Indian govt says more tests will be conducted before launch of Bt brinjal
By P. Jayaram, India Correspondent
DELHI: Bowing to public pressure, the government yesterday put off the launch of the country's first genetically modified vegetable at least until more tests are done on such food crops.
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said he was halting the introduction of Bt brinjal, as the modified eggplant is known.
'I am issuing a moratorium on the Bt brinjal until further notice,' he told reporters a day ahead of a scheduled government announcement on the subject. 'The long-term effect on human health needs to be studied.'
Bt refers to Bacillus thuringiensis, a natural bacterium that kills pests that play havoc with crops and cause huge losses to farmers.
Since such genetically modified, or GM, crops are pest-resistant, they give better yields.
Mr Abhijit Sen, an agricultural economist and a member of the Planning Commission, said promoters are keen to start cultivating a variety of GM food crops. These include maize, mustard, sugarcane, chickpea, rice, tomato, potato, banana, soyabean and medicinal plants. Now all that will have to wait till the moratorium on Bt brinjal is lifted.
Mr Ramesh faced protests and was heckled by farmers, activists and scientists when he visited six cities in regions that grow brinjal, a native vegetable of India with some 2,500 varieties, for public hearings on the issue.
Some fear such GM foods carry health hazards, including cancer.
Yesterday, Mr Ramesh said: 'It is my duty to adopt a cautious approach to Bt brinjal till independent scientific study establishes...the safety of the product.'
Many of the state governments, including those ruled by the Congress party which heads the ruling coalition in Delhi, oppose Bt brinjal.
The United States rushed its chief scientific adviser, Ms Nina Fedoroff, a proponent of GM food, to lobby policymakers before the government announcement. The controversial US biotech firm, Monsanto, has a stake in Mahyco, the Indian seed firm that developed Bt Brinjal.
The government's decision comes at a time when agricultural scientists have been calling for a second 'green revolution'.
The first, in the mid 1960s, saw the introduction of high-yielding varieties of seeds and use of fertilisers turning the country from a net importer of food to one that could feed itself.
Supporters of GM food argue that India must embrace the technology to feed its growing population and to avoid the kind of food shortages and high prices that have already started to crop up.
India allowed farmers to grow Bt cotton - the only GM crop commercially grown in the country so far - in 2002, despite strong opposition from farmers and others at that time.
Now India is reaping the financial harvests of its standing as the world's second largest producer of Bt cotton after China.
The government's biotech regulator, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, approved Bt brinjal for commercial cultivation after it passed all the recommended lab tests over the last six years.
But the Planning Commission, which charts the government's development strategy, warned that the country's food exports could be hit if the cultivation of GM food crops was allowed.
Senior officials of the commission said that several European nations and others preferred importing food items from India because it was 'GM-free.'
Mr Kushal Singh Yadav, coordinator of the food safety and toxins programme of the Centre for Science and Environment, a Delhi-based advocacy group,warned against the introduction of GM crops.
'It is a good decision,' he said. 'It is the right step.'
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