Bt brinjal approval rekindles debate on inadequate protocols and rules

Expert says experience shows that lot of illegal spread that happens during field trials gets into the food chain

The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC)'s green signal to additional field trials to two new varieties of Bt brinjal a few months back has rekindled the debate on genetically modified crops and whether India has sufficient bio-safety standards to allow commercial cultivation of such produce.

GEAC had, in a meeting held a few months back, approved additional field trials of two new indigenously developed varieties of Bt brinjal called Janak and BSS-793 containing Bt Cry1Fa1 gene (Event 142).

The transgenic varieties of brinjal hybrids have been developed by the state-run National Research Centre for Plant Bio-Technology (NRCPB), a body under the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR).

The trial permission was sought by the licence-holder, Beejsheetal Research Private Ltd of Jalna.

The GEAC has approved additional fields trials to be conducted in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal during the seasons 2020-23.

The trials are subject to No-Objection Certificates (NoC) from the department of agriculture from the concerned states.

The applicant, as informed to the GEAC has successfully conducted first phase of Bio-Safety Research Trials (BRL) in the three locations of Jalna, Guntur and Varanasi for two seasons of 2009 and 2010.

Later, they conducted phase-2 trials during 2016-17 in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, UP, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh.

The latest approval comes after the government had imposed a moratorium on commercial release of another event of Bt Brinjal in 2010 during the UPA regime, citing lack of adequate and independent scientific studies.

The event that sought clearance was different from the current one and the old brinjal hybrid was developed by Mahyco, a subsidiary of global seed giant Monsanto.

“At the time when the indefinite moratorium was placed on commercial release of BT brinjal the whole process of bio-safety was examined as to how technology is developed, whether applicants could establish all the bio-safety protocols that need to be established and how it is to be treated in the fields, what roles states have to play, regulatory regimes that needs to be established etc. Unfortunately, in the last so many years none of measures that were then suggested were implemented. Therefore, I feel without adhering to those guidelines field trials should not have been approved in a hurry,” Dr G V Ramanjaneyulu Executive Director of the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture told Business Standard.

He said the experience with Ht Bt shows that lot of illegal spread happens during field trials which gets into the food chain.

“Imagine if someone gets hold of one fruit of Bt brinjal from the field trials, it has 50-100 seeds and each seed can germinate into a brinjal plant which in turn can produce say 1000 brinjals. Therefore, field trials without proper protocols should not be allowed,” Ramanjaneyulu said.

The Federation of Seed Industry of India, a lobby group of seeds companies, while urging state and Central governments to allow the field trials said that the current Bt Brinjal lot going for field trials was developed by the National Institute of Plant Biotechnology under Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and has been licensed to an Indian company for commercialization.

This technology is different from the earlier Bt Brinjal technology, which despite approval by GEAC, was put under moratorium in India but is being grown commercially by farmers in Bangladesh since 2014.

“Brinjal is one of the most pesticide consuming crops among vegetables. Farmers spray pesticides more than 25 times in a single crop season of Brinjal. By controlling this with Bt technology we can save farmers income, reduce pesticide loan on the environment and provide pesticide and insect free brinjals to the consumers,” said Ram Kaundinya, Director General, FSII-AAI said.

Meanwhile, the Bhartiya Kisan Sangh, which is linked to RSS, the ideological parent of ruling BJP has strongly opposed the GEAC approval.

It has reportedly approached the states to not give their approval for the field trials. Thus, setting the stage for another round of confrontation on the long pending issue.