While developing countries across the globe have fast-tracked the adoption of genetically modified crops - outstripping industrialised nations - India, ironically, is dragging its feet, disregarding the admirable success of transgenic Bt cotton. With field trials of new GM crops having been put on hold, cotton is likely to remain the only gene-altered crop to be grown in India in the near future. Elsewhere, as many as 25 tailor-made gene-manipulated crops have already got regulatory approvals for commercialisation in different countries, including the developing ones.

India will be unable to consume or export enough wheat and rice to rein in a record stockpile after another bumper harvest, a failure that means crops risk rotting in fields instead of being sold on world markets to cash in on higher prices. In March, farmers in India will begin to harvest the sixth consecutive wheat crop expected to exceed demand, and when threshing is over in June the government’s combined wheat and rice stocks are set to hit 100 million tonnes. That is about a fifth higher than the volume in storage a year ago. The grain mountain is worth about $30 billion and the nation of 1.2 billion will soon have enough wheat piled up to feed its poor for a year.

In a village in India’s poorest state, Bihar, farmers are growing world record amounts of rice – with no GM, and no herbicide. [...] Kumar, a shy young farmer in Nalanda district of India’s poorest state Bihar, had – using only farmyard manure and without any herbicides – grown an astonishing 22.4 tonnes of rice on one hectare of land. This was a world record and with rice the staple food of more than half the world’s population of seven billion, big news. It beat not just the 19.4 tonnes achieved by the “father of rice”, the Chinese agricultural scientist Yuan Longping, but the World Bank-funded scientists at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, and anything achieved by the biggest European and American seed and GM companies.

Farmers in Gujarat, and also in Punjab, continue to use ‘roundup ready’ variety of Bacillus Thuringiensis Cotton, which is yet to receive approval for usage from Government of India. “Someone would’ve got the seed from USA or any other country where it is used,” opines an expert, on condition of anonymity. “If you are a major seed developer, it’s not difficult to develop the seed variety as the gene is already with you. The use is illegal but farmers are using it,” he added.

Stagnating acreage is prompting Bt cotton seed makers to diversify into food crops such as hybrid rice, corn and vegetables, where they see a big market potential. Companies such as Nuziveedu Seeds Ltd and Rasi Seeds (Pvt) Ltd, which currently earn a major share of their revenues from Bt cotton seeds, are aggressively charting plans to scale up exposure to food crops. The Rs 500-crore firm [...] plans to scale up its breeding programme to introduce more hybrids. Rasi Seeds has partnered with Israeli firm, Evogene Ltd, to develop yield-enhancing and drought-tolerant rice varieties.

More than 150 scientists have written a letter to the environment minister, Jayanthi Natarajan on Saturday raising concerns about genetically modified crops. Their primary concern is that Ministry of Agriculture is allegedly making a case for GM crops by stating that the technology is ‘absolutely needed’ for India’s food security. They referred to a recent affidavit filed by the ministry of agriculture in the Supreme Court claiming that nation’s food security will be jeopardized without GM crops. “It also argues that open-air field trials of GMOs are absolutely essential for this.” The scientists in their letter said that there are “many serious scientific and policy fallacies” in the argument made by the Ministry of Agriculture.

Of all the GMO controversies around the world, the saga of Bt cotton in India continues to be one of the most interesting and important. In the latest chapter, reported by the Business Standard, cotton yields have dropped to a 5-year low, setting off a fascinating round of finger pointing. [...] as I have pointed out, most of the rise in productivity had nothing to do with Bt cotton; in fact it happened before Bt cotton became popular.

The revolutionary Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton crop in India has started losing steam steadily due to lack of innovation and diversified pest attacks emerging from frequent changes in climatic conditions.

As is evident from the data collated by the Cotton Advisory Board (CAB) under the Union Ministry of Textiles, cotton yield has started falling gradually after the four years of revolution between 2002 and 2006 when bollworm-resistant Bt cotton seed changed farmers’ economy. After that, however, farmers have witnessed a sustained decline in yield from a peak level of 554.39 kg per hectare (ha) in the cotton year 2006-07 (October – September) to an estimated 488.89 kg per ha in 2012-13.

In a scientific breakthrough that promises improved grain yields and quality, greater drought tolerance and disease resistance, and enhanced genetic diversity, a global research team has completed high-quality sequencing of not one but ninety genomes of chickpea. [...] It also reveals clues on how the sequence can be useful to crop improvement for sustainable and resilient food production toward improved livelihoods of smallholder farmers particularly in marginal environments of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

“Serious regulatory hitches and lack of clarity of what the industry should do is hampering the progress of genetically modified crops,” said Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, member, executive committee, Association of Biotechnology Led Entrepreneurs (ABLE), chairperson, Vision Group on Biotechnology, Government of Karnataka and chairman and managing director, Biocon Limited. The only way to develop a bio-economy would be to encourage GM crops which is still grappling for support. There is a serious false propaganda on to highlight the negative aspects of GM crops.