Modi bets on GM crops for India’s second green revolution
NEW DELHI: On a fenced plot not far from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home, a field of mustard is in full yellow bloom, representing his government’s reversal of an effective ban on field trials of genetically modified (GM) food crops.
The GM mustard planted in the half-acre field in the grounds of the Indian Agricultural Research InstituteinNewDelhiisinthefinal stage of trials before the variety is allowed to be sold commercially, and that could come within two years, scientists associated with the project say.
IndiaplacedamoratoriumonGM aubergine in 2010 fearing the effect on food safety and biodiversity. Field trials of other GM crops were not formally halted, but the regulatory system was brought to a deadlock.
But allowing GM crops is critical to Modi’s goal of boosting dismal farm productivity in India, where urbanisation is devouring arable land and population growth will mean there are 1.5 billion mouths to feed by 2030 - more even than China.
Starting in August last year, his government resumed the field trials for selected crops with little publicity.
“Field trials are already on because our mandate is to find out a scientific review, a scientific evaluation,” Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar told Reuters last week.
“Confined, safe field trials are on. It’s a long process to find out whether it is fully safe or not.”
Modi was a supporter of GM crops when he was chief minister of Gujarat state over a decade ago, the time when GM cotton was introduced in the country and became a huge success. Launched in 2002, Bt cotton, which produces its own pesticide, is the country’s only GM crop and covers 95 per cent of India’s cotton cultivation of 11.6 million hectares (28.7 million acres).
From being a net importer, India has become the world’s secondlargest producer and exporter of the fibre.
However, grassroots groups associated with Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have opposed GM crops because of the reliance on seeds patented by multinationals. The Swadeshi Jagran Manch, a nationalist group which promotes self-reliance, has vowed to hold protests if GM food crops are made commercially available.
“There is no scientific evidence that GM enhances productivity,” said Pradeep, a spokesman for the group. “And in any case, why should we hand over our agriculture to some foreign companies?” — Reuters