India has become the testing ground for a whole range of GM crops. These include paddy, wheat, maize, mustard, okra even as testing for the controversial Bt brinjal continues.
Testing is being done by private universities, private crop developers and the National Agricultural Research System all of whom are testing these crops often without the consent of state governments, including Bihar, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh, who have openly expressed their reservations on GM crops.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in an interview with a journal emphasised that genetic engineering technology was required to increase the productivity of our agriculture.
Senior officials in the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) insist that most of these trials are being monitored to ensure that the bio-safety, feed-safety and food-safety norms are being met.
They cite the example of Bt brinjal, which despite considerable pressure from a food company for an early release, continues to be subjected to rigorous testing.
“We prefer to follow the policy of precautionary principle and will not allow any food product to be introduced till clears all tests,” said a senior GEAC member.
But food researchers are not so sure. They cite the example of GM maize being tested in Bihar even as the state did not have a state biotechnology coordination committee to oversee the transgenic field trials. The entire issue of GM foods is ridden with controversy. The Bengaluru-based Environment Support Group have written to the Karnataka chief minister alleging biopiracy in developing India’s first GM food.
Their letter refers to how Mahyco and the University of Agricultural Sciences norms by (Dharwad) had violated norms by accessing six local varieties of brinjal found in India to develop to GT brinjal without seeking the approval of the any state biodiversity boards where brinjal was being grown.