Our best crop forward

8226; What was the experience with Bt cotton?

The Indian experience with genetically modified crops, GMOs, began in 2002, when the government of India approved commercialisation of three varieties of Bt cotton developed by Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech. Since then, there has been widespread acceptance of the seeds among farmers. This year, nearly half of India8217;s cotton acreage is under Bt.

The number of GM Bt cotton hybrids available for sowing

is an unprecedented 111, with a dozen companies selling the seeds. Overall production is up, making India the largest cotton growing country in the world.

8226; Why is there resistance to

Bt technology?

There have been some studies to show that Bt has not had the desired impact in rainfed areas of central India with marginal farmers. In the event of failure of rain, the Bt crop being more resource-intensive needing regular irrigation and timely fertilisers did not live up to its potential.

8226; What is Bt brinjal?

Bt brinjal has the same Cry1Ac gene from Bacillus thuringiensis as cotton. The gene makes the plant tolerant to the fruit and shoot borer pests which attack it throughout its life cycle. The yield-loss due to fruit and shoot borers in India alone is estimated to be about 221 million. It is the first GM brinjal crop tried anywhere in the world.

8226; What does clearance for 8216;large-scale8217; trials mean?

Biosafety tests, done in controlled lab conditions for Bt brinjal, started in 2002. After two years of greenhouse evaluation, Mahyco, the company producing the seed, started multi-locational trials in 11 locations with five hybrids in 2004.

It then went to the regulatory authority with those results to ask for the next level of clearance 8212; which is large scale. It was not immediately granted, and the activists demanded that all test data be made public. One of them went to court questioning the entire regulatory mechanism for testing GM crops.

8226; What were the major concerns?

A certain group of scientists and activists fear that the Bt gene may contaminate agricultural crops being grown in adjoining fields and enter the human food chain. They say new genes in foods can be problematic in two ways: by releasing harmful toxins or by raising a food8217;s propensity to cause allergic reactions. The existing protocol did have toxicity and allergenicity tests, but the activists believe they were not adequate and lacked transparency.

They are also asking for an agronomic evaluation, for example, how benefits from GM compare to alternative techniques like pest management. They claim that the pests will soon develop resistance to Bt technology.

8226; What did the court say?

In its order, the court came up with a whole set of restrictions to be followed while testing. They have increased the isolation distance around the test field from five metres to 200m. A lead scientist appointed by the government will assume full responsibility for the field trial. A new validated test protocol for contamination will be with a LOD level of detection of 0.01 per cent. In addition, all toxicity and allergenicity data for all these trials will have to be in the public domain.

8226; What is the next step?

The large scale trials for Bt brinjal would have to be done under the supervision of director, Indian Institute of Vegetable Research at Varanasi. This is a major departure from other large-scale trials done on cotton in the past, where these trials were conducted in the farmers8217; fields. The results, that will be released the next year, would be examined by the regulators to see if it is fit enough to be released commercially.

Scientists in India are investigating the use of GM crops in at least 16 crops, including rice, wheat, corn, rapeseed and potatoes, but they are still in the biosafety

study stage.