In contrast to the stand of the Kerala and Karnataka governments, the Union agriculture ministry bats for genetically-modified (GM) crops in the Western Ghats area in its report submitted to the Kasturirangan committee. Both Kerala and Karnataka have already called for a ‘GM-free state’. The department of agriculture & cooperation under the Union agriculture ministry says in its report that there is no reason to enforce a restriction on cultivation of Bt Cotton in the Western Ghats region as there is no perceived threat to any form of biodiversity of tetraploid species present in the region.

A Bill that provides for setting up the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) for regulating the research, transport, import, manufacture and the use of organisms and products of modern biotechnology was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday. The Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill, 2013, provides for the setting up of an inter-ministerial governing board to oversee the performance of the proposed BRAI. It will also provide for setting up the Biotech Advisory Council to render strategic advice to the authority on matters relating to developments in modern biotechnology and their implications in India.

Even as the final report of the Supreme Court-appointed Technical Expert Committee on open field trials of genetically modified crops is awaited, 51 independent international scientists with expertise in genetic engineering and biosafety protocols have approved the panel’s Interim Report. The report has called for a 10-year moratorium on open field trials of Bt food crops until adequate regulatory mechanisms and safety standards are put in place.

Australian scientists have genetically modified bananas to stack them with extra vitamins and iron. They are now sharing this technology with Indian scientists. What makes this development really significant is that India is the world’s largest producer of bananas by a mammoth margin and consumes most of these domestically. So it is elementary that if Indian bananas could be fortified with more nutrients, this would have a wholesome impact on the citizenry’s diet and counteract their penchant for malnutrition.

According to Kiran Kranthi, Director of the Nagpur-based Central Institute of Cotton Research (CICR), insecticide usage for bollworm control decreased after 2004, while the usage for sucking pest control increased after 2006. [...] According to the statistics compiled by Kranthi, the use of insecticide to control bollworm has dropped by 6,599 tonnes in 2003 to 222 tonnes in 2011. Similarly, the use of insecticides to control sucking pests has more than doubled from 2,909 tonnes in 2003 to 6,372 tonnes in 2011.

The Rajya Sabha on Friday witnessed heated exchange between the BJP and the Congress members over Bt Cotton issue forcing the adjournment of the Question Hour. The House was adjourned as some BJP members became agitated when the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Charan Das Mahant hesitated in answering the question on the ground that a PIL on Bt Cotton is pending before the Supreme Court.

Congress and BJP members today clashed in Rajya Sabha over the issue of Bt cotton as the opposition members insisted on knowing what price farmers were getting for their crop. The heated exchanges led to adjournment of the House for 20 minutes during Question Hour. Shivanand Tiwari (JD-U) wanted to know the price farmers were getting for their cotton crop. To this, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries Charan Das Mahant sought to know whether it would be proper for him to reply as a writ petition was pending in Supreme Court on Bt cotton. Some members, however, said the question has nothing to do with the court case.

Growing genetically modified Bt cotton hybrids is not the only way to bag high yields. Other agronomic methods have now emerged for reaping copious harvests of this natural fibre, even in the wholly rain-dependent areas where cotton is largely cultivated in India. An outstanding new technology is the “high-density cotton planting system”, evolved by Nagpur-based Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR). This new system, which involves sowing a relatively higher number of plants a hectare, has been found to almost double the yield of cotton, even in an area like Vidharba, Maharashtra, which is infamous for farmer suicides owing to frequent failures of unirrigated cotton crops.

Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar on Monday said that agriculture scientists should be allowed to conduct field trials of genetically modified crops by adopting strict safety measures. In August, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture, headed by Basudeb Acharia, had recommended the Government to stop all open-field trials of transgenic crops until it develops a better system of monitoring and oversight. “I am of the considered opinion that the distinction for-GM and anti-GM is unnecessary. We should not analyze the scientific issues on non-scientific parameters.”

Caught between devil and deep sea, the environment ministry has reconstituted the bio-tech regulator - the Genetically Engineered Appraisal Committee - before start of the new season for field trails. The ministry had not constituted the GEAC for almost a year thinking that it would be replaced by the Biotech Regulatory Authority of India, an independent regulator to be set up by science and technology ministry. A parliamentary standing committee had submitted its report on BRAI in last August but the science and technology ministry has not got the final version of the bill approved by the Cabinet because of differences within the government. Technically, there is no regulator for GM products now.