Experts divided on Bt brinjal safety

The recent approval for field trials of two new varieties of Bt brinjal has rekindled the debate on whether India has adequate biosafety standards to allow the commercial cultivation of genetically modified crops.

The Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), in a meeting held a few months ago, had approved additional field trials of two new indigenously developed varieties of BT brinjal — Janak and BSS-793, containing Bt Cry1fa1 gene (Event 142).

The trials will be conducted in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal during 2020-23, and are subject to the applicant receiving an NOC from the agriculture department of the state concerned.

This comes after the UPA government had imposed a moratorium on commercial release of another event of Bt Brinjal in 2010, citing lack of adequate and independent scientific studies.

“When the indefinite moratorium was placed, the biosafety process was examined to see how technology was developed, whether applicants could establish all the biosafety protocols and how it is to be treated in the fields, what roles do states have to play, regulatory regimes that needs to be established etc.,” G V

Ramanjaneyulu, executive director of the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, told Business Standard.

“Unfortunately, in the last decade, none of measures that were then suggested have been implemented. I feel field trials should not have been approved without adhering to those guidelines.”

He said the experience with Ht Bt shows a lot of illegal spread happens during field trials which get into the food chain.

“Imagine if someone gets hold of one fruit of Bt brinjal from the field trials, it has 50100 seeds and each seed can germinate into a brinjal plant,

An expert said none of the measures suggested in 2010 by govt have yet been implemented which in turn can produce, say, 1,000 brinjals. Therefore, field trials without proper protocols should not be allowed,” Ramanjaneyulu said.

However, the Federation of Seed Industry of India (FSII), a lobby group of seeds companies, said the current Bt Brinjal event is different from the one that was put under moratorium. “Brinjal is one of the most pesticide-consuming crops among vegetables. By controlling this with Bt technology, we can save farmers’ income, reduce pesticide load on the environment and provide pesticideand insect-free brinjals to consumers,” said Ram Kaundinya, director general, FSII-AAI (Alliance for Agri Innovation).