Centre weighs GM crop options
OFFICIALLY SHY Green ministry says it will give permission for field trials of drought-tolerant variety of sugarcane SELF-IMPOSED CURFEW
A crippling drought has prompted the Narendra Modi government to look for solutions in genetically-modified (GM) crops, a sector it has tried to restrict due to ideological differences.
Sugarcane plantations, which guzzle more water than most crops, are being blamed for the drought crisis in Maharashtra and Karnataka.
The government is willing to back efforts and give permission for trials in drought-tolerant GM sugarcane by the Coimbatorebased Sugarcane Breeding Institute and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research under the farm ministry, according to a letter from Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar to former agriculture minister and leader of the Nationalist Congress Party, Sharad Pawar.
India is the world’s largest
NEW DELHI:
consumer of sugar and also the second-biggest producer, after Brazil. Frequent droughts have forced scientists to find sustainable ways of growing it.
GM crops have been stiffly resisted in the country by civil society organisations, including those affiliated to the RSS on grounds of bio-safety and market control by seed firms.
GM crops are those in which a gene has been altered for a specific outcome, such as pest-resistance.
The Modi government has no policy on shutting out GM crops, but it has focused more on traditional farming practices since coming to power.
In December, the farm ministry intervened to bring down BT cotton seed prices and referred Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech (India) Private Limited — a 50:50 joint venture of US biotech giant Monsanto Company — for a probe into alleged monopoly. BT cotton is the only GM crop India has allowed so far. highest temperature ever on June 3, 2003 people died in Odisha from ailments related to sunstrokes highest April temperature ever recorded in state