Two weeks before the cotton-sowing season begins in Punjab, not a single sample of biotransgenic seed has been tested in any of the state seed testing laboratories. ‘‘We will learn as we go along,’’ Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, parliamentary secretary, agriculture, told The Indian Express, while admitting that Punjab had not really done its homework on the Bt crop.Bt cotton trials began in the state way back in 2001, but the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee of the Ministry of Environment and Forests gave its clearance for commercial cultivation of the crop in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan less than a fortnight ago.While Rajasthan Agriculture Secretary Damodar Sharma claims the seeds have been tested at the Rajasthan Agriculture University seeds lab, in Punjab, there is a certain amount of consternation at the ground level.‘‘Normally, any crop seed comes in for testing at least two-three months before the selling agency packs the seeds. The stamp of the seed lab is mandatory,’’ said an official of the Ludhiana lab on condition of anonymity.Though the Punjab Department of Agriculture has three seed-testing labs in the state—one each at Ludhiana, Gurdaspur and Faridkot—only the Ludhiana establishment has the know-how for testing the Bt cotton seed. Ten agriculture development officers visited the Central Institute of Cotton Research at Nagpur last year for a one-day course in Bt cotton seed-detection, but the technology is yet to be made available in Punjab.Further, neither Punjab nor Rajasthan has received any written intimation from the GEAC about the status of Bt cotton. ‘‘Alongwith the letter, we will get a list of conditions under which the crop is to be sown in Punjab,’’ said a senior officer of the Department of Agriculture. ‘‘Till such time, we cannot sell the seed in Punjab.’’However, a media campaign is already underway in Punjab to educate cotton farmers on Bt cotton. The state is also conducting seminars and camps.The anti-tech lobby, expectedly, has its knives out. ‘‘First, the seed has not been tested, second, there is no monitoring agency in the state to oversee the crop in the state,’’ said Jatinder Preet, secretary of the Punjab Organic Farmers’ Association.‘‘Most worrisome, there is no safety net for the farmers if the crops fail, since they will be dealing with a private firm.”
