Contrary to policies of UPA government, NDA government is allowing field trial permissions for Bt brinjal and mustard? Do you policy environment suitable?
We are very hopeful that the new Government will support science and technology deployment in agriculture for the benefit of farmers. We have not had any clear signal from the current government so far, but we believe the performance of the technology and the future needs of the country will make the government take a positive step in the direction of deploying agricultural biotechnology in the priority areas for the country
There is still a negative perception for GM crops.
The negative perception is created by many activists who have their own agenda. Backed by considerable funding they have been aggressively putting out biased information and half-truths. Many myths have been spread among the common people. There is no organized voice for the cotton farmers who have got benefitted by the technology in the country and hence their views are not sufficiently represented in the public domain.
Do you see commercialization of Bt mustardseed and brinjal in the near future?
Various GM crops are under the regulatory process including these two. We are not sure we can give any time frame for the approvals. But we are hopeful that there would be a positive movement in the evaluation and approval of some of the applications which are in the pipeline. As you know even the evaluation process has not progressed in the last four years. We certainly hope that testing and evaluation, which are parts of the research process, will be taken up immediately and the approvals will be given in due course of time based on the merits of the cases.
Which are the other crops under field trail applications?
There are crops like rice, mustard, maize, castor, cabbage, brinjal, okra, pulses, tomato and others which are in the regulatory pipeline.
But Bt crop which are for consumption are seen to have health risk?
The world has seen consumption of a trillion meals of GM food so far. People across the globe have been consuming GM foods for the last 18 years. Europe has been importing and consuming more than 20 different GM foods. So far there is not a single instance of any negative impact on the human or animal health due to the consumption of GM foods. The regulatory process is very stringent and adequate tests are carried out before GM crops, especially food crops, are approved for cultivation. So there is no basis for the fear mongering that the activists indulge in questioning the safety of GM food crops.
Some activists still say that nothing has changed since the moratorium was imposed on Bt brinjal in 2010 and hence the Government should not give permission for trials. What is there to hurry about for BT?
Firstly the moratorium was a very unfortunate and unwarranted act. All the data as per the regulatory requirements was generated and submitted for BT Brinjal in spite of which the moratorium was imposed. When the moratorium was imposed, the Minister of Environment and Forests asked GEAC to define the additional tests required for BT Brinjal. These tests have not been defined even now because GEAC met sporadically in the last three years. We should remove hurdles.