Tamil Nadu Agriculture University (TNAU) is developing transgenic hill banana, which would be resistant to bunchy top virus (BBTV). Speaking to FE, P Balasubramanian of the TNAU’s centre for plant molecular biology said, ”We are planning to engineer resistance in the hill banana cultivar, Virupakshi against BBTV. A full-length 850bp replicase gene of BBTV from infected hill banana was isolated in our laboratory. The isolated sequence showed a high homology to the already reported BBTV replicase gene sequence from India in NCBI database.

Genetically modified (GM) crops do not help increase the production level and therefore are not an effective solution to check inflation that has been triggered by demand-supply mismatch, according to experts. ”There is no concrete evidence that GM crops increase production. They only control insects, which can well be done by some other organic methods,” Kerala Biodiversity board chairman VS Vijayan said. Speaking at a meeting on biotechnology and biosafety here on Wednesday, Mr Vijayan said apart from having health hazards, the GM seeds are also expensive.

The government is planning to set up a new autonomous body to regulate the development and release of genetically modified (GM) crops, livestock and fishes, and food, as well as recombinant pharma and industrial products. The department of biotechnology (DBT) has already drafted the National Biotechnology Regulatory Bill-2008 for setting up of the proposed National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority (NBRA). Though the proposed NBRA would be autonomous, it would attached to DBT in the same lines as the autonomous Food Safety and Standards Authority (FSSA) is attached to the Union health ministry.

The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has decided to ask the National Centre for Agriculture Economics and Policy Research (NCAP) to conduct a socio-economic survey of the Bt brinjal developed by the Indian seed company, Mahyco with technology sourced from Monsanto. [...] GEAC’s cautious move follows the sharp criticism of the founder director of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Pushp M Bhargava about the lack of health and bio-safety data of GM crops in the country. He also pointed out the incidence of sheep mortality reportedly due to grazing over Bt cotton fields in Warangal and Adilabad districts in Andhra Pradesh.

India’s role at the recently held fourth Meeting of Parties at Bonn on the Cartagena Protocol on Bio-safety for developing a global Liability and Redress regime on Genetically Engineered Organisms (GEOs) has been severely criticised by the Gene Campaign which participated in the event. Suman Sahai of the Gene Campaign, who participated as an ”accredited NGO,” was disappointed that India played ”no role” at this crucial meeting. She charged India with ”falsely” attempting to show at the international meet that it had fully complied with the requirements of the Bio-safety Protocol on compulsory compliance standards for dealing with GEOs such as transgenic plants.

Ports in India face an enormous burden in scientifically analysing products from countries growing genetically modified crops. No GM organisms can be imported unless sanctioned by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, the nodal agency that functions under the Ministry of Environments and Forests. Only two food imports have been approved, according to an MoEF response to an RTI submission: refined vegetable soybean oil and crude degummed soybean oil by Catholic Relief Services and Care India as food aid in 2002. But a couple of weeks ago, packets of Doritos potato chips available in select supermarkets, including in Chennai, were revealed to contain two strains of GM corn.

Case was presented on behalf of small farmers at a UN Committee in April 2008. The Committee has urged the Indian Government to provide subsidized generic seeds which farmers can save. In its 40th session, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has stated that genetically modified seeds produced by Trans-national corporations are exacerbating extreme poverty of small-hold farmers.

The Deccan Development Society and AP Coalition in Defence of Diversity have demanded that the State and Central governments order comprehensive scientific research into the adverse impact of the Bt cotton cultivation on human, animal and soil health. They advised the Government against depending on the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) for information as it relied on a handful of scientists whose loyalty to the farming community was questionable. In fact, a senior member of the GEAC was the president of ISAAA, a global biotech industry body.

Those opposed to biotechnology in agriculture are spreading disinformation, according to Dr Usha B. Zehr, Joint Director of Research with Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Ltd (MAHYCO), pioneer in the country’s foray into agbiotech. Indeed, Bt Brinjal is not the first GM vegetable crop. Globally, as many as 23 vegetable crop species (excluding potato and sweet corn) have been genetically engineered. China grows tomato, papaya, petunia and sweet pepper, while the US grows squash (a variety of gourd) and papaya.

The clearance for the first genetically modified food crop, Bt brinjal, may not be smooth going by the recent developments in the apex regulatory body. One of the Supreme Court-appointed special invitees to the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has raised strong objections to the quality of data provided by Mahyco in the final trials for Bt brinjal before its commercial release. He has also asked for a review of data on Bt cotton approved in 2002. ”The lack of data on health and bio-safety is shocking,” said P. Bhargava, molecular scientist who founded the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), now a special invitee to GEAC.