Government
of India is making huge plans to accord approval to field trials of 13
Genetically Modified (GM) Crops in the meeting of Genetic Engineering Appraisal
Committee (GEAC) on March 21st. It has already clearly indicated its
inclination to go ahead with the field trials of GM crops. Though the final
call on the fate of GM crops would be decided by the Supreme Court, government
has expressed its complete willingness to allow transgenic crops if they comply with the criteria of
“crop-specific dedicated monitoring protocol systems” during field trials.
Government
has reaffirmed its intentions to rely on the latest biotechnological techniques
in agriculture to meet the burgeoning requirements of food grains, vegetables,
fruits of the rapidly growing population. There have been massive protests and
stiff opposition from various NGO’s against the cultivation of the GM crops.
Scientists from
premier institutes like the Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI) have
decided to counter the opposition with scientific facts. Replicating the method
followed by the Royal Society of London, National Academy of Agricultural
Sciences (NAAS) has decided to form two committees to reach out to people
through regular interactions at different levels. These include a committee on
public understanding of science and political understanding of science to quell
the doubts of general public and to erase popular misconceptions about GM
crops. It is an exercise intended to convince people that genetic engineering
of the crops are meant not only for increasing the productivity but also to
improve the nutritional quality of the foods supplies.
In India a
three tier-clearance system has been in place. In the first stage, research on
GM crops is sent for approval to Institutional Bio-Safety Committee (IBSC) then
it moves to the Regional Committee on Genetic Manipulation (RCGM) an
independent authority under department of biotechnology after GM crops obtains
approval from RCGM. The final and last stage of approval for field trials, it
is obtained from GEAC. The crops slated for final approval in the meeting of
GEAC include rice, wheat, maize, mustard, potato, brinjal, tomato, castor,
sorghum, cotton and groundnut.
Amidst these
raging controversies about the harmful effects of the transgenic crops, support
for GM crops is coming from unexpected quarters. These include Nobel Laureate
Richard J Roberts, who won Nobel Prize for medicine in 1993, Venkataraman
Ramakrishnan recipient of Nobel Prize for medicine 2009, Marc van Montagu
co-winner of the 2013 World Food Prize. All of them unequivocally stressed the
need to explore the tremendous potentialities of GM crops. Genetic Engineering
offers a greater scope for developing various GM crops which offer various
stress resistance, varieties with greater nutritional quality and with greater
shelf life. But all of them underlined the need for exercising caution while
allowing the massive cultivation of GM crops.
Recently a
group of scientists from Belgium’s Ghent University in their review paper have
pointed out at the three fundamental flaws ailing our current bio safety
regulatory regime Firstly; GM crops have been erroneously listed under
hazardous substances under Environment Protection Act, 1986 raising the scope for
misconceptions in general public. Second, rules framed under the environment
law are enforced by an administrative order without any legislative sanction.
This has become a point of contention wherein Minister Jairam Ramesh overruled the
permission granted by GEAC to Bt Brinjal putting an indefinite pause for its
field trials. Finally there is sharp dichotomy between the powers of centre and
states over the regulation and experimentation of GM crops. While the
regulatory mechanism is under central authority agriculture is a state subject.
Hence they have to take the final call for approving the field trials. This has
resulted in widening the conflicting positions of the centre and states on
regulating GM crops.
While states like Odisha, Karnataka, Kerala, Bihar,
Tamilnadu, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Rajasthan have already
denied permission to conduct field trials in their respective states. Obtaining
a No-Objection certificate is mandatory for firms, companies or institutes to
go ahead with the field trails. Thus, even if GEAC has approved field trials, companies
cann’t go ahead with trials until states approve.
Thus the
regulatory system needs a major revamp or needs a proper replacement with a
more stringent authority which is more immune to political interventions or
external pressures. A transparent, time-bound, consistent, purposeful,
efficient, apolitical modified regulatory system must be in place. It be must
comply the international practices and obligation. Further it should be of
proven competence capable of assessing the risks and benefits of the GM crops
to the satisfaction of various stake holders.
By and large
for a wider acceptance of the GM crops, misconceptions about the GM crops
should be dispelled among people. The classic example of Golden Rice is widely
cited by agriculture scientists across the world to understand the potential of
the GM crops. Rice is a staple food for 80% of the population but lacks vitamin
A and millions of children suffer permanent blindness due to deficiency of
vitamin A. In late 90’s scientists have developed Golden rice variety capable
of producing pro-vitamin A using genetic engineering techniques. Though it was
completely safe, Green Peace and several NGO’s have tried to block the transfer
of this variety. Around 1000 scientific
papers have evaluated the safety and effects of GM crops on human for over past
10 years and concluded that they are as safe as normal crops. Still there are
serious apprehensions about the safety of GM crops.
Under the
present scenario trend of unstable climatic conditions, untimely storms, global
warming and extreme variations in climate to obtain the enormous quantities of
the food supplies to feed the growing world population GM crops offer a plausible
solution.
Currently GM
crops are consumed in the United States, but Western Europe has been very
consistently opposing the cultivation and consumption of the GM crops. Five
countries within EU- Spain, Slovakia, Portugal, Romania and Czech Republic have
started cultivation of Bt cotton. Among the 27 countries in the World that
cultivate GM crops, India occupies fourth position.
Golden Rice
@ Copyrights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment