Karnataka allows agri-biotech companies and agri scientists to lease 10-15 acres of farmers’ lands for 35 years for conducting Centrally-approved field trials and experiments related to genetically modified crops. ”While globally, the area under biotech crops has been growing 10-12 per cent annually, in India, it has been doubling since their introduction in 2002,” the policy document says. This, it says, should usher in a second green revolution.

The Bt cry1Ac gene technology was sublicensed to these universities and other public institutions in Bangladesh and the Philippines among others on a pro bono basis, but several concerns remain to be addressed. Who really owns the nearly dozen OPVs that the two agriculture universities have used in the Bt experiments? What would be the nature of intellectual property rights (IPRs) that the developers would enjoy given that the technology is owned by Mahyco — a company in which Monsanto has a 26 per cent stake — and how soon would the universities be allowed to release their seeds?

In what appears a new twist to the controversy over the impending commercial release of the genetically modified crop, with the toxin producing Bt gene in it, strongly resisted by civil society groups, Professor Reddy is stated to have confided to P.M. Bhargava, scientist and Supreme Court nominee on the GEAC, that he was under pressure and that he received calls from ”Agriculture Minister, GEAC and industry” to give his nod.

In 2001, when Genetically Modified corn turned up in food at Taco Bell, the cheerful gardener turned into a protester. The idea of GM food, strawberries being injected with a fish gene and the like seemed like an act against Nature to him. ”GM, in my opinion, is almost anti-Hindu. The religion worships its trees and Nature,” feels Dervaes, who now has his own brand called Freedom seeds.

The Union government is drawing up a comprehensive programme to introduce transgenic technology to improve the productivity of pulses. [...] Bidyut Saramah, a scientist at the Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, has developed Bt chickpea, under a project funded by the department of biotechnology. ”Though the Bt gene integrates well into chickpea, they don’t grow very well. We are still trying to figure out,” he said at the biotechnology conference, while presenting his research findings.

Mahyco has donated Bt brinjal technology to public research institutions to benefit a large number of resource-poor vegetable farmers in India. The Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore, and the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad have successfully back-crossed event EE-1 into locally adapted open-pollinated brinjal varieties. Both these institutions are testing and evaluating different open-pollinated Bt brinjal varieties under the multi-location research trials (MLRTs) and these varieties are likely to be made available to farmers in the near future.

The controversy over granting approval to Bt brinjal is set to deepen. Questions are being asked about the composition and functioning of the 16 member expert committee that granted approval to Bt brinjal. Chairperson of the Committee Prof Arjula Reddy was reportedly ”tremendous pressure” to clear Bt brinjal and had calls from Agricultural Minister, Genetic Engineer Approval Committee (GEAC) and industry. This is what the Supreme Court observer to the committee Dr Pushpa Bhargava said in his letter to the GEAC and Jairam Ramesh.

The Church of South India (CSI) has urged its government to ban the cultivation of Genetically-modified foods in India. [...] ”It is obvious that the introduction of Bt brinjal will contaminate the large number of traditional brinjal varieties available to us, particularly those with unique medicinal properties. This will also shift the control of seeds from the farmers to profit-hungry corporations that have already established a virtual monopoly over seeds through the new patent regime,” the Ecological Concerns Committee said.

After the entry of Bt cotton and the controversy over Bt brinjal, scientists have turned their attention to the medicinal tree, eucalyptus. Research on genetically modified eucalyptus that is tolerant to soil salinity is underway in Coimbatore, according to Union environment and forest Minister Jairam Ramesh. Field trials for GM eucalyptus would begin in four years’ time.

The debate over the environmental clearance for Bt brinjal in India is hotting up. There is a tremendous uproar against the technology that is visible, provided of course you want to see it. Many State governments have woken up, and opposed the introduction of Bt brinjal crop. West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Kerala are some of them. In the days to come, I am sure more State governments will oppose the technology.