”India should be declared a GM-free country,” said Agriculture Minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran here today. He was inaugurating the workshop on ’Impact of Genetically Modified (GM) Food and Crops on health and biodiversity’ organised by the Kerala State Biodiversity Board. The Minister said that Kerala had already been declared a GM-free State and we should lead the fight in defending the country against GM foods. ”We should abide by nature and defend ourselves from being laboratories of genetically-modified foods,” he said.

An estimated 16,625 farmers across India killed themselves in 2007, nearly one fourth of them in the state of Maharashtra. Farmer suicides are particularly endemic in villages such as Baggi in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, an agrarian belt once renowned as a prosperous ”white gold” or cotton-growing region, but now infamous as ”suicide country”. [...] Vidarbha cotton farmers’ yearly costs – for genetically modified seeds, pesticides, fertilisers, electricity, water and labour – continue to rise, while the price of cotton has been declining with decreased productivity and quality.

Gene Campaign today confirmed the contamination of rice in Jharkhand, by genetically modified Bt rice belonging to the Mahyco company. Jharkhand, along with Orissa and Chattisgarh, is known to be the birthplace of rice, the region where the maximum genetic diversity of rice is found. GM rice carrying the Bt gene was planted by the Mahyco company in field trials in Saparong village in Ratu block /Ranchi violating all rules prescribed by the government for such testing.

Eminent medical experts in the country under the banner of ”Doctors for Food & Bio-Safety” on Wednesday appealed for a moratorium on all open air trials of genetically modified (GM) crops in India. The plea was placed before the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) - the apex regularity authority on biosafety under the Ministry of Environment and Forests when it met to discuss Bt Brinjal trials in India.

An independent analysis of the ’Effects on Health and Environment of Transgenic (genetically modified) Bt Brinjal’ conducted by France-based Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering has concluded that Bt brinjal’s release into the environment for food and feed in India may present a serious risk for human and animal health. It has said Bt brinjal’s commercial release should be forbidden.

President of the European Federation of Biotechnology Marc Van Montagu is a molecular biologist who pioneered the transgenic technology [...] As a board member of the Bangalore-based biotechnology company Avesthagen Ltd, which has put its initial public offering on hold and is trying to raise additional funds till the capital market turns around, Montagu thinks local start-ups everywhere will be key to meeting societal needs.

Increased indebtedness is a major cause for the spurt in farmers’ suicides during recent times across a number of states, according a recent report of the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS). A marginal farmer is defined as one having landholding less than 2.5 acre and a small farmer is defined as one having less than 5 acre. In India, a majority of the farmers are marginal and small.

Finally, after about 12 years of research and field trials, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is ready with the country’s first indigenously developed genetically modified cotton. It is a variety called Bikaneri Nerma (BN-Bt). ICAR has already green signalled it for commercial cultivation. The council is also ready to licence or transfer the technology to the seed companies in both public and private sector. The BN-Bt seeds will be available to the farmers by beginning of March.

The Central government has admitted before Supreme Court that there was large-scale import of genetically engineered food materials without any scientific examination of its impact on environment and human beings. Petitioner Vandana Shiva in a rejoinder claimed the government has conceded to the averments made out in the writ petition namely that large scale import of genetically engineered foods are being made into India without any checks.

Increased indebtedness is a major cause for the spurt in farmers’ suicides during recent times across a number of states, according a recent report of the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS). A marginal farmer is defined as one having landholding less than 2.5 acre and a small farmer is defined as one having less than 5 acre. In India, a majority of the farmers are marginal and small.