest news covered on Hindustan Times, featuring today's critical updates on Sonam Wangchuk LIVE and more across India.