PM steps in to resolve genetically-modified crops impasse

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh may have put a moratorium on Bt Brinjal pending independent trials, but genetically modified (GM) food is back on the cabinet’s agenda, thanks to a strong internal lobby which is pushing for its commercial introduction.

Prime minister (PM) Manmohan Singh is expected to hold a high-level meeting in the next couple of days to take a relook at the issue.

PM’s intervention comes almost a fortnight after Ramesh’s decision to not release Bt Brinjal for commercial use and days after agriculture minister Sharad Pawar’s backing GM crops.
Pawar has written to PM that such ad hoc decisions on GM food would not only demoralise the scientific community but also jeopardise research and development for  food security.

Pawar and science and technology minister Prithviraj Chavan are advocating the use of GM crops to increase agriculture output. The pro-GM ministers are expected to meet PM later this week along with Ramesh.  

Experts from around the world gathered in New Delhi on Tuesday seeking to debunk the several myths about GM crops. They argued that demystification of the myths was essential before a decision on such crops was arrived at.

“There are several myths surrounding GM crops and it is important for people and governments to realise this. Farmers and people in India believe GM crops increase yield. This is not true. We have examples back home in the US where GM crop yields have become stagnant,” Debi Barker, international programme director of the Centre for Food Safety (CFS), said.

CFS has been fighting legal battles against Monsanto, a GM crop manufacturer, for over two decades. 

Barker said the second myth surrounding GM crop was that it reduces the use of chemicals, insecticides, pesticides and herbicides. “With our experience in the US, it has been proved that it is not true that GM crops lower use of chemicals. In some cases, the use of pesticides has [in fact] gone up,” she said.

Barker, who is in Delhi for a conference on GM crops, said manufacturers may be making claims of improving the economic condition of farmers, but the fact was contrary.

“Farmers in the US have faced crop failures which have affected their incomes. Increased use of chemicals in farming also costs more and GM seeds are more expensive,” she said.

Another expert, Benedikt Haerlin, said GM crops developers had not made any new innovations in the past 20 years and the technology had traits to deal with some herbicides and insecticides.