The debate on genetically modified crops is gaining momentum again. However, this time, it seems the engineered food is losing ground to traditional crops. Eleven farmers from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu made a series of submissions explaining the havoc wrought by Bt cotton on their farms. Their main contention was that Bt cotton had not given them economic benefits. As a matter of fact, they had become poorer, their soils had become more toxic, and their animals grazing on Bt cotton stalks had either died, or become sick.

With pressure on improving productivity mounting to meet food needs of today and tomorrow, scientists at Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla (CPRI) have succeeded in developing a late blight disease resistance potato through genetic modification for boosting production and in a separate experiment have silenced a gene line to extend shelf life of a harvested potato for processing industry. With controversy surrounding genetic modified foods have led to a moratorium on commercial production of Bt Bringal , the future of GM potato in the country remains uncertain.

India government Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion has released ’Consolidated FDI Policy-- Circular 1 of 2011’, that would kick in 100% FDI in development and production of seeds and planting material, floriculture, horticulture, and cultivation of vegetables & mushrooms under controlled conditions.

With government restricting the introduction of genetically modified seeds in food items, Mumbai-based Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company (Mahyco) [which has US seed producer Monsanto as 26 per cent stakeholder] plans to sell such seeds in Bangladesh and Philippines. [...] ”Mahyco has approached with its technology for insect-tolerant Bt brinjal in Bangladesh and Phillipines. In both the countries, regulatory approvals are now awaited,” Raju Barwale, managing director of Mahyco Seeds told Financial Chronicle.

Here is yet another Mahyco-Monsanto tale, one of defiance and breaking the law even as the scientific community looks on. [...] The Mahyco seed company had approached the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee in its meeting on January 12, 2011 for permission to produce seed of genetically engineered cotton containing a herbicide tolerant gene. This non-Bt cotton was not proposed to be released as a herbicide tolerant crop but to be used as the refuge crop for when BG II RR Flex cotton is finally approved for cultivation.

Most crop varieties are hybrids with a mixture of characteristics from genetically distinct parents. But their useful traits are not passed on to their seeds because sexual reproduction, which involves two parents, shuffles genes. Now an international team of scientists has forced plants to produce seeds that are identical to themselves genetically (i.e. cloned), rather than containing a mix of genes from themselves and another parent. The seeds have thus retained all the useful traits of their parent.

The government is considering a move to end the automatic approval regime for foreign direct investment (FDI) in seed development, animal husbandry, pisciculture and aquaculture in controlled conditions. The step has been triggered by concerns over the quality of genetically modified and hybrid seeds present in the food chain. [...] Hundred per cent FDI in seed development was allowed in the 1980s and has led to several big global seed companies entering the country.

The coming kharif season could witness plantings of the first ’stacked trait’ genetically modified crop in the country. The Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company (Mahyco) has already completed the second-stage Biosafety Research Trials for four cotton hybrids that harbour two sets of traits – the first for insect resistance and the second for herbicide tolerance.

Farmers’ unions, consumer groups and eminent citizens today urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not to table the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill in Parliament.

In a letter written to the PM, they reminded the PM that there was enough scientific evidence to question the safety of genetically modified crops and therefore, the public protest on the technology and its products. Signatories to the letter to the PM included veteran journalist Kuldip Nayyar, danseuse Mallika Sarabhai, Bollywood lyricist Gulzar, Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan, social activist Medha Patkar and Magsaysay award winner Arvind Kejriwal.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has stressed that the state government must be consulted before any private sector agency is allowed to conduct trials for genetically modified crops. In his letter to Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, the Bihar chief minister reiterated the need for state representation in the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee.