Why is Sharad Pawar promoting field trials of GM crops?

Activists working in the field of agriculture has severely criticised Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar’s efforts to get field trials of genetically modified crops in the country. 

The technical expert committee (TEC) appointed by the Supreme Court of India following a writ petition has unanimously said that all field trials of GM crops should be stopped yet the agriculture minister is writing to states asking them to allow field trials of such crops, said Kapil Shah of NGO Jatan.

It should be noted that the TEC had sought a moratorium on GM field trials until a given list of conditions was met, including setting up of independent committee to find out the pros and cons of GM crops. 

It is known that Bt cotton helped up the total yield from the year 2000 to 2006. “But what is not known is that since 2006, the yield has gone down drastically. This is the primary reason why cotton production is going down in the country,” said Shah. 

Devinder Sharma, a food and trade policy analyst, said that so far there has been no independent research on the effects of GM food. “Whatever research on GM we are talking about are presented by corporates themselves,” said Sharma. “This is perhaps the only country where the government subsidises urea but offers no help to promote organic farming,” said Sharma.