India Govt following a policy of case by case approval of GM crops

The India government is following a policy of case by case approval of genetically modified (GM) crops,said recently Tariq Anwar, minister of state for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries in the Lok Sabha.

He said that extensive evaluation and regulatory approval process takes place before any GM crop is approved for commercial cultivation.This included generation of relevant biosafety information, its elaborate analysis to ensure food, feed and environmental safety. A final view on the commercialization of GM crop plants is taken only when there is a clear economic and technical justification besides suitability for environment and human consumption he said.

As on date, Bt Cotton was the only GM crop that has been introduced for commercial cultivation in the country.

Since inception of Bt. Cotton, there have been objections from some of the non-governmental organizations besides civil society on agriculture, etc., on the grounds that biosafety assessment of Bt Cotton before its introduction and post release monitoring is not adequate and that Bt cotton is not suitable for cultivation in rainfed areas . Further cattle death and farmers suicides have been attributed to introduction of Bt cotton in some regions such as Warangal and Vidarbha.

""The objections have been very speculative, without any reasonable assessment of the technological strengths of Bt-cotton. In spite of the controversy regarding Bt cotton, the ground reality is that during the last decade, area under cotton cultivation (approximately 12 million hectares, of which 90% is under Bt cotton) and productivity of cotton has gone up significantly,""said Mr Anwar.

He said that during the post Bt cotton era, Indian economy has benefited as India is the second largest exporter of cotton. ""There is no scientific evidence to show that Bt cotton has adversely impacted the biodiversity or human/cattle health. Bt cotton effectively control bollwsorms, especially Helicoverpa armigera, thus preventing yield losses from an estimated damage of 30% to 60% each year in India. The biggest gain from the technology is in the form of reduced insecticide usage for bollworm control. Yields are estimated to have increased at least by 30% due to effective protection from bollworm damage,"he said.